Spring break–that cliche of recreation and renewal–is winding down for us here at Red Hill. Evan and I took off on a week-long trip through points north and west, visiting family and taking a first look at some colleges. Maybe Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Columbus aren’t necessarily at the top of anyone’s list of spring destinations, but we had a great time, exploring new cities, expanding our territory, absorbing campus cultures, and…eating a lot of grilled cheese (it was that kind of trip). In Pittsburgh on Friday night, after a great if rain-soaked exploration of Carnegie Mellon, we walked from our hotel to the infamous Primanti Brothers–that place that everyone’s seen on the Food Network where they put the fries ON the sandwiches. In Cleveland over the weekend, we ordered elaborate sandwiches from Melt (grilled cheese is their THEME) and also ate approximately our weight in bread and croissants from On The Rise, a wonderful bakery where Lily now works.

Heading south on Monday, we stopped at Middle Ground, in Gambier (where we visited Kenyon College and our friends Liza and Lynne Chabot), and their lunch special was–astonishingly–grilled cheese with delicious bacon and caramelized onions. Dinner on Monday night was at a diner in Westerville, an energetic and endearing small town outside of Columbus; we skipped the grilled cheese, but Evan made sure to get in his daily allotment of fries. On Tuesday, we had a first-rate breakfast at the bed and breakfast (63 College Inn) where we spent a lovely, comfortable night; the innkeeper not only cooked our ham-and-egg cups (well, plates!) for breakfast, but gave us plenty of inside-scoop advice about Otterbein College and its theater program. At her suggestion, we wandered into the admissions office just to pick up viewbooks and brochures, but they promptly set up an interview with the arts admissions coordinator, plus a campus tour and lunch with two bright and very engaged junior-year students who radiated genuine enthusiasm for the school in general as well as for their programs. For students who know what they want from college, this place provides impressive hands-on opportunities and clearly excellent preparation. It was clear that Evan felt at home there; he also understood how hard it is to be admitted to the BFA program, but he’s now extremely motivated to start preparing for auditions, even though they’re almost two years away.

It was a trip of wild weather changes, by the way: cold, windy, and rainy in Pittsburgh, and even colder in Cleveland. After a walk in bitter cold wind to the harbor on Saturday afternoon, and lots of wet-boot footprints in Lily’s apartment, we woke up Sunday morning to several inches of snow. Lily’s roommate was trudging up and down the stairs, exhausted, with a 7-week-old puppy; thanks to Amy’s patience and diligence, the pup didn’t have a single accident, but the snow was not Amy’s friend that weekend! Monday’s relatively moderate temperatures made it seem like a luxury to walk around in the sunshine at Kenyon and Otterbein. But fields and rivers were flooded throughout Ohio, and snow was expected in Charleston on the day we left. When we drove home from West Virginia on Thursday morning, we encountered more rain, fog on the mountains, and a major leak in our kitchen ceiling, with flooded cabinets and countertops waiting to be cleaned up. No pictures of that below, but here’s a selection of images from the trip. It was a great first road-trip for me and Evan, and I’m already planning the northeast summer swing, but meantime, I’m happy to be welcoming back spring in Red Hill.

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