After selling lots and lots of cookies to raise money for Choir Tour, the day finally arrived for us to leave. We got up and left the house before 3:00 am and made it to the airport a little before 4:00 in the morning. Way too early!
We met all the kids and adults on our flight from CHS and then boarded our plane (the first flight out for CHS that day of four flights).
Trav fell asleep on the plane and got a nice mark on his forehead during the first flight. We flew into Dallas and then after lunch and a short layover on to New Orleans.
School buses picked us up (which we were expecting), but they had no baggage storage under the buses. Trav helped load all the luggage into the last several seats of the bus and then ended up sitting on it in the isle because there were no more seats. We were pretty squashed! They other trips to the airport they ended up sending an extra bus for the luggage.
Once we arrived at the hotel in New Orleans, we tried to figure out the room situation. They had spread us all over the hotel with all the adults on one floor. That wasn't going to work, so we did the best we could in getting adults on each floor and boys and girls on different floors. That evening after everyone had arrived we all went down to the River Walk shopping mall and food court for dinner. It was a beautiful setting right on the Mississippi River!
That night (after a good night's sleep) we got up bright and early for breakfast at the hotel (which was pretty yummy each morning). We met outside for a group meeting and then headed out on a very long, but fun day. Here we are meeting with all 145 of us.
Walking anywhere with 145 people is quite the process! (Or even getting on buses with that many people!) We walked about a mile to Mardi Gras World.
We took a tour of the facility. They are open year round and make floats for the Mardi Gras Parades as well as do work for others and for movies. Here is an artisan working on a peacock.
Some of the things that they've used on floats in years past.
A mini version of the Statue of Liberty.
Assorted props. They make them out of fiberglass, foam, and paper mache. It's a pretty cool process that they go through to make them.
Here is a float from this year's parade that they were starting to take apart for the next year.
The Bat Mobile.
Me, Conner and Travis
Pete's Dragon.
Parker (aka the Flash) with the Flash
My beautiful group of girls that I was in charge of chaperoing.
Colleen, Rachel, Vanessa, Daniela, Alyssa, Grace, Amarely & Kylie
I got the best group of girls! They were so great and so polite!
Parker and Victoria
After our tour of Mardi Gras World, we walked about 1-1 1/2 miles to the Natchez River Boat Cruise. We were running late and ended up having to run the last 500 yards or so. The boat was ready to leave without us! It was a beautiful cruise down the Mississippi River. I now know why they call it the Muddy River!
Phillip and Conner enjoying the fresh air!
The paddles on our boat cruise.
Trav and I enjoying the wind in our hair with the muddy Mississippi behind us.
A beautiful church in New Orleans.
We enjoyed listening about the sights that we were passing along the way. We also enjoyed a buffet lunch as well during our 2 hour ride.
Smile!
After we got off the river boat, we headed into the French Quarter for some shopping and a chance to listen to a jazz band play in Preservation Hall. This was one of the highlights of the trip. The six person jazz combo was incredible as we spent an hour listening to them talk about the evolution of jazz and play some music for us. Our accompanist, Joan even got to play the piano for a number with the band! It was awesome!
The front entrance to Preservation Hall.
After that, we had some free time to explore the French Quarter and do some shopping.
The nice thing about being a chaperone of high school students is that they head off on their own and you head off on your own and meet up every few hours. We had a nice stroll through the French Quarter and doing some window shopping.
On our walk, we headed down toward the river to go to Cafe Du Monde. We had vouchers for beignets and a drink.
It is crazy busy but a fun place to experience!
We caught up with our kids there.
Zach, Spencer, Trever, Parker, Nathan
Conner, Thomas and Brandt.
Trav and I found a table and enjoyed sharing an order of hot beignets and hot chocolate! We took our other order to go. They were sooo yummy!
The balcony's are so beautiful with the wrought iron and hanging baskets.
For dinner that night we all went to the Hard Rock Cafe. The best part of the night was the kids singing along to the music videos. Nothing like a choir of 130 singing along at the top of their lungs!
After dinner we walked back down to the riverfront for a ghost walk tour. We broke into small groups and walked around the French Quarter for 2 hours listening to ghost stories from year's past. We also saw some things we wished we hadn't seen in the process, but hopefully those memories will fade! :)
Something scary (or tragic) happened here ... but I can't remember what.
The church as we were heading back to the river front after our tour. This was a beautiful scene of Jesus on the front of the church.
On our walk back to our hotel (after 10 miles of walking today) there was this memorial of Hurricane Katrina.
After another good night of sleep we boarded buses (thank goodness) to head to the Oak Alley Plantation. It was so beautiful and serene! The trees were so beautiful!
At the end of those oaks was the Mississippi River.
We went on a tour of the plantation with our tour guides in period clothing.
The house at one point before being restored was overrun with cows!
They did a beautiful job of restoring it.
Oak Alley
The gardens
The view from the front.
We had lunch there and then boarded the buses (a little late) to head to our swamp tour.
Because of traffic (and because we were a little late leaving) we got to our swamp tour a little late. Our group got right on the boat and we headed out to see and feed the alligators. We all got a chance to hold Elvis the alligator on our tour.
An albino alligator.
A picture of our family after the swamp tour! That night the kids practiced at a church (which we were over 2 hours late to) while we ironed a ton of dresses for the competition the next day. The kids came back and we had boxed BBQ dinners at about 9:30 that night. Long day!
The next day was competition time! Here are Parker and Conner dressed in their Concert Choir outfits. Looking handsome!
My beautiful girls again.
The performed at the NOCCA Institute in New Orleans. Here is the Concert Choir performing.
Ladies First went next and then Show Choir finished off the day. They did a great job! We were very proud of them despite some criticism from the judges.
The Seniors in Show Choir
The boys of Show Choir showing off.
Parker and his lovely show choir partner, Christina with some fancy moves.
After the competition (and some words of caution about scores not being great from Mr. Emigh) we had some free time.
Trav and I hopped on the trolley to go to the downtown area of the French Quarter. We may or may not have gone to Cafe Du Monde again for some beignets. :)
That night for the awards ceremony they had a dinner and masquerade ball.
The boys with their masks.
Parker and Victoria (in case you couldn't tell with the masks on).
The event was held at the Sugar Mill (an old sugar mill) right down the street from our hotel.
It was a cool venue. We had another yummy meal (we ate well on this trip) and then they had the awards. Concord High didn't get scored very well (which is very unusual for them) but they were very good sports. Mr. Emigh said that the Heritage people (in charge of the competition) were not happy with how the judging went and that at least one of the judges would not be asked back. They sent a letter of apology to CHS and are having the tapes of their competition re-evaluated by other judges.
After the awards there was dancing. It got over at 10:00 and we all headed back to the hotel for one last meeting. The kids were allowed to stay up all night. Trav and I decided to sleep. We had to be downstairs about 3:30 in the morning to get our luggage loaded on the buses so we could get to the airport by 5:00 am for our flight. The kids slept all the way home! They were exhausted. Travis and I enjoyed chaperoning and got more sleep then we were expecting. They asked us if we were going to go again next year but we didn't commit yet.
**Update - Our choirs were re-evaluated by some of the top judges and all earned GOLD (past scores in parenthesis)! Concert Choir ended up with an average of 90 (69) , Ladies First an average of 94 (89) and Show Choir an average of 95 (84)!
No comments:
Post a Comment