We're All Wet: The Third Day

Again, I'll start by awarding points earned on yesterday's post. 100 points to Elizabeth for correctly naming the 3 rivers that meet in Pittsburgh, and 100 points to JMac for the best caption for the picture. It was the only caption, but it was choice nevertheless!

This morning was the earliest morning of tour. We had to leave no later than 7:45 to make it to our first concert some hours away. But do you know what made that early morning more tolerable?

Proper breakfast. Hotel waffle irons. Yes. I'm not the only one that loves them.

The breakfast area is an interesting mix of peppy morning people, mostly asleep night owls, and of course some in the middle (I'm one of those). But it's nice to visit with the youth in the morning.

Some will wake up for breakfast, eat, and then get on the bus and, well......

This is a now-annual photo. Everyone gets all excited about Bucee's, but Wesley gets super pumped about a different stop. PIIIIILLLLOOOOTTTTTT!!!!! Woooooo!

Our concert was at the Arc of Erie County near Buffalo, New York. Like the last Arc facility, it is a place for people with disabilities. It's a remarkable place. They serve people of all ages (Arc represents the arc of life, cradle to grave). They have specialty programming for a variety of circumstances. We were in a small-ish room, but room for us and our audience. And a lot of love.

These concerts could happen without me. I wave my arms and basically tell them when to start singing. And if for some reason I can't do that, Leanne could make the concert happen. Do you know who we can't do without? Leanne. She's amazing. A remarkable player and musician...but also a great colleague, friend, and all around wonderful person. Also worth noting, she plays for us in any and all conditions, including outside with hurricane force winds. Here, Sir Trots-a-Lot looks on in amazement.

Here's our concert formation in the space. Great looking group!

I look at this Buffalo for a while, and I never saw any wings on it...this one was near our lunch stop.

After lunch we headed toward a little town on the river called Niagara, where we were set to go through the Cave of the Winds. It begins with a little museum and short video.

Then you go down an elevator near the bottom of the falls and walk toward American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls. On the path we came across this little guy. (3,2,1...awwwwww!).

The walk lets you walk right up to the falls. It's beautiful, and right up next to it you really get a feel for how powerful the falls really are.

Actually you can get right into the falls at one point if you really want to! "I'm the queen of the world!"

Luke appears to wonder what the big deal is.

Some people got more wet than others. I don't think anyone escaped completely, though many of us opted out of the "right under the falls" part and stayed somewhat more dry.

Some things about the birds were soooo cute...all those little guys and what not. Some things about the birds were a lot less cute. We did have a few casualties of bird-dive-bombing.

Just up from Cave of the Winds is Terrapin Point and an overlook of Horseshoe Falls. This is what you're thinking of if you think of Niagara Falls. What a great group!

This is back toward the American Falls from closer to the Horseshoe Falls.

I mentioned Leanne earlier. We can't do this without her. You know who else we can't do it without? These guys here. Our chaperones are absolutely the best. They give up there time to travel on a bus (or in the chase car) with 45 pesky youth all over the country. And they are always there when I need something taken care of. Ready to help. Or make cookies. Or tote the equipment. Or, or, or. They're great caretakers of the youth, and they're great friends.

Another first on this trip. I've never seen a black squirrel before, but this guy was greeting guests at the entrance to the park. Very cool! And also very used to people, apparently.

After our spritzer under the falls and what they youth feel like are way too many pictures, we headed out of the park to do a wee bit of souvenir shopping. But not everyone wanted to shop. Those who didn't enjoyed a little game of baseball outside the bus.

We headed to a mall for dinner. Unfortunately most of the mall closed at 8, so some of the youth had to improvise a bit for dinner (some of the restaurants around the mall were still open...so everyone got to eat!).

Dinner, hotel for devotional, and then bed.

A few other pictures from the day...

It's hard to find sweet tea up here. Lisa made some for lunch, and Trots asked if he could have some.

The winner of today's photo contest, which was to take a creative selfie. These guys...

And finally, Hal pointed out that I really missed the boat on what would have been an amazing activity. Why, oh why, didn't we go to the jello gallery? I'm sorry I missed the boat on this one.

All in all, it was a good day. The choir loved Niagara Falls (and so did I). We are sounding consistently good. And I have a bag of gummy bears at the front of the bus. 2 concerts tomorrow. Let's gooo!