Living room, bedroom, kitchen. Bedroom, kitchen, living
room.
The backgrounds in her virtual classroom are all pretty much
the same. Which makes Megan Gilmore the one who definitely sticks out.
Megan, are you in … a hotel room?
“I did have a couple teachers ask where I was,” she says
with a laugh.
Classes from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; pedicure appointment at
the spa at 2:45. Welcome to the new school day. Maybe this virtual learning world
isn’t so bad after all.
“It’s really nice,” Megan says while sitting under the dome
at West Baden Springs Hotel, which doubled as her classroom and vacation destination
for a week. “I was kind of worried that it’d be weird doing school from a hotel
room, but it’s been nice to have a change of scenery, and it’s also just really
beautiful here as well.”
While this year has thrown us one curveball after the next, some unexpected opportunities are out there, too. The Gilmore family found one, more than 600 miles from home.
With their 25th wedding anniversary approaching,
David and Melissa Gilmore wanted to get away someplace special. They typically
have to stay close to home in Raleigh, North Carolina, to celebrate their
September anniversary.
“We normally can’t do something like that because the kids
are in school,” David says. “But being that they are doing school from home now
and can do that remotely just about anywhere with their computers and phones,
we decided to take a trip out here to West Baden, and spend the week, enjoy our
anniversary and enjoy some of the evenings. Even though the kids are in school
during the day, they’re able to enjoy things in the late afternoon and evening
— golf, spa, and all the amenities that we can. And even
just walking around and being somewhere different, rather than at home all
the time.”
David and his son, Matthew, arranged a mid-afternoon round
of golf at Valley Links after e-learning was done for the day. Melissa and
Megan branched off for a mother-daughter spa outing.
Megan and Matthew had a little contribution as well, and scored
some good-kid points in the process.
“While we were gone, they actually ran down to Xanadu and
bought a box of truffles and had that set out with a few other things and cards
when we came back, so we had a little gift from the kids for dessert when we came
back,” David says.
All of it was maybe not what they’d originally planned — but
exactly what they needed.
“It’s a great place to bring your family, and just have a
change of scenery, relax, get out of your house and do something different,”
says Melissa.
“This is the new business casual,” he joked. “Since I was on
video I really only needed the waist-up look, and I’m on vacation from the
waist down.”