Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Day 13: Hamilton!

When I was weighing coming to Ohio for some Cedar Point time and the fair, my mom mentioned that Hamilton would be playing in Toledo that same week. She bought tickets to entice us, I think. Anyway, it was part of the driving force for coming up and staying awhile. So, Wednesday was our Hamilton Day. We decided since we'd be driving to Toledo that night, that Wednesday during the day would be our "Fremont" day. We started out with coffee on the new front porch.  

Asa also introduced mom to the VR headset. She didn't do too bad on beat saber! 


And look at her with modern technology. A far cry from the collection of VHS she still has sitting around (it's like a treasure trove of my childhood, I had no idea it was still there!) 


Asa and I walked along the bike trail for some fresh air. 


We even climbed down to the river. 


I was out after seeing about four of these sanke skins though. 


On our way back, we passed this cute little free library outside someones house. I will say, the town has made some cute little improvements. Downtown has more little resturants and shops then I'd ever seen it have before, there's a new boulevard on Rawson, all kinds of new street signs. In spots it's becoming a cute little midwestern town. 


When we got back from our walk, Hayden was sitting on the steps with his morning coffee. I told him he should go out on the front porch, that it's lovely out there. But, he replied with "we have a front porch at home, we don't have steps at home." 


After his coffee, we got to making his fairy garden for the second flower show on Friday. I tried to get the teacups to stack differently, but had trouble with the super glue (I should have just gone with my gut and used construction adhesive). Still, the Alice in Wonderland themed fairy garden looked pretty awesome. 


Later, after lunch, we headed out to the fair. Hayden showed off more of his ribbons. All of his photography won something, so in addtion to his Best of Show cactus, his spoon picture, his thread picture, his button picture, and his lego guy picture, all won either first or second. 


Over on the art side of the building, his ribbon flowers won first, as did his paper owl. He got second on his eiffle tower, and I believe third on his oil pallet. He got an honorable mention on his watercolor painting. Nothing for his lion, though. 


Meanwhile, I entered some of my Mickey Ears and got a second and a third! I actually entered them in three different buildings, and this was the only one that won anything. 


Mom pulled in a couple ribbons in the antiques building. 


Over in jewlery, Hayden's recycled bracelet won second, as did his hand model  over in the model section. 


He was the only entry for his age group for the cookie jar and rice crispy treats, so he won first pretty easily in both of those. 


And then after visiting all his stuff, and showing off his ribbons, we headed over to the barns to check out all the animals (which is personally my favorite part of the fair). 


Our first stop was to visit the rabbits. 


The other half of that building is all chickens and various birds. 



Outside you have the bigger birds: geese and ducks and turkeys and such. Calib hates this whole section. Walking between two bird cages is like his worst nightmare. 



Nect up we visited the cows. There was a very small calf that didn't seem too interested in pets. 


But there were a couple of other cows at the end that seemed to like our attention. 


Next up we visited the sheep. There were quite a few that actually enjoyed getting pets. Usually they just run away from everyone. The sterotype holds up. But these guys were overly friendly as far as sheep go. 


The backend of the sheep barn have some goats, so we visited with them as well. 



And the other side of that barn is full of the piggies. They made me miss Ellie (she is very reminiscent of a pig). 


Of course, no trip to the fair is complete without getting milkshakes. Tofts donates the ice cream and then various groups come in as a fundraiser. Usually the line is super long, but not mid-day on Wednesday!


After that we went into the other cow barn, and I found this cow, which I absolutely loved. 


He just wanted to lick everything- my phone, people, whatever. 


And he got Asa real good. 



Last but certainly not least, we visited the horses. Up first we stopped by the draft horse barn to see if any of the horses were sticking their heads out for some fresh air and attention, and we got a couple to come see us. 



In another horse barn, this horse, named Faygo was out just for people to pet and visit. He wasn't even tied up or anything, and when we walked away he started following us, and his owner had to remind him to stay. 



After our trip to the fair, mom took us to the store. She had promised Peyton steak in lue of a Hamilton ticket (Peyton didn't really want to go, anyway), and while there, Asa got her a new router. Apparently her old one was from 2008. It did significantly help with the internet upstairs, that's for sure. 


After setting that up, I asked if anyone wanted to take a walk down to the Presidential Center. Asa and Peyton were in for it. Weirdly, since I've last been to Fremont two elementary schools have been torn down. Hayes Elementary used to sit here. Now it's just an empty field. 


The presidential center is one of the first of it's kind. I didn't think much of it when I was growing up- how unique it was to have this just down the street from me- but now that I know what I know about presidents, I do realize there's not a ton of these, and I appreciate it so much more. Peyton, who has also always had an appreciation for centers like this was enthusiastic about coming down just to walk around. 


Now, Asa and I were supposed to go to Lucy Hayes' Birthday Party that weekend. But, if you saw my last couple posts, you know we ended our trip with covid, so that didn't pan out. I'm glad that we at least came down on Wednesday to walk around, or I would have missed it all together. 


Of course, there's a lot of green space at Speigal Grove. 


But on a back trail, you'll also find the grave of president Hayes's favorite horse, old ned. 


Old Ned is buried just behind Hayes and Lucy. 


A lot of people in Fremont get their pictures taken here. I had my senior pictures done here, but we also had our wedding pictures here, including a dip kiss picture in this exact spot. 


We didn't go into the house or the museum this time, but it was still a nice trip (a lovely weather at that). 




On the way back, we stopped by Koeb's Korner to get some more treats. Asa was most excited to find a 2 liter of Verners to bring home (we did not have Verner's in Florida). 


After dinner, we got ready to go to Hamilton. I made Hayden a special shirt for the occassion! 


When we arrived, we knew what we were doing. Park by the exit, people! It allowed us to get out of there really quickly at the end of the night. 


Hamitlon was playing at the Stranahan Theater, where my parents had their first date, to see 1776 (another historical musical!) Anyway, the truck was parked out front, so we made sure to go take some pictures in front of it. 


Tickets in hand, we made our way through the doors fairly quickly. 


And then mom treated us to souviners and drinks and snacks. We all got the "Hamilton", aka a long island iced tea. 


We sat in the balcony, similar to where we sat when we saw in in Jacksonville. But, I like it from up there, you can see everything! 


Is this where we all caught covid? I just doubt it, because Peyton was among the first to turn up positive, and he wasn't even here. Still, again, I have no idea where it came from. Still, we did mask for the most part at Hamilton. You know, crowded indoor space. Not that it helped, but at least I know if I had it then and didn't know it, I was doing my part not to spread it. 


Anyway, it was an awesome showing. I thought Burr did an amazing job, but Eliza was probably the star of the show. She killed. Our George Washington was pretty great too. I'm hoping to catch Hamilton one more time when it comes to Tampa at the end of this year, but we'll see. 



Next up: One last trip to Cedar Point. 

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