SVCC Tour: Day One, Part One

The pace of life during the first half of June has been a far cry from the usual It's Close Enough to Summer to Be Really Relaxed attitude that we normally enjoy at this time of year.  Instead, it has more closely resembled the height of busy-ness during, for example, the Christmas season.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, especially because the three major events that have contributed to this packed schedule--the homeschool convention we attended the first weekend in June, Josiah's 12th birthday, and the SVCC tour the second weekend--were all such wonderful occurrences that were definitely worth the extra effort and time needed to pull them off.

I have lots of pictures and words to share from all three events, which isn't a bit surprising to those who know my tendency to overdo both verbally and pictorially.  ;-)  Rather than starting with the first event and working chronologically, I'm going to begin with the most recent: the SVCC tour to Richmond and Virginia Beach/Norfolk.

This was Josiah's first time going on tour with the choir--or any kind of tour, for that matter--and I was really glad that I was able to go along (our fundraising efforts last summer, like this lemonade stand, actually helped to make this possible).  :)  But I admit that as the day approached, I was feeling overwhelmed and anxious about it (yes, even grown-ups get nervous).  ;-)  The fact that there seemed to be SO MUCH TO DO to get Josiah and I ready for the trip--and the rest of the family ready for our absence--compounded my stress and made it difficult to think about how enjoyable the trip was going to be.  I'm guessing the four hours of sleep I got the night before the trip began didn't do much to help my mental state going into it.  ;-)  But as I talked with other parent chaperons, I discovered that most of them were in the same boat as I was, with having gotten about four hours of sleep the night before!  I had been kicking myself for not having been more prepared ahead of time, but I stopped kicking myself when I realized I wasn't alone in my predicament.  :)

After I said goodbye to my four younger children and got in the minivan for Jeff to drop Josiah and me off at the bus on his way to work, I began to relax.  At that point, I had done as much preparing as I could do.

I had no idea how much fun the next four days would be.

I had no idea that being a chaperon on a choir tour would feel more like a vacation than any vacation I've taken with my family in recent years!

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why.  For four days, I didn't do any cooking, cleaning, clothes-washing, dish-washing, gardening, diaper-changing, childish-dispute-refereeing, messy-closet-organizing, or any other -ing that falls into that category.  And even though I take very seriously the responsibility to watch over someone else's children, I discovered that keeping an eye on a couple of preteen/teen girls is actually quite a bit easier in many ways than shepherding five children--imagine that!  I had to laugh at myself sometimes on the trip because I would start to do the familiar head-count that comes so naturally to mothers (and probably to dads, too, but I wouldn't know for sure about that); but instead of needing to count all the way to five, I'd stop at two.  Simple!  Plus, I realized that, whereas my two-year-old might indeed wander off in a crowd and find herself in real danger in the blink of an eye, a fifteen-year-old probably wouldn't.  

So life was easier in many ways while I was on tour; and thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I was able to text with Jeff and hear a little bit (and see some pictures!) about what was going on with him and the kids back on the home front.  I treasured each message and photo from him (and marveled at his ability to take four kids to a wedding by himself on Saturday evening--I wouldn't even have attempted that, but he pulled it off beautifully).  :)

One of the delightful things about being part of a tour group is that the arrangements have all been made for the group, so individual participants don't need to give a second thought to things like directions, and parking, and times in the schedule, and location of restaurants, and availability of hotel rooms, and entertainment options, and so forth.  We were extraordinarily blessed by the efforts of Yvette, the choir manager, who put HOURS and HOURS of work into making sure that everything went as smoothly as possible.  What a treat for us!

Our first stop on Friday (which happened to be the actual day of Josiah's 12th birthday, a fact which was celebrated on the bus as Mrs. Anderson led us all in a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday") was in Richmond at the State Capitol building.  Despite the fact that I was born and raised in this state and have returned to live here for nearly nine years as an adult, I had never been to the Capitol--or if I had, it was so long ago that the memory has been completely obscured in the fog of my childhood.  We had time before our scheduled tour to eat our picnic lunch on the lovely grounds, so clusters of red-shirted SVCCers sprang up here and there on the lawn.  We decorated the place.  :)

When Josiah and Matthew finished eating, they went to throw their trash away and ended up finding a confident squirrel that let them get pretty close to it.  I wasn't close enough to them at the time to notice the squirrel and get a good picture, but they told me later about the fun they had watching and approaching it.  :)

Sandy and Sherry were two of the wonderful chaperons of the group.

Eric, Sandy's husband, volunteered to take a picture of me with them, an offer I gladly accepted.  Now that I'm back home, I'm even more grateful for this picture because, unless I'm mistaken, I only have two pictures taken of me during the tour.  (And that's out of over 400 pictures!)  :)

After we ate our lunch, we lined up to enter the building and begin our tour of the Capitol; and just as we were getting ready to go in, it started to rain.  We hurriedly squished together under an overhang by the door and managed to stay dry.  Jumping ahead in the story, I'll mention that after the tour was over, when the time came for us to return to the bus, we discovered that it was again raining; but we made a mad dash for it and didn't get too wet.  Other than that, the weather cooperated perfectly for us all weekend.  Rain would have made things much more difficult and uncomfortable, but we had fantastic, dry, sunny, beautiful days.

 We were divided into two tour groups; and from all I've heard, both tour guides did an excellent presentation.  I certainly enjoyed our guide; hearing her tell the stories of the history of our state and the history of that particular building reminded me that I REALLY LOVE HISTORY!!  :)  If I had nine lives like a cat, I would love to study history in one of those lives (and happily, as I homeschool my kids, I can kind of make that particular dream come true!).  ;-)  I can't figure out why some people think history is boring.  After all, history is simply stories; and usually those stories involve some kind of high adventure.  What's not to love about that?  ;-)

 Because we studied the second half of American history, including the Civil War, this past school year, I was particularly struck by this sculpture, which depicts two brothers who fought on opposite sides in the Civil War and met on the field of battle.

 Can you even imagine?  As a mom of four sons, I can't.  I just can't.

 Before I start sobbing, I'd better hurry on to something else.  :)

Hello there, Thomas Jefferson.  (Mind if I call you Tom?)  Thanks for designing such a splendid building for my favorite state to use as its capitol!  :)

 One tidbit that I found fascinating is that even though there is a rotunda inside the capitol, there is not one on the outside!  How does that work?  Well, the roof of the Capitol is a regular pointed roof; but inside that peak is this beautiful rotunda, only visible from the inside--a neat little secret.  :)

 Another tidbit: this is the only life-size sculpture that George Washington posed for, and those who knew him and saw this pronounced it a very accurate likeness.

 This statue of Robert E. Lee shows exactly where he stood when he, if I'm remembering correctly what the tour guide said, proclaimed to the lawmakers of Virginia that he would fight for the South, despite President Lincoln's offer for Lee to be in charge of the Northern forces.  Lee's decision to fight on the side of the South had more to do with the issue of states' rights than it did slavery.

* Correction/addition: One of the other choir moms, Sandy, reminded me that Lee was actually agreeing to lead the army of Virginia, not the entire Confederate army.  His loyalty to his home state compelled him to make this choice.   Here is the quote from the Lee statue:  "Profoundly impressed with the solemnity of the occasion, for which I must say I was not prepared, I accept the position assigned me by your partiality.  I would have much preferred had your choice fallen on an abler man.  Trusting in Almighty God, an approving conscience, and the aid of my fellow citizens, I devote myself to the service of my native state, in whose behalf alone will I ever again draw my sword."  (Thanks, Sandy!)  :)

 This is one of the chambers that our modern state lawmakers use.

 While we were in this room, our choristers sang for our tour guide; and she was so impressed that she changed her schedule that evening so she could come to our concert!  :)

The concert which shall be the subject of my next post, because the hour is late; and if I'm ever going to get this trip blogged about, I'm going to have to break it up into little chunks!

Or rather, delectable little morsels to savor.  That sounds so much better than chunks!  ;-)