Children's Music Mission Day 2/Day of 2's: 2 Concert, 2 Aquariums, 2 Pieces of Pizza, 2 Scoops of Ice Cream

The day began a little early this morning. While my youth sometimes require a little, uhm, encouragement to get up, I have to tell these guys to stay in bed. I felt lucky to make it to 6:30 with them.

One of the reasons I love Camp Lookout for retreats (and lodging for this music mission) is that they have a lot of activities ready to play. Right outside of the dining hall, there's a covered four square court. Four square is a good game for kids because it's fast pace, and the line moves quickly for those who are out. Some of the kids are pretty cut-throat about the whole thing! It was fun, though.

Not pictured: the line. Because I'm at the front of it.

Breakfast included sausage, biscuits, eggs, sausage gravy and chocolate gravy. Don (the camp director here) said you either love it or you hate it. I haven't been brave enough to try it, but many of the kids loved it.

After breakfast we played a couple of games and then hopped on the bus for the first of the twos: two concerts.

Both of our concert venues are repeats for us. In fact, we have now sung at these venues each of the last three years. Today when some of the residents asked me to return, it was kindof nice to be able to say, "Absolutely! We'll most likely be back about this time next year!" That actually one of the most common things people say to me.

Something of a first today as well. I've had family meet us at our concerts before, but they usually check it out ahead of time. Today I got a text as we were on our way to say that Zach's dad and brother were in town, and could they come to our concert. Sure thing! Naturally we got a picture.

And after we sang, they gave us treats. Our host said, "Yes, we like to sugar them up and send them home to their parents!" I said, "But you're not sending them home to their parents. You're sending them on a bus with me!" She laughed heartily and assured me of her confidence that I could handle it.

Nobody ever just takes one.

We went to lunch after the first concert. I don't have pictures from that because there really wasn't time. When it was time to leave, I asked the bus driver how he was going to get out of the parking lot, and he said, "You're going to go stop traffic so I can back across the road and then head right out." I don't know if you've ever stopped traffic like that, but it's thrilling. You step out confidently, stick your hands up...and people pay attention. For a moment there, the whole universe was mine to control! And it occurred to me: this is what it would be like if people actually watched the conductor.

Our second concert of the day was even better than the first.

At the end of our night we talked about the concerts, and many of the kids shared some of what the audience had shared with them. We sang to former choir directors and former singers. We sang to people who liked different songs (the doxology because it was familiar to them or halle halle hallelujah because they followed the words the best). With each concert, the kids get more comfortable interacting and listening. If they start in 3rd grade, they will have 10 years of doing this sort of thing over something like 60 concerts or more!

After the concert it was on to the next of the twos: two aquariums. Well, not really two aquariums. It's two building that make up the Tennessee Aquarium. Unpopular opinion: I like this aquarium more than the Georgia one.

The first building we entered was the salt water building. There are some very cool exhibits in there.

Then we headed to the fresh water building.

I need to give props to the aquarium staff, too. Right after the picture below, one of our students wound up with a wet shirt after, let's call it an unfortunate "accident." (He did not fall in!). His shirt was quite wet, though. The staff member asked if we'd like to give him another shirt, and when I said yes, he went to a cabinet, dug out a shirt in the correct side, and gave it to us without charge! Mind you, the shirt said, "TN Aquarium 2015" on it, but it was dry, and it was free! Great job finding a use for those dated shirts, guys!

I have way too many pictures of the kids at the aquarium. They were so into it! If you want to see them, catch me after church one day, and I'll show them all to you. I was amused by the one below, though. It's a picture of someone taking a picture.

Once we were finished in the aquarium, we headed over to the Incline Railway. We wound up having to wait a little extra because of some unfortunate instructions. The natives were getting restless...

I think the Incline Railway is really cool. It's not really a ride per se. We actually used it to go up the mountain so we could eat dinner. The views out of the cab are really impressive, though, and it's a cool experience.

A couple of chaperones took one for the team and went to pick up the pizza and meet us at the top. I had ordered from the place across the street from the Railway. They found a park near the top station, and we walked down there. The weather was absolutely fabulous. Sunny and warm with a nice cool breeze. I don't have good pictures of the meal itself. By the time I had eaten, they were done and running around. Since my primary goal at this point was to wear them all the way out, I just let them go and figured I'd get a picture another time.

Mad props to the good folks at Mr. T's pizza. I asked them how much pizza I should buy for the number we have. They said, "We think you need 6 large pizzas." That's what I bought. This is what was left: two pieces.

I took a picture of Mr. Harold, our bus driver. Listen. Having a good driver who is on time and ready when you need him is absolutely critical to an effective trip, and Harold has been very reliable for us. He let me take his picture.

He's always wearing the vest.
He did not lend it to me when I stopped traffic.

Here are a couple of pictures I took on our ride back to Camp Lookout. The first one was out the side of the bus and off the mountain through one of the clearings. It really is beautiful up here on the mountain.

Inside the bus, though, there's..whatever this is. Something about sharks and various other animals competing to eat the rock candy. I don't really know what was going on here, but I felt like I should document it. Maybe I'll send it to the Discovery Channel for shark week...

And then, our final 2: 2 scoops of ice cream. Full disclosure, we started with one, but nearly everyone came back for a second. And since I'm a super nice choir director, I was happy to give them some more. You'll note the hot water for the scoops. That makes it easy. I'm a professional scooper...I worked at Baskin Robbins. Though we did have a discussion about proper scoop technique because one of the chaperones worked it...I believe it was Hagen Daaz. I'm not even sure how to spell that, actually, but I'm confident the BR technique is superior.

Props now to the Camp Lookout staff, who really went the extra mile when I asked for ice cream. I told them I wanted to have the stuff to make sundaes, and they delivered! Whipped cream, 3 flavors of syrup, two kinds of sprinkles, a jar of cherries...everything we needed for a full sundae bar! 

Except waffle bowls and sugar cones...which Lamar procured for us. Lamar is a man who knows how to get things. Tasty stuff.

In the morning [checks clock...it's 11:34, so if I get this posted soon that will still be accurate!] we are headed to First Centenary UMC to sing at their 10:45 Traditional Service. It's streamed, so if you want to see us, here's the link: https://firstcentenary.com/the-sanctuary-livestream It looks to me like after the service they'll probably archive that somewhere else. If I can find that link, I'll post it tomorrow. We'll be singing a number of our songs, including joining with the kids choir of First Centenary for one! And their Director of Music and Worship will be accompanying us, since Leanne headed back this afternoon to play for Oak Grove. Lunch after...and then we head home.

Whew! It was a long day, but it was a great day. I think we're all good and tired. And we are good-tired.