We soon arrived at The Welcome Center and I was astonished at how incredibly different the building was then I imagined. I knew a Whit's End restaurant was located inside, but didn't realize there's a museum, bookstore, birthday room and even a little theatre also located at the Welcome Center. There was even a visitor registry at the front entrance! With "Guest" firmly attached to my chest, and Nathan sporting his own Focus ID tag, we started the tour of Focus on the Family.

For the next two to two and half hours, I was shown things Odyssey fans everywhere can only dream about. The Welcome Center had a lot of Focus on the Family paraphernalia but it was obvious that Adventures in Odyssey was one of the most cherished programs they produce. The bookstore was home to lots of Odyssey Merchandise, (much of which I planned to purchase before heading back to Canada ) and Whit's End itself appeared to be a fairly successful restaurant. Nathan guided me through the Odyssey Museum , which also included a KYDS Radio room where tourists can record their own scenes from Adventures in Odyssey. There was also a small stage with a small variety of costumes available, where children could put on shows of their own for their parents and display cases which contained important Odyssey memorabilia (such as the very bell that is used to make the jingle above the door!). We then made our way to Whit's End, ordered ourselves a WodFamChocSod, and then rushed over to the main section of Focus on the Family where I was about to get a special treat: A private tour of the facilities!

For future reference, Focus on the Family is comprised of 4 buildings. The Administrations Building, which is where the bulk of the employees work, The Operations Building, which handles all mail and storage, The International Building, which is where I would be working, and The Welcome Center which I've already discussed. By scanning his ID into the access card reader, Nathan gave both of us access to the basement of the Administrations building. Here is where most Focus on the Family productions are recorded, edited, and produced (including Dr. James Dobson's show). And while Odyssey is actually recorded in studios in Burbank, the sound effects are added by the production engineers at Focus on the Family. First, Nathan took me to Dave Arnold's old studio. This room alone contains more Odyssey history than the Welcome Center 's many rooms combined. It certainly doesn't look like much at first, but the studio contains old reels, tapes, music tracks, and studio photographs scattered about in every nook and cranny. It's also home to the soundboard where hundreds of episodes have been edited together and connects to the most important room of them all: The Foley Room. It is here that the production engineers compose the magic behind the voices. The floor of the foley room is divided into several different blocks. Each block contains a different floor material which allows for the production engineer to create a different sound depending on what environment the character is walking on. Also, Connie, Whit, Tom, Eugene and all the major characters have his or her own pair of footwear. Then, standing in the corner of the room, sits a shelf that contains hundreds of various objects used in creating a believable atmosphere for the listener. Telephones, cups, typewriters, buckets, books, bottles, and shovels. These are only but a few of the objects you'll find readily available. There's even a counter that is used to create the sound of Whit placing a Sundae down for one of his customers. If you hear it in real life, the Odyssey production engineers will find a way to recreate it.

Nathan then took me to the room where Dr. Dobson records his broadcast. It was really amazing to actually walk around this room where so many influential people have left their mark. It was also the same room where Katie Leigh recalls her most embarrassing moment in which she and Will Ryan snuck in and thought they were alone. Katie started acting like she was Dr. Dobson and didn't realize there was an entire gallery of viewers watching her from the theatre. Thankfully the building was closed to the public at this point in time and I didn't embarrass myself at all.

From here, Nathan escorted me and my camera to the brand new foley studio that is being used for all future AIO and Radio Theatre productions It's a lot more organized then Dave's old studio and much larger. There two sets of stairs (one carpeted, one hardwood), a sink, bathtub, foliage, wooden and screen doors, a stove, cupboard, and lots of other things that I could go on and on about. All of the sound equipment that is used for recording is stored in another room since the hum from the machines is so strong that it interferes with the foleying. The production engineers also have a monitor inside the room that allows them to view wave levels and volumes while in the sound proof room.

Nathan then lead me to the other production engineer studios. Since Rob Jorgensen, Jonathan Crowe, and Mark Drury work on site (the other production engineers actually work out of their own studios), they have their own private mixing rooms in the basement. Rob has adorned his with microphones and old antique radios, Mark with Pixar toys, movie posters, and other things he's collected over the years, and Jonathan Crowe with some autographed character portraits from the 25th Anniversary.

Once we were finished the tour of the basement, Nathan offered to take me out to supper at an Italian restaurant called "Carrabbas". We ordered our drinks and I asked Nathan if the drinks were refillable. He assured me they were and I was happy. After all, many of the places I've visited in my other travels do not have bottomless drinks like they do where I'm from. Though when I asked about fast food restaurants, he said they weren't bottomless... which is kind of surprising. Up here, it's the fast food restaurants who started the trend of serving bottomless drinks to their patrons. I guess Canada truly is a great country :o) On a side note, the best soup I've ever had in my life was served to me at this moment. I'm not a big vegetable fan (in fact, I hate veggies), but this vegetable soup, described to me as "A spicy chicken noodle", was absolutely terrific. It was also quite filling... I had to doggy bag my main course (which was Lasagna) and eat it the following night!