Instead of doing a big tour for the entire band program, this year the band director set his sights on a tour focused on the indoor percussion team and planned a smaller, shorter tour to Las Vegas for all the band students. Matthew had absolutely no desire to go to Vegas so way back last fall, he decided he was going to tour with the choir instead this year. As time went by, the Las Vegas tour was scrapped for an ever shorter and more cost-effective trip to Lagoon. But even that plan failed to come to fruition, so Matthew was thrice glad that he opted early on to travel with the choir.
Southern California was the destination for this year’s choir tour and although Matthew was there last year with the band, that tour was so disappointing for him in so many ways that he was actually pretty excited to get a chance to do it again. Last year, the group of friends he was with was focused on the rides at Disneyland, so all Matthew got to do was stand in lines and take rides. He missed out on all the other charms the magical kingdom has to offer. This year he got to rectify that and did some shopping, saw some sights, ate more Dole whip, and even made it to Cars land, something that he was sorely disappointed about missing last year.
Last year’s tour only allotted the kids about an hour at the beach, but this year they spent an entire afternoon basking in the sun and playing in the sand. Matthew spotted a pod of dolphins during their time at the beach, which is always cool but extra exciting as he has spent a considerable amount of time on his hobby of wildlife photography, which he has come to love.
The band teacher forgot to register for the festival they had planned to participate in last year, so they didn’t even get to create any music on that tour. But this year Matthew got to sing in a festival in which our high school did tremendously well, coming away with the best choir program award as well as the best all around ensemble for the madrigals.
Another highlight of this year’s trip included enjoying all the charm of Camp Snoopy at Knott’s Berry Farm. Snoopy is one of Matthew’s favorite cartoon characters, so it was a fun stop for him. And my sister Esther, who is a Snoopy fan as well, was mightily jealous!
Due to some problems with one of the replacement bus drivers, the kids didn’t make it home until nearly 1:00 this morning rather than the anticipated 9:00 p.m. yesterday arrival time. Matthew was completely wiped out. I woke him up twice so he could go to school as he had planned, but when he failed to get up after those dual wake up calls, I decided he probably just needed to sleep. I think that assessment was correct, because later this afternoon when I mentioned waking him up several times, he admitted with some surprise that he didn’t even remember them happening even though he sat up and looked at me and everything. 😂
I hope Matthew came away from this tour with more fond memories than he did last year. And despite the physical and mental strain that such a whirlwind tour takes on him due to worries about food, inability to sleep well, etc., I certainly hope he sees it as time well spent. I certainly would. I mean, doesn’t eating Dole whip at Disneyland with his friends kind of make all of it worthwhile?
No comments:
Post a Comment