Singing Tourists 6-27-2008

Today was a day for sightseeing! We rose bright and early and boarded our coach at 8:30. Our driver, Jackie, is a cheery, kind person with whom we fell in love with immediately. We first went to the Oak Alley Plantation. It is an amazingly beautiful place with a fascinating history. We got a tour from yet another Jackie, who was in traditional house clothes for the 1800s. We heard old traditions of courting and dining, as well as walked the famous and greatly viewed Oak Alley. The trees down it are Virginia Live Oaks, and they are just reaching their “mid-life crisis” at age 300. Their life expectancy is 600 years! We all enjoyed a refreshing VIRGIN Mint Julep outside in the Southern heat and humidity. Afterwards, we graced our wonderful tour guide, Jackie, with some of “Let It Shine”. We made a surprisingly fast stop at the gift shop before moving on to the swamp tour. A sprinkling of rain fell at one o’clock for the second day in a row. We’ll see if it’s on schedule tomorrow! The Honey Island Swamp Tour was absolutely amazing. We were visited by a few gators; the biggest was named El Wappo. El Wappo was 15 feet from nose to tail, three times the height of chorister Aisling, and he is about 60 years old. The choir was separated into three different groups. The pictures you see in the blog were taken by members of Captain Charlie’s group. Our group saw astonishing flora and fauna, including alligators, Spanish moss, egrets, great blue herons, turtles, bald cypress, gum trees, duckweed, and much, much more. At the end of the tour, we sang the first part of “Let It Shine” for Charlie, who enjoyed it immensely. Sadly, there wasn’t time to stop at the gift shop, but there will be plenty of time for shopping. We had dinner by the pool, on the roof! Later, we went to rehearse with Paul Caldwell. It was exciting to work with such an energized director, especially when he wasn’t good at the “standing still” and fell off the stage. A few went to swim afterwards, then……….bed.