Well, we made it to Columbus and back in one piece. It was a
short trip but then again we are far from rich so short trips are what we do
best.
We decided to stay the night as it is about a 2 and a half
hour drive one-way. Hotels are expensive and we are on a pretty tight budget.
After a bit of searching we used the name your price on
priceline.com and got a 20
th
story room for about $75. As luck would have it, the hotel allowed pets. It is
good to take the whole family when you go somewhere and it is good for the dog
to be with us instead of with my mother where she isn’t as happy.
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| Room with a view |
On the way in we stopped at the local Half Price Books
(three actually). Being an avid book lover and a voracious reader Half Price
Books has always been a double whammy for me. I get used items at a great price
and when I move on I can sell my books so someone else can enjoy them. Every
store has a different inventory. As a company they also do a lot of recycling
and they plant trees every year on earth day.
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| So many things I want that I can't afford |
The hotel was right in the middle of downtown, which is
always cool to stay in when you are in a new city. We dropped the dog off in
the room so she could sleep and we started to walk. Every time we go into any
new city the first thing we do is walk around and look at all the local shops. The
exercise is good but I love throwing myself into a new environment.
We walked through The Short North. The Short North is a
neighborhood that is known for its artwork. There are a few cool shops and lots
of greener (greener than where we are from) things for sale.
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| we don't have so many of these where I'm from |
It was freezing but walking faster helped us warm up some. We
found a place that sold our favorite vice, sushi. After the meal we walked back
to the theatre and started to wait.
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| An hour and a half before the Show |
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| An hour before the show |
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| Waterless urinals!!! |
Walking in we noticed a few things:
1.
This place was nice
2.
There was already a ton of people here.
3.
They served booze.
4.
There was a banner to sign up for the fight against the
Keystone XL pipeline. A few things were for sale including this cool shirt
modeled by the boss:
After buying a few shirts we had a bit of a shock when we
heard it would be starting about 40 minutes late! On further inspection we
found this little sign:
I couldn’t believe it…he flew!
We had to sit around for a bit. It wasn’t really that bad
though. It is never that bad to be surrounded by likeminded people, people who
want the same thing as you even if they are using different means to get there.
The doors opened up and we rushed up to the front. After a
few minutes of letting people filter in the musical guests
The Apes hit the stage. The Apes are a
guitarless band that features an electric violin instead. The Apes wowed us
with four beautiful and unique instrumental pieces.
The main event started with a few of 350.org’s organizers
talking before Mr. McKibben came out. there was a little difficulty hearing him over the crunch of granola but with this crowd what can you expect. He gave a rousing speech and plenty to
think about. The main thrust of the speech was divestment. 350.org has been
getting colleges and churches to divest all of their money away from fossil
fuels the same way the divestment movement helped change the apartheid in South
Africa in the early 1990s. Overall a great show and if they are coming by you
and tickets are still available you should grab some.
For more information on how you can help divest click
here.
The next day we checked out a few more things and then
headed home. A short vacation but a really cool one.
