Ohio Tour

150 seventh graders loaded on three buses (2 at first due to a broken-down bus) and headed to Columbus.  I love to take class trips.  There's a special feeling that comes with the adventure!  Kids behave differently ~ some better and some worse ~ but it's cool to get to see kids in this different element.

Our first stop was COSI; when we pulled into the parking lot a kid asked, "Why are there so many school buses here?"  Really?  "Gee, maybe they are on a field trip, like you."  We saw the IMAX movie "The Mystery of the Great Lakes".  In it we learned all sorts of interesting facts about our Great Lakes, but it's main plot was saving the sturgeon.  Movie time has historically been nap time for me (this being my third Ohio Tour), but it was the first stop this time around so I watched the whole thing.

After COSI we went to the State House where one of the teachers in my group corrected the Tour Guide ~ may just have been the highlight of the trip.  She was telling the kids that it takes a 3/4 majority vote to pass a bill into law, and he said, "That's not right.  It's a simple majority vote."  She hemmed and hawed and went on with the tour.

The next stop was The Shot at Ohio State.  We toured all the rooms and saw the basketball floor all loaded onto pallets.  We even saw the dressing room where JUSTIN BIEBER was last August.  There were a few girls who were all about that.  Our poor tour guide..."Did you meet Justin?"  "Did you get your picture taken with him?"  "Did get an autograph?" ( Kinda like how I'd be if he talked about Bruce.)  After OSU came dinner at Dave & Busters ~ and then swimming at the rec center.  They have a great pool with a lazy river (that's really pretty fast) and a water slide. The kids had a great time and it was good to sit and relax for a while. 

Most of the kids slept and all were ready to go the next morning when we went to the Columbus Zoo.  It had rained all Friday and sure looked like it would on Saturday.  I got on the mic and told the kids it wouldn't rain at the zoo because I said so ~ and it didn't.  (I also said a few prayers.)  The Columbus Zoo is really cool.  I'd like to spend more than 2 hours there at a time.  The 2 year-old elephant is adorable and they have a great monkey exhibit. 

After the zoo we had a great tour of the Mansfield Reformatory. Our tour guide was a former inmate.  (He even showed us his cell.)  Such a place of despair and hopelessness.  Interesting to hear about it from the point-of-view of an inmate.  I'd love to go on a ghost hunt there (but I probably wouldn't sleep for years!)
Favorite trip quote:  from superstitious teacher to student who opened his umbrella in the prison, "Why don't you go find a mirror and break it, and walk under a ladder while you're at it.  Just break every rule of luck, why don't ya?"