Orchestra Trip to Chicago

Only a few days after my brother's wedding, the high school orchestra presented their spring concert.  Thirty-six hours after their concert, we were on the road to Chicago in two big busses.

The students signed up for which bus they wanted to ride - the "quiet" bus or the "party" bus.  Parents were asked to ride with their students.

If you know Benjamin at all, you know he signed up for the party bus, so I got to ride the party bus, too.  My amazing colleague "wonder twin" rode with me.  We make a pretty good team, the three of us "orch dork" teachers.

The orchestra began Friday morning with a wonderful concert for adjudication, followed by a lovely afternoon on the Chicago River enjoying an architectural cruise.

Our Friday evening we spent walking, eating, and shopping down the Magnificent Mile and finished with the Willis Tower Skydeck.

My Wonder Twin and I laughed our way through the evening, there's nobody I'd rather work with besides this neat lady.

Saturday morning, we drove over to the Cloud Gate Structure, affectionately known as the Bean.

I was thrilled to get to make memories with Benjamin, and he was pretty cool about hanging out with his mama from time to time.

After the Bean, the group split up to visit our museum of choice.  My bus went to the Museum of Science and Industry.

Wow!  What an amazing place to discover and learn and explore.  

I kept hearing the orchestra students talking about how much fun they were having learning.  And discussing new books they were reading.

That's a special group of high school students!  

We finished our busy day with the highlight of the trip.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing an all John Williams concert.

With a fascinating and casual pre-concert talk. 

In their gorgeous and historic auditorium.

Conducted by John Williams himself.  The whole experience was overwhelming.  I will store these sweet sounds and sights for nights when I'm lying in bed a million miles away in the village in the Solomon Islands.

My wonder twin is spunky.  So I did my best to mirror her sass.  What a memory making, fun, musical gift of a trip.