Sean's Cultural Tour of Ohio - Day 3

This morning I got up and made my infamous smoothie concoction, based on my favorite smoothie from Bibo's, a Portland crepe and smoothie cafe.

That was just to tide us over until we could get to Kent, where we had breakfast at Wild Goats, mainly because I am fond of their potato pancakes, and it was on the way to our destination of the day. Sean was developing breakfast fatigue, as this was the third day in a row that she had an official Midwest breakfast...but, we needed our energy.

We drove through Kent and headed south to Canton, taking route 43, a back road so that Sean could see something of Ohio, rather than just urban Cleveland. Passing through Hartville was fun, as it is a very old-timey Ohio town, with antique stores, wooden sidewalks and restaurants featuring homemade pies daily. But, amazingly we did not stop for pies!

We went to the Canton Museum of Art, which was showing Andrew Wyeth's Helga pictures. There were 70 works on display, and this had to be one of my favorite exhibits that I have attended. What made it so enjoyable for me was that there were many preliminary sketches of the final works presented, so that you could study the choices Wyeth made in composing his final work. In most exhibits, it is nothing but a parade of finished works...this exhibit focused on the process of making art and the choices that the artist makes. Not only was the insight into process valuable, to see his egg tempuras in person was extremely moving. The detail of the wool sweater in one of the works (Braids, 1979, tempera) continues to amaze me. It doesn't seem possible that anyone could bring about the level of realism that he accomplished. So, while it was a small exhibit, it was very powerful.

Cruising through the giftshop, we found small, gilt framed reproduction magnets of the purloined Scream, and purchased two to be the centerpiece of our shrine. Candles lit and Norwegian music playing until the dear paintings find their way home safe and sound.

We stopped in Kent on the way back, and I gave Sean a tour of the campus, and pointed out the sites of the May 4, 1970 events, including the bullet hole in the Don Drumm sculpture outside of Taylor Hall.

As we were walking around the campus, it was becoming quite hot...so we had to stop in the adjacent Starbuck's for lemonade iced teas. The location of the Starbuck's used to be a campus fixture, a restaurant called Captain Brady's which was in a two-story Tudor Revival building. Back in the day, Trish and I ate there several times a week, mostly grilled cheese sandwiches. When your order was ready, the somewhat elderly cook would grab a megaphone and call out your order - which was helpful if you took a table up the rather rickety staircase, but definitely overkill if you were seated on the ground floor at the booths, which were about 3' from the grill...And now Brady's is gone, replaced by the evil corporation...which, I suppose, I too would be irate over, except it IS a Starbuck's...and I love them.

So, as I mentioned earlier, it was getting very hot outside, and as I do not have air conditioning, I thought the wisest course of action would be to go to movie. We went to Hudson and saw Collateral with Tom Cruise and Jaimie Fox. I think there were maybe four other people at the matinee. I told Sean that is why I like to go to the Hudson theatre, because no one was ever there...she seemed amazed at the lack of people...

After the film, we went back to the sweltering house, and I foolishly made a Chinese meal: egg rolls, rice, pot stickers and stir-fried vegetables. We ate and watched Addams Family and Munsters reruns and some of the Olympics, then we needed to get out of the house.

Sean was hoping to catch a firefly, but our timing was bad...I think she missed the season probably by a day.

We walked to Highland Square, where my friend Brian had just opened a bar, and went in and had a couple of Knob Creek whiskeys on the rocks. That seemed to buy us enough time for the place to cool down, and we were able to get to get some rest.