First and foremost, visiting a college does not actually remove it from possibility. I was hoping that the trip to the four colleges would eliminate some options, when all it provided was fodder for discussion: small or large (does size really matter?), public or private, school sports (like div 3 or NAIA) or intramural sports. These were the same discussions that we were having before the insane trip. Now, we have made a chart and have intensified the discussions, without actually narrowing down the list at all. And the trip was a little crazy. While we enjoyed an amazing play (Looking over the President’s Shoulder), a fun Pacers game, and a great couple days in Atlanta, there were some less desirable parts of the trip. Here are the highlights:

• Tayden determined that Marian is the perfect university for Tessa, so we no longer had to visit any other universities, as we got lucky with our first visit. (um, not happening Tayden)

• Travis and I got to see one of the housekeeping staff in the elevator of our hotel in Indianapolis coughing into a pile of clean folded sheets in her arms. Repeatedly. Continuously. The entire ride to the 16th floor. She literally buried her face in the clean sheets and hacked.

• Tessa and I forgot razors, so we bought a couple from the shady gift shop on the ground floor of the hotel. The worker was on the phone while we searched the store. After we were about to walk out, he stopped us and produced an already opened multi pack of razors and sold us two. We didn’t want to buy them, but we were a little afraid of him, so we did. And since we had no other razors, we used them. Fine parenting on display.

• Our hotel apparently had a severe shortage of toilet paper. There wasn’t an extra role in the room, so we resorted to using the provided scratchy tissues. Housekeeping didn’t provide us with a fresh roll when they cleaned the room (they didn’t forget to take the tip we left them…hmmmm). The front desk had none, but told us that they would send housekeeping up with a role. An hour later, we still had no toilet paper. Finally, completely frustrated, or tired of holding his bowels, Travis tracked the housekeeping cart down in the vertical hotel (it was not on our floor) and took a coveted roll.

• Giordano’s in Indianapolis ran out of napkins. Was all of Indy having a paper crisis last week? The restaurant brought us several paper towels torn from those huge industrial rolls. It was fine until Tayden knocked over a full glass of water. Those things don’t absorb much. Although, had we been there a couple hours earlier, I might have taken those paper towels to use as toilet paper. Oh, and they ran out of to-go bags for wine, so Travis and I took one for the team and finished the bottle. Since we had solved the toilet paper crisis, I knew I could pee in peace, so it was easy to drink as much as I wanted.

• Our hotel offered refreshments and snacks for free from 5:30 to 7:30 each night. This was a nice perk. The first night, they put the chips next to the honey mustard salad dressing, which looks suspiciously like nacho cheese, but doesn’t taste anything like nacho cheese. Yummy chips and honey mustard dressing!! And really, why was the dressing even there? There was no salad. It was there to trick us. Patron after patron (including us) was pouring it all over the chips. When I was standing in line, I couldn’t figure out why all these chips and cheese were left on the tables uneaten. I think that the staff at the hotel had a bet on this, and were laughing behind the scenes at all the people they could sucker. They probably hate the cocktail hour.

• The men’s public bathroom on the corridor from the hotel to the skywalk had half doors on the stalls. We called them crop doors. Kinda like crop pants, but with the top cut off instead of the bottom. Hey, at least those bathrooms had toilet paper. But seriously, the guys could great each other as they walked down the stalls. I’ll provide a picture in the comments.

• The pool and hot tub were similar to Baboon Island at Brookfield Zoo with all the activity going on there. Hey, did that kid just throw a piece of poo at another kid? Suffice it to say, we slowly backed out of the overcrowded cesspool of humanity congregated there. I can swim another time at another place. Perhaps somewhere that doesn’t test the chlorine’s efficacy quite so much.

• The air duct in our room turned on for about 5 minutes and off for one minute…all night. And it was really LOUD. Then really quiet. Not a good situation for the light sleeper.

• Tayden was convinced that a spot on his sheets was from the housekeeping staff coughing on them, so he refused to sleep on them. We came up with a solution, but ugh! We never should have shared that story.

• The hotel in Atlanta was worse than the one in Indy. The subfloor under the disgusting, stained carpet actually had divots and pot holes in it. You could turn your ankle just walking across the bedroom.

• On the upside, the kitchen and bathrooms were newer. And they were working hard on updating the exterior. Of course, that work started at 7am.

Overall, we had fun though. I will admit that home never felt so good! And I think we will try another hotel the next time we are in Indy. We may stay at the same place in Atlanta though, because they should have it all fixed up by then.