Over the weekend of December 12-14, I was excited to get a chance to participate in a special experience in Downtown Dayton with some cool local social media creators.
It was called Holidayton Vacation and was organized by Anne Kane. We got to stay at the Hilton Garden Inn at the Dayton Arcade and enjoyed a range of fun things to do downtown during the holiday season.
The first day was centered around the Dayton Arcade and Holly Days festival. I was fortunate to get a chance to serve as a vendor there for the first time.
I sold signed copies of my book Lost Dayton, Ohio, and I teamed up with my Sinclair colleague Jessy who made some awesome turkey ornaments that were modeled after the turkey sculptures that have been up in the rotunda since the Arcade opened in 1904.
The Holidayton Vacation moved over to the Deck the Diamond event at the Dayton Dragons ballpark.
On Saturday I got up early and shot a video about the hotel for my social media profiles. I was excited to see it get a lot of traction on TikTok and Facebook.
Also on Saturday the group got to enjoy a couple of delicious meals: brunch at Lily’s in the Oregon District and dinner at the Garden Grille and Bar right inside the hotel. That night involved a Nutcracker show at the Schuster Center followed by drinks and bites at Joui Wine located in the Fire Blocks.
One of the pieces of content I put together recounted a wild historical episode connected to the Lily’s site.
We also got to tour a couple of fun downtown destinations with a lot of interesting history: America’s Packard Museum and the Belle of Dayton distillery.
Throughout the weekend it was a lot of fun to get to know the other creators and get to appear in some of their videos which were a lot different than the content I would create on my own!
I really enjoyed this unique “staycation,” and having a chance to help bring more attention to these awesome businesses and organizations in the downtown core.
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