La Comedia–A Christmas Carol

Our December Day Trip, Dec. 16, was to visit La Comedia in Springboro and see the musical play “A Christmas Carol”. I think everyone enjoyed the experience and the musical.

Our seats were on the main floor just off the stage. This is may be the last time we’ll get these seats because we could go up one level and see a bit better and certainly have more comfortable seating. Floor seating is certainly good for being close to the action of the plays and also for access to the buffet. It is also nice to be able to fill our plates with food and not be concerned about navigating the stairs. Anyway, we will try different seating to see how it works for our groups.

The play was outstanding with great acting and music. I recommend it for great Christmas entertainment and a good meal, too!

Here is the website link for La Comedia.

Christmas Luncheon–Burt Kettinger (December 13, 2011)

This month we celebrated Christmas in a wonderful way at our Young at Heart Luncheon! We started with some very nice piano and organ music by my favorite musicians, Nancy Jensen (Organ) and Grace Averitt (Piano). Then, I did my normal opening with jokes, prayer and recognition of new people, birthdays and anniversaries.

But our real program was our special friend, Burt Kettinger who came here from the Chicago area to do a Christmas Vocal Concert and speak. Burt has been to our church and here at Young at Heart a number of times and always does an outstanding job. He is a featured vocalist on “Songs in the Night” from the historic Moody Church in Chicago and does concerts worldwide. We are very fortunate to have him here and even more so to be able to have him for a special Christmas program. You can hear his concert by clicking the link below.

Remember: You can double click any photo to see a larger version

Click HERE to hear Burt’s Music!

Of course, we wouldn’t be a luncheon without our meal in the gym. Today, we had ham and noodles, yams, cranberry salad and red velvet cake all prepared by Lisa and her able staff of cooks, servers and the various other help with the tables and cleanup. Greg brought some of the staff from Fifth/Third Bank to assist with the serving as a special service project for the bank. Thank you Greg. Next month Greg will be our featured speaker on the subject of the economy.

It was truly a great day!

Haute Chocolate Day Trip

We visited Haute Chocolate in Cincinnati for our Fall Mystery Trip this year. Our group has never visited Haute Chocolate, however we did take our volunteers there, earlier this year.

Haute Chocolate designs their chocolates on premise and also have a nice shop for selling. They have some very unique creations. One of the creations that I find most unique is their “Deviled Egg”. I also like their Thanksgiving theme, Turkey! I haven’t decided who will eat either of these but will probably show them off during our Thanksgiving Dinner at home.

Haute Chocolate is located in Montgomery, Ohio very close to the location of Montgomery Inn. It would be a great idea to visit the chocolate shop immediately prior to having a great meal at Montgomery Inn. These are just a short walk apart.

During our volunteers event, we had a much smaller group, so we were able to do everything right in the kitchen of their shop. However, there were 40 of us this time, so we could not all fit in the kitchen. So, instead we were entertained in a very unique setting of a concept place with a large kitchen, dining and meeting area. This was an excellent venue with a very modern setting.

Of course we came here to eat, see how candy is made and try some of their fantastic confections!

As always, you can easily enlarge any image by clicking on it!

Young at Heart Luncheon–Pastor David Kisner

This month our Lead Pastor, David Kisner, here at Washington Heights Baptist Church, told us about their trip to South Africa. It looks like it was a great trip to visit with missionaries, including our own “Dr D” (Dave Drullinger), our former Preaching Partner.

First we had a great Piano Duet Prelude by Fred Scheffler and David Brandt. We also sang along with them as they played a special number, “People Need the Lord”. Here is their Prelude Music as an MP3. You don’t want to here me sing.

David Kisner used PowerPoint to show photos of the scenery and wildlife around South Africa and also tell about their service there where Pastor Kisner preached and also taught pastors. His wife, Wendy, also taught in a school there and helped around the church and with Ladies Bible Studies.

The larger photo is a little out of focus but you get the idea of our presentation setting and his show and tell table behind.
Remember, you can always click any photo to see a larger image.

Click here to HEAR PASTOR KISNER’S TALK.

Click here to see the PowerPoint slides in an easy to use PDF format.

This may work best if you open the PowerPoint first and wait for the file to download and open, then come back here and click on the audio Talk File.

Here are a few photos taken from his slides.

Dave out for a stroll along the bay.

Pastor Dave with “Dr D”             Pastor Kisner preaching at Mountain View Baptist Church      Pray four them as they also pray for us!

Customary sunset photo to end the presentation.

Day Trip to COSI in Columbus

COSI is an acronym for “Center of Science and Industry.” I always think of this as a Children’s Museum and I think this is primarily who they cater to; but there is certainly plenty to see and enjoy for us adults, too. Of course, a lot of that enjoyment is watching the reactions of the kids to different things.

REMEMBER: YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO SEE A FULL SIZE VERSION

This is the entrance of COSI with the pendulum which swings and knocks off iron balls. We had 19 of us, including our driver, Joel Harbaugh, and his family. Thank you Joel for driving.

Many, perhaps most, of the displays are interactive. These range from biology, to physics, to ecology, etc.

I think I had a couple of areas that rated as my favorites. The top of the list was the “Progress” area where we journey back as far as 1898 to as current as 1962. I liked the Diner and the Disk Jockey. Those bring back some fun memories of my high school days.

There was also an interesting outdoor exhibit area, called “Big Science Park,” that included a tiny concept house that is only 100 square feet and could support one or two people. It was totally green with solar power and heat. It included a tiny kitchen, bathroom and living area. I couldn’t figure where anyone would sleep but I suspect it was something like a murphy bed. It might be nice as a cottage in the woods but I cannot see it being used as a primary residence! I wasn’t sold on this concept!

I also enjoyed the “Extreme Screen Theater” with a nice 3D movie about Surfing in Tahiti. I think I need to go visit! Tahiti, again! 

Another highlight for everyone was the Rat Basketball Game. Yes, you guessed it correctly. They have rats that play basketball!

An area that most of the kids seemed to enjoy was the “Highwire Unicycle.” Our own Seth Harbaugh was brave enough to give it a try!

Although our group for this event was small, our enthusiasm for the activities and sights was huge!

If you are looking for a fun place to visit, check out COSI!

Young at Heart Luncheon–Louie Giglio

Today, we had our luncheon program. We had Josh and Erin Hales scheduled as our special vocal concert program. Josh is our Teen Pastor. Both Josh and Erin have excellent singing voices. Erin is also a very accomplished pianist.

Unfortunately, Josh suddenly took ill, and was not able to be a part of our program. Hence, this morning we were scrambling to find something to replace our program for the month. Nancy had a brilliant idea when she remembered a video by Louie Giglio that we have at home.

After the normal opening part of our program, we launched the 40 minute video by Louie Giglio titled, “How Great is Our God.” This video is a very good one and I received many comments about it and people asking how they could get a copy. More on that later. However, I may even have a better deal for you. How is free? I found a copy of the program on YouTube. This is the entire video and the quality is very good for viewing on a computer and maybe pretty good, if you can view in on your TV, too.

I found a place where you can purchase the video for around $10 at ChristianBook.com

Here is the YouTube Link.

Much of this video covers the vastness of our universe but the later part of the video discusses Laminin. Listen through the entire video to catch this part, or do a Google search for it.

Next month, maybe we can get Josh and Erin to sing a special number or two for us. I’ll try! Our speaker will be our Lead Pastor, David Kisner. He is going to South Africa soon and will be here to tell us more about what they did over there. Don’t miss this one!

Fall Trip–Savannah, Georgia (Day 7)

Today is our final day for this trip. We departed from Flat Rock, NC on time. The mechanics and Doug Porter, our driver, worked on the bus until about 2:30AM to get it running well enough to drive home. Doug never turned off the bus once it started again. Because of his long day/night, the company sent another driver to relieve him as we were nearing home. This saved him a couple of hours getting home. We cannot provide too much praise for Doug and the job he did for us. Incidentally, the bus was a very luxurious bus by Mercedes and was operated by Crown Charter from Lawrenceburg, Indiana.

One of our sore points was that I frequently chose to stop at Cracker Barrel restaurants during our travel days because they could handle our bus crowd very rapidly without any hassle. However, our people were about to revolt on me; so I relented to find other opportunities as we traveled. This is difficult, since we cannot plan far in advance because we don’t always know where we will be at a certain time. But, I would look ahead for places an hour out based on my GPS. This morning, one of our people suggested a place that he had used called the Athenaeum Cumberland Inn in Williamsburg, KY. So, we called and they would be able to handle us. The choice was an excellent one and everyone enjoyed it. The Cumberland Inn provides a way for Cumberland College to offer its students a positive work experience while promoting the college to visitors.

We used the setting of their grand staircase for our group photo.

As you can see, the facilities are very impressive. There are a couple more wings to this facility that are not shown.

We returned back home to Washington Heights at about 6:10 PM, a full hour earlier that our schedule.

All in all, this trip was a very successful trip with only the minor glitch of the bus breakdown to provide a bit of adventure. Even that was handled very well with only minor inconvenience. During our entire trip, we didn’t have any injuries or illnesses (other than minor things).

We had Rick and Janice Bowersox along to help us. Jan is a nurse and helps pass out medications, when needed, and patch people up. Rick helps me with the ministry side of our trip and leads the singing on board the bus. This, along with help from Nancy, really make my job easier and less stressful.

Based on my initial feedback, everyone was happy with this trip. There are always things that we can do different and we will take the comments to help with future planning.

Fall Trip–Savannah, Georgia (Day 6)

Today turned out to be much more eventful that expected. We planned, primarily, to start the trek home with a stop in the South Carolina State Museum. I must admit that this museum was far better than I had anticipated. The facilities cover 4 floors of the building and includes a pretty nice museum shop.

Click the above image to visit their website.

Along the way we encountered some very hard rain that resulted in a couple of serious accidents. Fortunately, we were not involved and not seriously inconvenienced. However, by the time we reached the museum the rain had subsided.

Much of the exhibits were somewhat common to museums everywhere such as a selection of old cars, etc. However, I discovered several things of interest and things that are new to me.

I thought the train below was interesting and somewhat colorful, too. The boiler looks like a very large alcoholic beverage!

REMEMBER TO CLICK ANY IMAGE TO GET A LARGER VIEW!

There were many cars. Did you ever hear of an Anderson. It was interesting that it made a point of being more expensive that their competitors. But, was it really worth it?

Since my former employer was NCR, I was interested in this telephone system and the cash register. NCR also installed phone systems in department store way back in time. I once helped work on one in Rockford, IL. It was called the OK Telephone System. That isn’t what this one is, though.

Lets take a look inside a very old general store.

Notice the wooden cabinet cash register in the right photo. I’m not positive, but I think that one is a National Cash Register (NCR). I never serviced one like this but my dad would have.

Many of you know that I enjoy guns and shooting. So, It is appropriate that I handled this old black powder rifle.

Finally, its time for a little language lesson. First, how many of you have ever even heard of the Gullah language? I hadn’t; but I suspect some of my African American friends have. As the sign says, this is a conglomeration of English and African languages. Some common words that we used today from this language are YAM (sweet potato), Okra (vegetable that I do not like) and Tote.

Speaking of final, below is a Cooling Table in use. This was used to hold bodies during the viewing! It was a frame with woven material similar to what was used for chair backs.

We ended the day in Flat Rock, NC where we spent our first night. That first one was uneventful but this one was NOT!.Our bus dropped about 20 of us off at a Cracker Barrel after we checked into the hotel. The driver was to return about an hour an a half later. But he wasn’t there. I called him and discovered that the bus was broken down but he was on the phone with the experts at his bus company. Unfortunately, they did not get the bus running, so we hired a couple of taxis to shuttle back and forth between to hotel and restaurant, until we were all safely returned. That was an expensive mode of travel. Don’t think we will use them to return home, tomorrow! But, that’s another day, so we’ll be back with “the rest of the story!”