Kirk had his second overnight recruiting trip. He spent all day Friday and overnight at Denison Univeristy. I think it's his favorite so far. We dropped him at the Coach's office Friday morning where he was paired up with a host from the football team. First his host took him to his admissions interview. Kirk had brought a suit to wear but didn't get to change into it before the interview. He said he felt all the essay's he written for all the applications he's filled out really helped him formulate good answers on the fly for the interview.
From there he attended a bio diversity class which was basically freshman biology. Kirk has already had AP Biology so he was very smug when he knew the answers to all the professor's questions and the college kids didn't. The professor tried to keep Kirk chatting too long following class when all Kirk wanted to do was go to lunch.
After lunch was Early Meso-American Literature. Kirk said it was all he could do to stay awake in that class. I'm glad he had a taste of both. Some classes are boring and some are interesting. You need to pass both to graduate. He had a chance to meet with the department head and discuss pre-med majors and opportunties at Denison. After that was dinner and I'm not sure how he spent his evening except just hanging with the other recruites and football players.
The whole ride up in the car Kirk that morning, Kirk and his friend Jimmy Walerius (another Loveland player being recruited) joked about who was going to get to sleep on the bed since dorm rooms have limited space and furniture. Further, they'd been asked to bring a sleeping bag. They made great claims about kicking their host out of bed and taking the bed for themselves, but postulated this plan was mostly likely to work if they were being hosted by the kicker and not a lineman. We were hysterical when Kirk texted us to let us know his host was in fact the kicker, but that he wouldn't be kicking him out of his bed because he out-weighed Kirk by about forty pounds.
In the meantime...
The coach had extended in invitation to the parents to have breakfast with him before picking up the boys so we opted to tag along and spend the night in Granville rather than let Kirk drive himself up. We stayed at the Granville Inn, built in the early 1920's. It's kind of old and drafty, but with comfortable feather beds and all the charm of a turn of the centurty inn.
Granville is a quaint, New England-style community located in Licking County (east of Columbus, Ohio) along the western edge of the Appalachian Plateau. It is the home of Denison University. The Village has a permanent population of 3200 and a total population of 5100 when the college students are in session.
Granville was founded in 1805 by settlers from Granville, Massachusetts and Granby, Connecticut, who sought more fertile farmland. Before leaving New England, the Village design was planned in great detail using the traditional New England town center. Advance parties came westward early in 1805 to plant corn for the fall harvest and to erect a mill for sawing lumber and grinding corn. They also laid out the farm and village plats.
The Village began to prosper and achieved early maturity in the first part of the 19th century. The Ohio Canal (Cleveland to Portsmouth) was begun in 1825 and passed through Licking County several miles east of Granville. A feeder canal was constructed and the commerce that resulted made Granville a thriving community.
Educational institutions have played an important role in the development of the Village of Granville. Three weeks after the main party of immigrants arrived in Granville, a committee was appointed to establish a school for the eighty children. Academies and colleges were founded and flourished; eventually becoming an important business for the Village. The Granville Literary and Theological Institution (1831) later became Granville College (1845) and then Denison University (1856), one of the outstanding private liberal arts colleges in the country. In 1833, the Female Academy was founded. In 1867, the Female Academy was rechartered as the Granville Female College, which closed in 1898. in 1832, the Granville Female Seminary began and was later renamed The Young Ladies’ Institute in 1861. In 1886, The Young Ladies’ Institute was renamed as the Shepardson College.
In 1880, the Ohio Central Railroad came to Granville with the interurban street railway ten years later connecting the Village to nearby Newark. Granville has retained its small town charm characterized by quaint, locally-owned retail shops, historic homes and churches, tree-lined boulevards, and stately buildings located on College Hill. Granville maintains its ties to the past by preserving a historic district that contributes over one hundred buildings to the National Register of Historic Places.
We loved walking around town and looking at the New England architecture. The Green Velvet was a boutique of all things French. French ribbon, French soap, French paper...it's the kind of store that's just fun to look around in. I especially loved the chandelier outside the store.
We had hot chocolate and muffins at this little shop on Main Street while we planned out our day.
The old cemetary has graves from the villiage's original settlers. Many are faded beyond being able to read anymore.
Who would have thought this little place would turn up in middle Ohio? We didin't go in, but I couldn't leave without taking a picture. Signs said visitors were welcome to sit on the porch anytime. I'm not even sure the place was open. Many of the town's museums were closed for the winter season. January isn't a great time of year for tourism.
Of course even after a stolen 24 hours, one does have to come home. We had breakfast with the coach where we were surprised (along with other parents who had driven much father than we had) that there was no presentation. We just ate breakfast and chatted with the other parents. Then we picked up Kirk and came back to real.
