Big Fun in the Big Easy

For the past three years, which just happens to be the entire time he has been at our high school, our high school band director has been telling the kids he wanted to take them to New Orleans on tour. This year was the year and Daniel was extraordinarily excited. He just got back and unlike Nathan, he had a fabulous time and didn't feel like he missed out on any of the important stuff. Since he was there and I wasn't, he has chosen to be my guest blogger.

This spring our band got the opportunity to go to New Orleans for our band tour this year, and it is the best tour to be my last tour! We flew out there, so it was my first time flying. I’m a huge airplane nerd, so the flight was super cool. My overall impression of the area is that most of the people are really nice, I could get used to the altitude (because I could actually breath without difficulties for the most part), and there is jazz and music literally everywhere. Seriously, I could walk around the French Quarter and see and hear 8 different songs from 8 different bands within about 2 minutes of each other. The music was the part I’m going to miss the most. The only thing I hated about the trip was the over-abundance of cigarette smoke and alcoholic beverages. That made it really hard to find lunch in the French Quarter, because 90% of the places where they serve food are bars of 21 years or older. The French Quarter, aside from the tobacco and alcohol, was a really cool place which we got to spend a long time wandering around. There was music, food, and small shops everywhere. It was quite a culturally diverse place!

Some highlights from the trip included the clinics we got at Layola and Tulane Universities. We got a bunch of really helpful information that we can apply to our music. We also went to Marti Gras World and saw the floats and was able to compete at making our own. 

We also went and saw a historic plantation home, which was quite the fascinating taste of older fashioned life. 

One of the best parts of the trip as a whole was the time I got to spend with my friends, though. I definitely can’t complain about my company!

My absolutely favorite part of the trip, though, was Sunday night. That night we went on a steamboat river dinner cruise through the Mississippi River. We had a dinner with gumbo and jambalaya while being serenaded by the Dukes of Dixieland. They are a famous New Orleans band that I love listening to, and I was totally nerding out when I found out. The best part was that my band director arranged to have me and some of my classmates in the jazz band to play in one of their breaks with their equipment and then to play with them! We played some of our combo pieces and we got quite the audience reaction. Then we played When the Saints Go Marching In with the Dukes. That was the best part of the trip, to be honest. It was super cool! Afterwards, I got an autographed CD with all 6 of their autographs. I had When the Saints Go Marching In stuck in my head for weeks afterwards.

On the whole, my trip to New Orleans was super fun! I had a blast, and I’m glad I got to do it during high school!

A couple more tidbits about Daniel's tour. He got to go on a tour of the swamp and hold an alligator.

He also had the opportunity to walk through the Jazz Museum. He said it was completely underwhelming, but he had a good time anyway!

And he tried on some fancy hats while souvenir shopping. He didn't buy it though, probably because he has no where to wear it around here. :-)