Detroit/Toronto Tour - Day 1 (Wednesday, April 13, 2016)

After a day of school, the auditioned choirs quickly changed into comfy bus clothes and gathered in the choir room before setting off on our journey. Before boarding the bus, students and chaperones made a large circle around the room, and joined hands as we bathed our trip in prayer. Seniors Daryus Vaughan and Hannah Thiessen prayed for the group, and then Mr. King led us in a singing of the Doxology.

We boarded the bus and met our bus driver, Humberto. (He's the best!) Mrs. Woody quickly started up a conversation with him in Spanish. And throughout the trip, some of our more fluent students followed suit. It was a great way for our AACS community to begin building a relationship with our bus driver.

We sailed down the highway and stopped for dinner at a service plaza along the New Jersey Turnpike. Most of the group members formed a long line a Subway, while other less patient eaters tried some of the other food options like Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, hot dogs, and pizza. (Also, senior Brooke Wadsworth reliably hit up the Starbucks, and many others did the same.)

Once we were back on the bus, Mr. King led us in a game of "Choir Tour Speed Dating," in which students had to quickly memorize one another's answers to some random questions like "If I were an ice cream flavor, I would be..." or "When I grow up, I want to be...." Some of the many fun facts we learned: Kaitlyn McCollum wants to be Captain America when she grows up, Hannah Gott and Mia Hardesty have been working very hard to establish a secret handshake, and Annaliese Wilford's favorite color is seafoam green!

After the game, the bus voted to watch The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings, which turned out to be a good way to kill three hours. We made one final bathroom stop in Ohio before turning our direction north and crossing the border into Michigan. The bus pulled up to the hotel just past 1:00 am, and we quickly sent kids off to their rooms, did final "room checks," and got some much-needed sleep.

After breakfast today, we plan to perform at The Rivers at Grosse Pointe, a retirement community on the eastern side of Detroit. Then, we have a clinic with Noah Horn at Wayne State University in downtown Detroit, and we finish our day with an evening concert at Ward Presbyterian Church in the western suburb of Northville. The students will be staying with hosts from Ward Church tonight.

(I apologize for the lack of pictures in this post. We spent most of the day on the bus, so there weren't a lot of "photo ops". I will definitely include more pictures in future posts!)

The groups circled up for a prayer before our departure!