Just Another Day in Paradise

I've never been happier to be wrong. This morning, my alarm went off at 6:30a. No sound on the other side of the cabin. I snoozed until about 6:45a. I got up, showered, and got ready for the day. By 7:05a, I opened the front door of the cabin to what I was certain would be a bunch of kids running around. What I found was crickets.

My cabin wasn't the only silent cabin. They all were. I went in about 10 minutes later and--and I'm not making this up--I woke my guys up. They were still asleep. It would be a good while before people started trickling out. Unfortunately I have no idea what I did to make this happen.

When they did come out, the game of choice was four square. This is common when we come to Camp Lookout. I need to warn you about Elizabeth. If you plan to play four square, you need to know she's absolutely cut throat about it. She doesn't care who you are, she will take you down. And she will not apologize for it.

We gathered for breakfast and oriented ourselves for the day. Sang our blessing (well, I might add). Started through the line.

I didn't take any good pictures of breakfast. It was tasty as per usual up here. Also as usual, they had the chocolate gravy, which is exactly what it sounds like. They imagine you'll put it on your biscuit. I can't. I'll be honest; I've never actually tried the chocolate gravy. It's just...it's a no from me, dog.

Jennifer (she's the cook plus a little more, which you'll see later) left us a little message on the board in the kitchen...

Thank you, Jennifer! We're glad you're here too!

We played a few games before we left. The teams were based on which cabin you're in. We started out stacking dice. At first just letting folks add to the stacks, but by the end of the game, each person could only touch the die with one finger (requiring 2 people to lift it). First team to stack 10 in this manner would win. Cabin 3 dominated the dice stacking games for one reason or another. They moved to different tables, different dice, different judges. They were just a well oiled machine.

There were less good at the next game, which was kindof a cup air hockey situation. Below, a cup is out of bounds. You score a point if you blow it off the other side of the table or if the other team touches it. Cabin 3 did not win this game.

We also played the question game. This is just a random little ice breaker I picked up a long time ago. Some people really love it. Some people really, uh, don't love it. I always find it leads to at least a few laughs, though, and most retreats we'll play it once.

Our first concert of the day was at Morningpointe. The venues for this trip are repeated from the last few years. It's nice to know something about where we're going to be singing and to see familiar faces. It's also fun to hear the kids talk about remembering this place from last year. (In this particular case, they remembered this as the place that gave us ice cream when we finished singing...I asked them not to mention that). Today they gave us candy.

It's always fun when family can come see us. Willow's grandparents showed up at this concert. Her grandfather is interesting. He served as a music minister for 15 years before he became a preaching pastor. What a delightful crew!

On the way out the door, one woman stopped me and asked if I was also a school teacher. I told her I am not, and she said, "Well, as well as those kids are behaved, I figured you'd almost have to be a teacher. They're great!" They are great. But it doesn't have much to do with me. The just consistently do a great job.

From there, we headed to lunch. We didn't have a whole lot of time, but we had enough. Most years I eat at Panda Express at this stop, but today I decided to take the road less traveled and went to Firehouse Subs. It wound up being a quiet lunch with just Leanne and these two gentlemen.

And then on to the next concert, which was just about 5 minutes from our lunch stop.

There was a little confusion about exactly where we would be singing, and as a result there were a number of folks sitting behind us. One of them stood up and waved at me. When I waved back, she asked me to have the choir turn around so they could see. So for our last couple of songs...

...we did just that! You can see in the picture half of our audience if not more is behind us as we finish our concert program.

I've been able to overhear some of the audience visiting we've been doing, and the kids have been sharing about some of the people they've talked to at night. At this concert, Quinn and Myra talked to a person who had extensive experience directing children's choirs...and she was very complimentary of ours! Residents frequently stop me when I'm leaving, and they always compliment both our singing and our visiting. Both really have been impressive this trip.

After the second concert, it was off to the Tennessee Aquarium for a bit of fun. Beginning with the obligatory up the stairs photo outside. It really was a lovely day.

I'm just going to say it. I prefer the Tennessee Aquarium to the Georgia one. To me it feels a little less commercial and maybe in some ways a little more engaging. Don't get me wrong, GA is impressive. I just like this one more is all.

I took a whole lot of pictures. I'm going to resist the urge to comment on each one. Just know that every one of these pics has a story, and this is a very small fraction of the pics I have.

A very small fraction. I also didn't include any pics from the gift shops, where we spent quite a bit of time, mostly filled by me saying, "No, I don't think you need that."

From the aquarium we went to ride the Incline Railway up Lookout Mountain. We had a pretty significant wait which led to some, well, to some tomfoolery.

Because of reasons, we wound up on the last train up, all by ourselves. We were a little punch by then.

But we did get a whole train to ourselves, so that was pretty cool.

The view is pretty great, and the weather was fantastic. Nice and cool with a little breeze since the windows were all open.

We took the train one way to the top. Dang it! The gift shop was CLOSED! Bummer. We walked down the street toward a park where we were going to eat dinner.

I took this little gem on the way...

This is a funny story. I hope I get the details right. So this dog started snooping around while we were eating dinner. He was obviously well behaved and trained with some basic commands. When they read his tag, Aaron recognized the last name of a friend of his who he knew from high school. Could it be his friend's dog?

It could. It was. So Aaron and another chaperone took the dog back home, just a block away.

After dinner we came back to Camp, where Jennifer (who I mentioned earlier does a lot more than just cook) had procured the makings of an ice cream party.

Yum. Just what they need: a bunch of sugar before bed...

Then we reflected on our day. 

It was a full day, to be sure. I know they are tired. I know I'M tired. But also I know they had a good time. I know I had a good time.

Tomorrow starts about the same time today did. We'll be headed to First Centenary to sing in a worship service and to eat lunch...and then we'll be headed home. Suffice it to say for now, I am proud of these kids, the work they are doing, and the community they are becoming.

~Mr. John

PS Many thanks to those of you who have posted messages!

And they're off! An epic first day.

At long last, the day arrived. Twenty-two of the Music Makers showed up at about 5:00pm. The first thing we did was eat dinner. I'd like to show you pictures of that, but honestly the adults were just lucky to survive the feeding frenzy. These kids knocked down eight nuggets each and some chips and fruit snacks. Shout out to our Grubhub driver, Wesley, for going the extra mile (literally) when they didn't give us our complete order. He went back and got the rest. (Disclosure: Wesley does drive for Grubhub. This delivery was not actually through Grubhub.)

After we ate, we lined up and did some warmups/last minute refreshers. It was a lively bunch, but mostly compliant, and they were singing well!

Our first stop was the Mansions of Decatur. I love singing here, especially as a first stop on a tour. They always have a great audience with a lot of energy, so it's very easy to sing there. And they have a piano so I don't have to set up a keyboard. My friend, Ruth, helps set up and make sure they're ready for us. She and I go back to Decatur First days! When I was chatting with her after the concert, she told me the residents talk about us coming as soon as they see it on the calendar. They look forward to it. This makes my heart happy.

If you've followed us before, you'll know the singing is only half of what we do. I spent some time with the kids at our last Wednesday rehearsal and also shortly before we left talking about how to engage the audience after we sing. What are some questions you can ask? How can you connect with them? Every person in the audience has an interesting story if you can just get them to tell it! 

You guys, some of these kids are 3rd graders who have never done anything like this before...but you wouldn't know by watching them. It is amazing to see the faces of the audience light up when we visit them. 

I've been doing trips like this for more than 20 years now, and one thing that hasn't really occurred to me before tonight is that this visiting--this listening to stories that we do--creates its own story for us. It's a common experience, something that gathers us together. When we sit around the circle and talk about our day, and when the kids recall this story or that and someone else says, "Oh, I talked to her too! Wasn't she great?" we draw closer to each other.

We said goodbye to our new friends at the Mansions and got on the bus to head toward Chattanooga.

It's a big bus for us. There are about 30 of us total on a 56 passenger bus. Plenty of room to spread out and get comfortable. Interestingly, many of the kids chose to sit near the front of the bus this time. That's unheard of. There's usually a mad dash to the back. But I'm here for it! 

I don't usually do a movie for this trip, but the driver had a Roku, and she turned on Zootopia 2. I hadn't seen it before. The kids wasted no time getting comfortable and settling in.

I had only seen the first one, so I enjoyed watching it too! (Also...these seats recline a really long way.)

We arrived at camp a little after 9:30p and gathered to talk about our day. I challenged the kids to learn everyone's name by the end of the weekend (if they do, I'll add an ice cream party to the list). I grouped them with their chaperones and sent them to their cabins. One final check to make sure everyone was where they were supposed to be, and then I started working on this. I realized just now I didn't get any pictures of our devotional time. I'll do better tomorrow.

I've forbidden them leaving their rooms before 7 in the morning. Breakfast is at 8. Guess we'll see how that works for us. History tells me tomorrow will be an early morning at Camp Lookout...but after a full day tomorrow they'll sleep more on Sunday! Guess we'll see.

Drop a greeting/thought/observation in the comments if you have a minute. I'll share it with the kids during our devotional time! You can look for another exciting blog post tomorrow!

~Mr. John