I survived the trip to Portland!

I survived our Honor Choir Portland trip! Yes, it's a miracle! And no, we weren't even allowed to drink.

We began bright and early on Thursday, leaving at the ungodly hour of eight am. Stopped at this adorable little park outside of Oakridge for food + games, get some energy out, + make sure the kids were nice and sweaty and stinky for the rest of the ride up.

Got up to Salem only an hour late for our tour of the Capital building (due to an accident on the highway) and with only minor motion sickness. None of the kids threw up (thank goodness - that would have made the trip officially the tenth circle of hell!). Got out for our scheduled ninety minute tour of the Capitol building, which was really very cool. We even walked up the 500,984,094,209,285,984 steps up to the top of the rotunda (or maybe it was actually only 122 - same difference!) The kids were relatively well behaved, especially for having been cooped up in the bus for several hours. Of course, the highlight of the trip was the ten foot square overpriced gift shop, crammed with all 36 choir kids spending money like there's no tommorow.

Lastly, headed to Portland to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner, which was high on kid friendly ambience, if the food was not fabulous. Anyone who has not been there should really just drive by and pop in to see the cool restaraunt (and amazing stained glass, made by the brother of a friend of mine). Again, the kids were amazingly well behaved.

Finally checked into our hotel (Embassy Suites), amid several snide comments. Leann said later that it was probably because I looked like I was a senior in high school, but I was offended nonetheless. The guy helping the manager get us checked in obviously thought I looked like a complete idiot who did not know basics of how to handle children and thought I needed to be informed that (insert snotty tone here) "Embassy Suites has a quiet after ten pm policy, so we would appreciate it if you would follow that and inform your chaperones of that." In an equally sweet tone of voice, I informed him that the Klamath County Honor Choir has a policy of in bed by 9:30 and lights out at 10 pm, so that wouldn't be an issue. Do I LOOK like an idiot??? Don't answer that.

So, got everyone checked in into their respective hotel rooms and went down to the pool - picture 36 screaming, splashing kids in a pool, with seven advil-popping, earplug wearing, chaperones around the perimeter. Bedtime could not come too soon!

Got up bright and early to head to our first performance of the day, at Pleasant Valley Elementary School. While the kids were practically asleep on their feet, they did very well. Went to lunch, stopped at the convention center to do a sound check and ask for the millionth time if everyone had their black and white clothes for the evening's performance. We headed to OMSI to have a great time before going off to the convention center again to get changed and warmed up for our big performance! Have to admit, I was even a little intimidated when we walked into that huge ballroom filled with 2,000 people!!!!!! The kids did perfect, I didn't see a single mistake and we were all so proud of them!

All in all, a great trip - great kids, fun stuff to do, and of course Steve and Leann and I make a great team! Hooray for Honor Choir - and hooray for sleep, which I now have a newfound love of, having been rather deprived of it for some time!!