A Fall Break Staycation
Fall Break is a pretty funny thing at Kenyon. It’s the weekend before Family Weekend, and somewhere within the three weeks of midterms. This means that if you go home it’s possible you’ll be with your family for two weekends in a row, and you might have a lot of work to do, so maybe it isn’t worth leaving. I would estimate that about two-thirds of students leave campus, but they are not always going home. Many tend to go on trips to visit friends or to nearby cities for a long weekend, and first-years tend to go home. Last year I went home, but this year I decided to stay on campus, and I actually had a great time.
Here’s some advice on how to have a fall break full of autumnal activities and amusements:
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Do some homework! Fall Break is right before midterms, so you probably have work to do. Friday was a great day to get some work done in Wiggin Street Coffee. I usually prefer to study in Ascension or Peirce, but now that it’s colder outside, and pumpkin lattes are here, Wiggins is super cozy. My go-to order is an iced vanilla latte with oat milk and a pump of pumpkin.
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Go bowling! On Friday night I went to the Colonial City Lanes bowling alley with some friends. We’d never been before but had been talking about going bowling for a while. It was about a 15-minute drive and we each paid $11 for two games. We also ordered food from the restaurant next door, which was very good (I had the chicken sandwich and the fried mushrooms). Overall, Colonial City Lanes was a great experience. The vibes were a little weird, as bowling alleys tend to be, but everyone was very nice and it was very clean.
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Go to a sports game! It turns out there are sometimes sports games during break, so I went to cheer on the men’s soccer team in their game against Denison, which they won 3-1. The weather was perfect and the boys played great!
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Go shopping in Mount Vernon! I had been on the market for some new pillows for my bed, so first I went to Marshalls, where I got a set of pillows and a fuzzy bathrobe. Fall break is all about getting ready for the cold and relaxing, so new pillows and a robe were just what I was looking for. After Marshalls, I went to Rural King to look at their pant selection. Rural King is a gem on Coshocton Avenue — full of trendy Carhartt, and animal feed, and even a store rooster named Rudy. I finished up my errands by going through the McDonald’s drive-thru for an early dinner.
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APPLE PICKING. I’m from New Jersey, where apple picking is an essential part of fall, so I was determined to find an orchard near Gambier. I did some research and decided on Apple Hill Orchard in Fredericktown. It was about 15 minutes away by car and relatively easy to find. We paid $16 and ended up picking at least 15 apples, which we shared amongst ourselves. We also got a small bag of cider donuts, which were very good. The orchard is very nice and the kinds of apples are very clearly labeled and organized. There is also a small store that sells produce, homemade soaps, pies and other farm store type goods. Overall, the experience was great, and even though the apples were expensive they taste amazing and were very fun to pick. After the Orchard outing, I went to the Village Market to get a cup of tomato tortellini soup (a Gambier tradition every Sunday!).