Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee returned Thursday from a two-day “lake tour” to northern Ohio.”These trips are really a wonderful way for me to connect with the state,” said Gee, who took a similar tour to southern Ohio in July.Susan Jones, a director in the OSU Office of Communications, who toured with Gee, said OSU’s leader gets a lot of recognition on the trips.”People would say, ‘Oh, there’s Gordon Gee,’ and they’d do a doubletake,” she said.Among the tour’s highlights:Harvest Home, Akron ‹ The home includes two shelters for the homeless, one for men and the other for women and children. Four OSU extension agents offer food, nutrition and parenting classes. Run by a minister and his wife, the home helps people to get back into the work force.Sea World, Aurora ‹ Gee visited OSU alumni and student interns who work here. Jones said that alumni with degrees in horticulture provide landscaping, while those with degrees in biology or psychology train the whales. She said that trainers must spend a year creating trust with the whales before entering the water with them.”Whales crave attention,” Jones said. “If they behave in a way the trainers don’t like, the trainers ignore them.” Conversely, good behavior is rewarded with a helping of fish, she said.Gee said he was thrilled to have his picture taken with Shamu, Sea World’s star attraction.”She was not necessarily thrilled,” he added.Franz Theodore Stone Laboratory, Gibraltar Island ‹ This OSU-owned laboratory is located north of Port Clinton, a few hundred yards from Put-in-Bay. Open to high school and college students, it offers one-week courses in the life sciences, such as ichthyology (study of fish), insect biology, ecology and natural resources.Mark Berkman, a student member of the OSU Board of Trustees who accompanied Gee on the tour, took a course in oceanography at Stone Laboratory while in high school. He said the laboratory is one of OSU’s greatest assets.”It’s a wonderful opportunity for students to be immersed in science,” said Berkman. “It gives students an opportunity to study hands-on the natural processes responsible for many of the things we see, whether they be geological, glacial or volcanic.”Gee also visited students at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, and OSU extension agents and 4-H clubs at the Richland, Cuyahoga and Erie county fairs.