Our Trip: On to Ohio ... and P4C13



Photo by Leah Christine Imagery

 

    The morning of October 23, we slept in. <nice>  We couldn't check in at Camp until 3:30, so we were in no hurry to get away. The morning was uneventful - except for the fact that we had to load our car in the rain once more - the 4th time on this trip! The drive up to the Northeast corner of Ohio was fairly easy - a little traffic in Columbus, but not too bad. Once we got off the interstate we had a beautiful scenic drive up to the camp. So pretty with all the fall colors too.

Photo by Leah Christine Imagery

     Caroline had taken over driving and wow, she was flat booking it! :)  She's not overly familiar with curvy-road driving and I kept telling her to slow down. (I've driven curvy roads many times in Arkansas on visits to see my grandmother over the years - learned from the best.... my mom, who grew up there.) So there she goes, speeding around corners - even squealing the tires!  We all got a boot out of it and could not stop laughing. The wet roads probably contributed to the squealing, but she was going too fast. At any rate, we arrived in a very jovial mood.

Photo by Leah Christine Imagery

     Check-in took no time at all, and then we were off to find our cabins and unload our stuff. We three girls shared a cabin with 14 others. We only had one shower and one toilet - but two sinks! Thankfully, the toilet and shower were in separate rooms. Amazingly enough, we actually made it work very well. There were main showers you could go to if need be, but I only knew of one person using that shower once.

Photo by Leah Christine Imagery

      I took no pictures that first day (and neither did Laura) but Leah Cross was there to take pics of everything, so I am using hers for this post. We bought picture downloads from her of the entire weekend, so I'll probably be using a lot of hers in the next few posts.

The Worship Room - Photo by Leah Christine Imagery

 

     After unpacking and settling in at our cabin (and making the acquaintance of most of our cabin-mates) we headed over to the main building for the Fall Dinner. We chatted with different ones before dinner and were glad to find that there were many other "1st timers" besides ourselves! At least we wouldn't be the only ones not sure what was going on. :)   They had a cozy fire going and boy did it feel good - it was cold outside.

Photo by Leah Christine Imagery

 

Laura fills her plate

Photo by Leah Christine Imagery

 

You can barely see Aaron, Laura & Caroline sitting at a table in the

middle of this picture - Aaron is in a red shirt with his back to the camera

Photo by Leah Christine Imagery
 

Charles Cavanaugh welcomes us to P4C13 (yes, that's the back of my head to the left)

Photo by Leah Christine Imagery

After dinner, welcome, and announcements, we went to the "sanctuary" for Worship. The singing was wonderful - everyone knew how to sing & sang loudly. :) The acoustics were great in there too, which really helped. I especially loved it when we sang acapella - magnifying our Lord with the voices He gave us.
 

Photo by Leah Christine Imagery

 

Photo by Leah Christine Imagery
 

First Message brought by Bro. Charles - Photo by Leah Christine Imagery

 

Second message by Bro. Ryan Fullerton - Photo by Leah Christine Imagery

 

     The two messages that first evening were both uplifting and instructive.  Confirming things we believe, learning new truths & fellowship with other believers. Truly a wonderful evening.  Afterwards, we received instructions on where we would meet next morning with our Community Groups (all 5 of us were in different groups) and who would be leading those groups.





Prayer with the Community Group Leaders - Photo by Leah Christine Imagery

     Everyone turned in fairly early (10:00 - 11:00) that evening. The girls in our cabin explained that they would stay up later & later as the week progressed, so they were going to get what sleep the could now. <smile>

Our Trip: Creation Museum & Touring Cincinnati

     I've always heard so much about the Creation Museum. Everyone kept telling me I just had to go, but I never did find the time four years ago - or even when I visited again in 2011.  And since then I've heard more about it - heard of others going and just loving it. So we worked it into our plans on this trip. And it was amazing.  We arrived on Tuesday the 22nd planning to spend the entire day, but were ready to leave in about 3.5 hours.  We're not the kind that have to read every last thing or it might have taken longer. But I've said enough - on to pictures!

Walking through the "Garden of Eden"

 

 

Old Bible Manuscripts - this was so neat! The one on the right was saved from Saddam's quest to purge Iraq of Bibles.

A diorama of the ark

 

 

 

 

 

     After touring the museum and eating at the restaurant, we went outside to see the grounds:

 

 

 

     And since we finished so early at the museum, we had time to go to the President Taft Home.  The Creation Museum is on the south side of Cincinnati - actually still in Kentucky, not Ohio.  So, as we drove into Cincinnati, we had fun seeing all the unique architecture - so different from our state.  Laura took a picture of this bridge (which we drove right past because we actually took the wrong turn, but it was great - we got to sight-see a lot more of the town!)

 



     And then touring Taft's home was really neat. I didn't know a whole lot about him, so it was very informative. As we drove through Cincinnati, we had made remarks about how skinny the houses are. We found out on our tour that (way back then) they only charged taxes on the width of your property, which resulted in skinny houses in width, but very long in the back! Take note of his home (and it's not nearly as pronounced as some others):

President Taft was born and raised here

 

His grandparents lived with the family and his grandfather would tell him stories

such as Aesop's Fables. For each story he told, he'd order a tile

with a picture from that story to place around the fireplace.

 

The wedding gift from Taft's father to his wife (wish I could've played on it!)

 

 

     After the tour, we found our motel, went swimming, did some laundry, sent emails, and chatted with the family back home. It was a nice leisurely evening.  And that's how the first phase of our trip ended. The next day we'd be heading out for a 4 day Conference/Camp in Northern Ohio. And that will be the topic in my next post. :)

Our Trip: Visiting & Vacationing

     After our late night at the moonbow, we slept in a little on Monday morning. Around 10:00 Rachel came over and we headed over to see Cicily - a friend I made while working at the Angel House in 2009. She was not a volunteer but a paid worker for G.C.H.  She now has 2 cute little boys - I only happened to get a picture of her youngest. Isn't he adorable?

     After visiting with her for a while, we went back to G.C.H. to meet up with Angie. The three of us then went out for lunch & then hiking at Cumberland Falls. We had some good conversation in the car and enjoyed the time of fellowship.  And the hiking was great. I think we hiked for about 3 hours - some fairly strenuous at points. But it was loads of fun. I've always loved hiking.

 

These are the same falls where we saw the moonbow - looks different in the sunlight.

 

 

Lots of stairs on our hiking trails

 

 

 

Hiked all the way around the falls & up to this observation point

 

At the end of the trail, we found Eagle Falls

 

The we jumped rocks to get in the middle of the river for pictures of Cumberland Falls

 

Love how this picture came out!

 

 

 

Before heading "home" we stopped at the lodge - so beautiful & rustic. There was a big fire in the fireplace with rocking chairs in front - wish we'd had time to take advantage of them. :)

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      While we were visiting & hiking, my siblings went over to Shaker Village (I'd been before) and had a good time.  Here are some pictures from their day (taken by Laura): 

 

They first rode the Ferry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shakers are known for their furniture - Aaron checks out some of their equipment (he's a cabinet maker)

 

Shakers believed you should stay single - and they had a staircase for each gender - even though they both lead to the same open landing upstairs. (I wonder what happened if they caught you using the other staircase?!)

 

Notice the two doors? Again, one for males, one for females. On top of the house, you see only one door - that's because only males were allowed atop the house. Same for the kitchen - one door for the females.

 

 

These walls/fences were made by slaves before the Civil War. You see them all over Kentucky. Not sure if the Shakers owned slaves (don't think so) or if they just utilized fencing that was already there.

     That evening we all met up again at the Butchie House (where we were staying) for supper and games. We had a good time. Angie had to work the early shift, Rachel was taking a friend to the airport in the wee hours of the morning, and our plans included an early start for Cincinnati, so we all said our good-byes & went to bed before it got terribly late. I do wish we'd had more days to stay!