Here we go again!

Bells of the Sound leaves Saturday morning for our 2007 tour of western Oregon. It's a much shorter trip than last year but very jam packed as we journey down and up the I5 corridor. Here's our intinerary:

Saturday, June 23, 2007 at 7 PM
Calvin Presbyterian Church
10445 SW Canterbury Lane
Tigard, OR

Sunday, June 24, 2007 at 4 PM
First Presbyterian Church
85 S Holly Street
Medford, OR

Monday, June 25, 2007 at 7 PM
First Christian Church
1166 Oak Street
Eugene, OR

Stay tuned for tales of our wacky adventures!

Batting a thousand

Over the course of the trip, we lost several items. Amazingly, all were found in due time. The list includes, but is not limited to:

- a case of 3rd octave chimes that arrived three flights after the designated carrier
- Rich's wallet
- P.L.'s prescription medicine
- Rebekah's wallet
- Chris
- Chris' wallet
- Liesl's book and socks

And the final item, Liesl's sunglasses (not much need for THOSE!), was found yesterday at her first home stay. All is good!

Bye bye, Alaska. Hello, Seattle.

Well, we are all back in Seattle (or Cali, for P.L. and Rebekah) now, I think. I hope! The last crew landed at SeaTac about 2 hours ago. It took Alaska over an hour to deliver our luggage to the carousel - they said there was a malfunction on the conveyor belt, and we fear it was the 2 foot x 4 foot case of upper 5th, 6th and 7th octave bells that caused problems. FINALLY everything arrived and Patrice, Bryant, Liesl, Elliot and I headed home. It was sad to say good bye to everyone.

Everyone except us 5 had left or were in the process of leaving by this morning. We had some extra time so headed to Skagway from Haines this morning on the 8 AM ferry. We had about an hour or so to kill in Skagway before catching our fast ferry to Juneau (it sounds nuts, but this was really a logical plan based on the ferry schedule). We broke into smaller groups since someone had to stay behind a watch the luggage; we each got about a half hour in Skagway and with 4 cruise ships at dock, that was more than enough for me. The ferry left at 11 AM and we played a rousing game of Nerts which lasted over an hour, no one maintained a score over 30 and Bryant hit an all-time high (low?) of -109. After a quick lunch of snacks from the snack bar, we started a new round and folks fared a bit better. We arrived in Juneau at 1:45 PM and were picked up by Wendy's folks to head to the zipline excursion that had been arranged by Wendy's mom. We had to catch the boat by 2:30 and made it with literally a minute to spare.

OK - I really want to tell the tale of ziplining but my eyes keep shutting while my fingers wait on the keys. More to come later - I promise!

Concert in Juneau

As Chris indicated, we have been in Haines and have not had internet - or cell phone - access since Friday night. But so much has happened!

Thursday morning we all gathered at Northern Light Church to unload and set up equipment. We felt right at home - it was raining while we were unloading the truck, like it seems to do EVERY day we have concerts in Seattle. Here Catherine and P.L. are unloading while Liesl points out that no BOTS members are doing any work. Oops! Someone had to take pictures...


We had a quick rehearsal - OK, it was about 5 hours long. Crikey!!! During a break, we took some time for an arts and crafts project and made gifts for our hosts. Here Chris, Lisa and Liesl do their best Martha impersonation.


After the rehearsal, most of us went to a salmon bake and feasted on salmon, salad, corn bread and other tasty vittles. Others took a quick trip to the glacier or on the tram.


Then it was back to the church to rehearse again and get ready for the concert. An amazing concert!


Afterwards, we headed to downtown Juneau, which isn't so bustling at 11:30 PM on Thursday night. We ended up at the famous Red Dog salon for drinks and conversation. Then a very tired group of ringers headed home for a good night's rest. And a good thing, too. It would be 48 hours before we would see a bed again.

Wow!

I am too tired to write much about the day, but just wanted to say tonight's concert was amazing. The audience was fantastic - about 200 strong - and very enthusiastic. Juneau rocks! It was great and so much fun - we did 2 encores! Hope to write more tomorrow, although it is shaping up to be as busy as today. Off to bed so I can rest and be ready for it.

The caravan - 2 SUVs and a U-Haul



Traveling light... Unloading all of our equipment.

We're here!

The rest of us - 8, including Rebekah and P.L who connected in Seattle from San Francisco - arrived safely on probably the only Alaska flight to Juneau that left on time today. The flight was uneventful, and we even brought the missing case of chimes with us. So all people and equipment are accounted for - pretty amazing!

Here is Bryant at SeaTac with the pile of luggage for 6 of us. Travel light? What does that mean???


Here we are on approach to Juneau - so pretty...


Proof we made it...


And proof of the nerds that we are - turning our cell phones on en masse and searching for service. Yes, Virginia, there is cell phone service in Alaska.


It is time for bed - tomorrow starts with picking up even more bells and then a 3 hour rehearsal ... the first with P.L. and Rebekah. :-) It should be interesting! I have no doubt it will all pull together by 7:30 tomorrow night. We are professionals after all!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Looks like we will be feeling right at home as far as the weather goes - guess we need to make sure we pack an umbrella!

Juneau weather
Haines weather

Hmmm... will there be room in my suitcase for my rainboots?

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

There is a nice article about us in the Juneau Empire: http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/071706/loc_20060717007.shtml

Unfortunately, it requires a logon to view the article. But you might want to try freeport/me04032... it might just work. :-)