Seattle Tour Part 4

The 3rd day of our Seattle trip was the music competition day. It began with another early morning, starting with continental breakfast provided by hotel. Then the kids got dressed in their musical attire and we loaded up on the bus to head to a high school south of Seattle for choir competition. 

Our music tour was organized by the company Heritage World Strides, and they conducted the music competitions as well. The choirs and bands competed at different high schools on April 26. There were other groups there representing schools from Alabama, California, Washington, Idaho, and Canada. Both the choral groups and the bands were scored by a panel of 3 judges, and were given feedback in a clinic by one of the judges following their performance. Then the judges' scores were placed on a scale that rated the groups to determine their final placement, which was determined later that day.

When we first arrived at the school where the choir was to compete, there were a few groups ahead of us, so we watched their performances and clinics.

 

Then we went to a practice room and rehearsed our songs. The choir sang 3 songs: 2 a cappella , and one with piano accompaniment. John asked me about a week and half before the trip to be the pianist for that song. It was a beautiful, but tricky song. The accompaniment isn't constant during the whole song, and the rhythms are tricky, and it has lots of octaves played during a fast section. I wasn't very confident in my abilities in doing it justice, so I rehearsed every afternoon with the choir the week leading up to the competition (during afternoon recess I had a 15-minute break, so I would drive over to the high school, run into the building, practice the song 2 or 3 times, run back to the car, and drive back to my building at the elementary school--always late! It was a chaotic rehearsal schedule!).  I was grateful for the chance to rehearse it before going on stage with the group. But then I totally botched it during our short practice time...so I was scared that I would ruin it for the kids.

The kids looked amazing on stage in their formal attire. Their first song was an African song, and it sounded amazing (I don't know the spelling, but it's pronounced Bone-Say-Ah-Bo)!!

The second song was the one that I accompanied them on: "Keep Your Lamps". There was percussion on this song, too: Charis used the shaker and Eli played the Bongos. I didn't do my best, but I tried! The kids were still awesome, despite my flaws at accompanying them!

Their 3rd song was "Lonesome Road", which they'd sung the night before at a bus stop in downtown Seattle as we were waiting for our tour bus to pick us up.  It's very moving and so beautiful! There was one little old lady waiting for her city bus to pick her up, and she cried as the students sang it! Here's a clip of that song:

The judge that gave us our clinic after the students' performance was very energetic and I loved hearing his tips!

After our choral group was done, we listened to one more school's choir, and then we left. We drove to a mall and ate at their food court. When everyone got off the bus, I opted to stay on the parked bus in the expansive parking lot, and I called a friend. It was nice to have some quiet, alone time. Because the bus was SO old, the door can't close from the outside. So when the bus driver leaves the bus, the bus door stays open. As I was sitting on the bus in that parking lot talking to my friend, two different black men at different times tried to get on. The first one was looking for a different bus and was confused about where it was at. The second one pulled up in an SUV with big silver wheels and dark windows, and I think he was casing the bus. He was acting suspicious, and he actually got on the bus and was standing next to me talking to me as he was looking around. He was all "Where is everyone? What kind of a bus is this? Who is on this bus?". I was so grateful that I 1. stayed on the bus and 2. was already talking to someone on the phone, so I felt more confident in the situation but I admit I was really scared.  After he left, the bus driver came back with her food to eat on the bus, and I told her what had just happened. She said she eyed two black men walking down aisles of cars looking in windows. Moments later, a cop drove into the parking lot, and was slowly driving down each parking lane. I was totally creeped out, and didn't feel safe on the bus, so I decided to go inside and get some lunch. 

After we left the mall (which was way behind schedule at this point because some students went shopping at stores inside the mall after lunch and didn't notice the time), we drove to another high school that's southeast of Seattle. This time, it was the band students' turn to perform. We were the last group of the day to compete, so when we arrived (which was RIGHT before our scheduled time to perform because we'd gotten there later than planned), there was nobody left in the audience. We cheered our hearts out for our hometown high school band!

The movie "Catching Fire" had just been released on DVD, so the kids in our group kept doing the whistle and hand sign the whole time we were in Seattle. It was quite comical...when our band took the stage, one of our youth in the audience did the Hunger Games whistle tune, and this is what we all instantly did:

I took this shot without the flash so you could see the band on stage
in correlation to where we were in the audience.

The band also performed 3 numbers. I was so proud of them, especially this big boy of mine!

The last song was a jazz song with lots of soloists. They did an awesome job and I loved watching and listening to them all play! 

The band had different judges than the choir: this time the judge who did the clinic was an older gentleman who was funny, but a bit of a rambler:

We got a group shot of the band after their clinic was finished.

And then once again I FORCED Ammon to take a photo that I wanted: the two of us together (don't let the smile fool you...).

It was a good feeling to have all of our musical competitions done!

Since we didn't get a large group photo of the kids all together wearing their nice outfits, we told all the kids that as soon as we got back to the hotel they needed to put their dresses & suits back on for a picture, and then they could all change into casual clothes for the evening. Although there were lots of grumbling, they did it... I set up an area in front of the hotel that would fit 40+ kids quickly. Since the band kids had worn their uniforms all day, they didn't have to change--they just had to wait!

They all looked so sharp!!! All but 2 of the kids came back with their dresses and suits, and we snapped a few quick photos:

And then of course, somebody once again did the Hunger Games tune whistle, and Tess immediately sacrificed herself and the crowd united with their hand signs:

This time it took a little longer for the students to change into their casual wear for the evening. We spent a lot of time that day on the bus just WAITING for members of our group to arrive!

We drove to the Pier and waited for our ferry ride. This was also scheduled by the Heritage World Strides company. They had arranged for all the musical groups that competed to take a ferry ride across the Puget Sound to Blake Island. We waited on the docks with a whole bunch of other musical youth groups, many of which we'd seen at competition that day or at Hard Rock Cafe the night before.

There was some kind of a malfunction on the boat, so our wait was a little longer than what we anticipated. So I went shopping at a few nearby shops, and I bought a few items! I thought this sign in one of the store windows was so fitting!!

Finally, it was our turn to load the ferry!!! We rode the boat 'Goodtime II" which is owned by the company Argosy Cruises.

Goodbye Seattle!

Hello ocean water!

This was the first time that several people in our group saw the ocean's water, and they were pretty excited about that. 

There were 2 levels on the boat, and a majority of our group sat on benches on the bottom level:

But not me! I wanted to experience this ferry ride to the full extent, because it's something that I've wanted to do for years and never had the chance--so the entire 45 minute ride to the island, I rode on the top level OUTSIDE! Despite the bitter wind (thankfully I had a windbreaker so I didn't freeze), I was super happy!!!

This is the new hat I bought at a store along the Pier.

This was the only time we experienced typical Seattle weather: it was cold, windy, and rained that evening. Some of the students braved the top outdoor deck for small sections at a time, and I enjoyed taking photos of the kids that did!

Our destination was the Tillicum Village on Blake Island. I'd never heard of this place before, but it was truly an amazing experience, and I recommend it to anyone who's taking a trip to Seattle:

They made THE BEST smoked Salmon I've ever had! This is how they do it--on Cedar Stakes around Alder Wood fires inside their facility:

After everyone made it inside the enormous dining hall, we were seated with our groups in rows of long tables. The place was full with about 350 people consisting of both students and chaperones. It was a tight fit with all of us in there--I literally could not push out my chair without knocking into the person behind me!

The dinner meal we ate there was the best of our whole trip. The menu was smoked salmon (no words can express how delicious it was!), harvest grain rice with seasonings, whole grain bread discs (they were addicting!), green salad with dried cranberries and blue cheese and a raspberry vinaigrette dressing, polenta with a wild mushroom ragout (a huge hit!), and a fresh fruit salad with strawberry honey dipping sauce. We all got our food buffet-style from the serving tables. It didn't take long for everyone in the room to be served, which was so impressive considering the amount of people that all arrived at the same time. 

After dinner, we watched a performance done by the island Indian tribe on the front stage. The lights turned off for the show, but each table had tea lights so you could see if you were still eating. They danced, and told ancient stories from their tribe. It was so interesting! Well...it was interesting to me. Ammon slept through most of it.

After the performance was through, the lights came back on, and the awards ceremony for the competition began. The judges’ scores were placed on a scale that rated the groups as a gold, silver, bronze, or festival award. The Show Choir was in a division with 6 other choral groups, and earned a Silver 2^nd place. The Savage Band was the only group in its division, and received a Silver rating. I couldn't get a good photo, but here's Sara and Ian picking up the Choir's award. Do you see what Sara is doing?!! Everyone in our group saw it too, and everyone responded with the same hand sign again! We were definitely unified!!!

When the awards ceremony was over, we were all given chocolates in the shape of Salmon fish on our way out. We were greeted outside by the dark, cold, dreary rain to catch the ferry back to Seattle.

It was late and we were all so tired. The 15 hour days were really catching up to us at this point! I sat inside on the way back to the island, on the top level of the boat. I slept for part of the ride back, but awoke to this sight:

The picture really doesn't do it justice. Seattle is gorgeous at night, especially arriving at it from the water's angle! We found our bus waiting for us, and after taking the wrong way multiple times trying to get out of downtown Seattle, our bus driver FINALLY got us on the right road back to the hotel!