May Day Trip - Butterflies of the Caribbean & Buca di Beppo

Today, we enjoyed a fantastically beautiful day in so many ways! Bright sunny, great people, beautiful butterflies & plants, and awesome surroundings. To top the day we had a very nice Italian meal at Buca di Beppo. Our group was relatively small with only 17 of us; but that makes everything more manageable.

We arrived with perfect timing, thanks to our driver, Andrew. This allowed us to be a few minutes early with the best parking and time for a short break. Of course, we were early enough to beat the crowds, too.

As I always say, you can click on an image to see a larger version

There are also some nice surroundings at the Krohn's Conservatory. These include the river (not shown), a Water Tower (also known as the Stand Pipe) and a floral clock. The conservatory is located in Eden Park along with the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Elsinor Arch Castle, a pavilion and gazebo. There is a lot more to do here than we did. It takes younger legs than ours to traipse round this park!

As the photo above on the left illustrates, we had a great parking place just outside the entrance to the conservatory!

We entered the butterfly exhibit through a controlled environment to give the butterflies a climate similar to the Caribbean and also keep them contained in that environment. The nice thing about this is that they were flying all around us and frequently landed on us. They gave us something to allow the butterflies to climb on and give us a closer look or shot for photography. Unfortunately that beautiful blue ones never seemed to land with their wings spread and the color disappeared leaving them a dull gray/brown color.

Yup! That's Marie photobombing this young lady!

Some of the ladies became friendly with the butterflies
I assume the guys weren't fond of BUGS!

There were also some nice flowers and plants in the conservatory.

Some of our people were contented to relax for a bit, too!

After seeing the butterflies and plants, we drove over to Buca di Beppo for a nice lunch of Chicken Parmesan, Ravioli, 2 kinds of salad followed with a raspberry cheesecake.

I guess this was the Pope's table!

All in all, this was a very enjoyable trip, with great companions, good scenery and very tasty food! I recommend this venue for anyone!

May Luncheon Program with "Resounding Joy"

We enjoyed another very good musical program! Our May program featured the "Resounding Joy" ensemble from Dayton Christian High School. The group is led by Tracy Miller. Before the program, they spent time going through some of their school material. I thought that was a great way to take care of a bit of their downtime and accomplish their school objectives.

There were 10 students with us but I think there are more. Some were were busy with their other end of the school year material and couldn't be with us.

After their arrival they did the set up of their sound equipment, did some school work; then had a bit of warm-up practice time prior to "suiting up" for our performance. I took this shot as they were doing their warm-up for a couple of songs they used with us for the first time. That was pretty nice of them to do something special just for us.

Today, our prelude time was a Piano and Organ Duet by Grace Averitt and Nancy Jensen. Listen to that one here:

http://www.whbc.org/media/audio/20160510_Grace-Nancy.mp3

After I did the early part of our program with Welcome, Groaner Jokes, introducing Birthdays and Anniversaries plus our upcoming Day Trips, I introduced Tracy and the students, now all decked out in their finest performance clothes.

Wow, what a transformation! They look stunning in their red formal dresses and black suits. Of course, they sounded just as good as they looked. 

They sang and introduced themselves and told what churches they attended. This year there were none of them from our church but there was one student from our Daughter Church, Clearcreek Chapel. There was also a grandson of out members.

They also shared a few solo pieces along with the entire group as background.

Remember, you can click on the images to get a larger view

I received lots of praise for the group, so I will have to tell Tracy to give everyone an "A" for the day!

You can hear their music by clicking the following link:

http://www.whbc.org/media/audio/20160510_Resounding%20Joy.mp3

After the program, we all retired to the dining area to enjoy a very nice meal of Salad and Enchilada followed by an ice cream and cookie sundae!

Be sure to thank Lisa Poe and all of the kitchen and dining room staff for their cooking and serving. We are truly blessed with a fine and talented group of volunteers!

Next month, we will hear from another musical group, "Glorious Day"!

Paul Lawrence Dunbar Home - Day Trip

April 22, 2016 we visited the home of Paul Lawrence Dunbar right here in Dayton, Ohio. Paul was a well know poet and writer during the late 1800s and early 1900s. He was a contemporary of the Wright Brothers and even used their printing capabilities to publish his paper!

We were met, and received a excellent guided tour, by one of the National Park Rangers, Greg Smith, assisted by Margaret Peters. They each did excellent jobs and were very knowledgeable and helpful.

During this tour we learned a lot about this house, Paul Lawrence Dunbar and his mother. Before Paul's death, he purchased the home for his mother and he later died here.

The house remains pretty much the way it was left following the death of Paul's mother in 1932. The state took over the maintenance and upkeep of the home a couple of years following her death.

The house was heated by coal and still has gas lighting as well as the original lead water pipes and most of the furnishings.

The China Cabnet below actually doubled as a Murphy Bed
Roll it out and the bed would drop down behind!

Nice kitchen with Stove, Hot Water, indoor plumbing. The lighting was gas.

The room below includes the typewriter that Paul used during his final years.

 Of course, Mama had a sewing room!

 And Paul had his library. He read other books and learn style.

Following our guided tour, we had a very nice lunch at the Carillon Brewing Company in the Carillon Park. This is the only brewery located in a museum. 

The food was very good and would be characterized as German.

We would recommend the house and the restaurant for anyone interested in an educational tour and good meal!

Young@Heart Volunteers Appreciation

We love our volunteers who work with us and our Young@Heart! We are blessed with a large group of volunteers who cook, serve, set up tables, clean up after the luncheons, do our calling, handle event signups, check-in our group and new comers and drive to pick them up as well as some who provide musical entertainment. We could not have a successful senior citizen program without their help.

Every year we honor this group of volunteers with a luncheon of their own, where they do not have to cook or serve. Today, we enjoyed a time of fellowship together and a very nice lunch at the Cherry House Cafe in Beavercreek! This is a photo of the group, although there were some of our volunteers who could not be with us.

Cherry Hill Cafe provided a nice room for us to eat and have a good time of fellowship.

Be sure to thank our volunteers for all of their hard work and service for our "Young People" and the Lord. We love them all!

April Luncheon - Harps of Grace

This month, we had an Angelic Musical experience! Our program was a heavenly performance by a group known as the Harps of Grace. The group is led by Leslie Stratton, who has joined us a couple of times herself.

All puns aside, the music was very good. I billed this as "A Little Bit of Heaven". It was a great experience, having music performed by 10 harps all perched on our platform.

The photo above shows all of the performers and their harps. This is a view not seen during the performance, since many of them are hidden behind their harp.

Video - America The Beautiful

Use the like above to view a short video of Harps of Grace performing America the Beautiful.

Full music program

Or, use this link to listen to the entire music program.

Following the music, we were treated to a very good meal by our cooks and servers in the gymnasium. It was a very tasty meal of Meat Loaf, Mashed Potatoes and Coleslaw, followed by a wonderful Banana Split Pie!

Next month, join us to hear the Dayton Christian High School, Resounding Joy!