Aloha!
The boys are having a rest period now so I finally have a
few minutes to throw some Sugarland on the IPod and catch everyone-up on
yesterday’s awesomeness. In my 19 years
with the Choirboys, this was one of the best days we’ve ever had. It started a little something like this…
With all the boys being in a motel for the two days we are
in the Niagara Falls Area, (we are technically in Tonawanda, NY – a suburb of
Buffalo), I work them up about 7:15 and readied them in their travel uniforms
for our church service in nearby Lockport, NY where we had our concert the
night before. The First Presbyterian
Church in Lockport was very good to us during our stay and our two
performances. They took very good care
of us while we were with them, including a full breakfast spread for the boys
this morning.
Our church service went very well. Many parishioners were commenting and still
giving donations to support the program from the concert the night before. One elderly lady mentioned that this was the
best choir concert she had ever been to.
That was very nice. (One story
from the night before I somehow forgot to mention: One man came-up after the concert looking for
Ethan. He had to meet the boy who was
doing such a great job smiling on stage.
During the course of the past week or so, Ethan has found a new gear on
stage and has turned into a rock star smiling machine on stage! It’s been fun to watch, and having this kind
of reinforcement from a perfect stranger did a ton for his confidence on stage –
fun stuff to see!)
For those of you that may be unfamiliar with upstate New
York, Lockport is a major town on the Erie Canal and the site of locks for
raising and lowering boats on the Erie Canal.
To our luck, the national heritage site museum was located directly
across the street from the church and the canal was a block past that. Instead of rushing to the Niagara Falls, (not
like they were going anywhere anyways…), we spent an hour going through the
museum. In that hour, we also brought
them in two groups down to the locks so they could watch them working. Most boys had no clue these even existed or
had any idea why they were even necessary.
It was a fun way to educate the boys and a great museum. (Thank you to the museum for letting the boys
go through free of charge.) Our timing
was great as well, as a small boat was going through the locks, so we got to
watch it rise and move into the next lock through the enormous metal gates.
After the museum, we boarded the bus and Rockin’ Rodney
drove us out to Niagara Falls. The
previous day, we found a nice picnic area on Goat Island, so we headed back
there again to eat the lunches provided to us from First Presbyterian in
Lockport. The highlight of the two
lunches was probably the high number of seagulls circling around to scarf-up on
little scraps left behind by the boys.
It was a little difficult to keep the boys focused on getting more
nutrition than the birds, but we managed.
Our first stop after every meal is the bathroom. It seems like all we do sometimes is consume
things or return them to the Earth on this tour. The side effects of traveling with 34
boys. We then decided it would be best
to stop at the “Cave of the Winds” first.
It’s actually not a cave at all, but more of a deck that brings you under
the American Falls. It might be the best
$7/boy we will spend the entire tour.
For starters, we went through line and got our ponchos. As a rule of thumb, (except in the Army), if
you need a poncho, it’s going to be fun.
Whether it’s front row at a Gallagher show or “Cave of the Winds”, you’re
probably going to be smiling when you are wearing a colorful garbage bag. To make this an even better deal, we were
each given a pair of sandals to keep.
How cool is that!
The line was about 35 minutes long, but it seemed to go by
quickly, for a 35 minute line. An
elevator shaft brings you down to the bottom of the falls and a long deck
brings you right up to the point where the water hits the rocks. We weren’t technically “in” the falls, but
don’t ruin it for the boys. These boys
were as happy as I have ever seen a group of boys in my life. Sam Strub was smiling and giggling so hard I
didn’t think we were ever going to get him back! The boys spent a good 15 minutes getting
soaked from head-to-toe in the spray from the falls on the Hurricane Deck. It’s something they will never forget for the
rest of their lives. Seeing their faces
and excitement is something I will never forget either.
Soaking wet and faces sore from smiling so hard, we took a
few more pictures and made the journey back up the elevator. After a water break at the bus, we ate a
snack and made our way about a mile to The Maid of the Mist. It was probably a miscalculation on our part
to put these two events in this order.
The Maid of the Mist was not nearly as cool as the Cave was, but the
boys had fun anyways, sitting in the middle of the Horseshoe Falls. It was one of the moments where we gathered
the boys together and reminded them to look around and be proud of where their
hard work, dedication, and musicianship has brought them
Our Maid of the Mist tickets allowed us to go in the giant
observation tower jutting over the Niagara River with a fantastic view of the
falls. We were really high up there! Naturally, the only way we could get out of
the place was to go through the gift store.
Several hundred of your dollars later, they let us leave. I’m not sure how Rodney did it, (and I
probably don’t want to know), but about 300 yards away from our gift store was
a Land of Lakes Choirboys bus, cooled and ready to whisk us away from this
place.
We called ahead and made some reservations for the Old
Country Buffet that was less than a mile from our motel. The boys literally gorged themselves on every
kind of food you can imagine. We let
them go a little more crazy than usual, particularly on the desserts. They earned it.
We made it back the motel around 8:00pm. The boys turned in their travel uniforms so
Adam and Kenny could bring them up to the Laundromat to get them cleaned for
the next few days, since we are all together and will not have the availability
of host home laundry help. Adam learned
an important lesson on the first dryer he tried: the “25” on there signifies the price of the
machine, not the number of quarters that machine needs in order to
operate. One of the dryers went a really
long time – you can guess which one.
The boys were showered and in bed by 10:00, still giddy with
excitement from the awesome day that was.
Tomorrow we board on the bus and head to Sandusky, Ohio – the home of
Cedar Point, which as you can imagine, is not something the boys are looking
forward to at all. ;-)
The boys are continuing to make many great friends and new
fans along their tour this year. It’s
remarkable how they can win people over in such a short period of time. The manners, singing, and experience these
boys are getting are so refreshing to so many.
We are still trying to raise funds to help support the tour and
organization. With the help of so many
generous people, we have gotten about half way to our goal, but time is
running-out. Please make a donation here (http://givemn.razoo.com/story/2012concerttour)
if you support the great experience of these boys and want to see us continue
to be able to write these blogs for years to come!
Until tomorrow,
P.J.
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