NCC Touring Choir Trip to St. Louis - Day 4 (5/3), Concert

Before heading back to Nashville, the choir traveled to the Kirkwood United Methodist Church as they were singing in their service on Sunday. We arrived at the church early so that the children could practice before the service. The chaperones were offered coffee and breakfast while the kids practiced - Rhonda P. and I also snuck out for a walk downtown. It was good to get out and stretch our legs before the bus ride back.

During the service, the NCC choir sang a song at the beginning, two songs during communion and then a song at the end. It was a beautiful church and wonderful opportunity for the children to sing there.

And, again, this church showed wonderful hospitality to us by providing us with box lunches to eat on the ride back to Nashville - thanks, everyone appreciated it!

NCC Touring Choir Trip to St. Louis - Day 3 (5/2), The Theatre

Our day was topped off by a visit to the Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis to see Riverdance. The visit also included a dinner and tour of the theatre. (The dinner was an incredible gourmet buffet.)

The pictures I'm posting are primarily from our dinner as the ones from the tour didn't turn out since the lighting was so low in the theatre areas. In addition, pictures weren't allowed during the show.

The kids before dinner.

A highlight of the evening was when the kids gave an impromptu concert to the waitstaff.

It included some improvisation during one of the songs - fabulous, these kids have talent!

A classic activity when waiting...our daughter and one of her friends!

NCC Touring Choir Trip to St. Louis - Day 3 (5/2), The Magic House

Our next stop for the day was to The Magic House, the St. Louis Children's Museum.

Even though there are a lot of exhibits geared towards younger children, all of the kids in our group loved seeing and participating in as many as they could. (The website does state "fun for everyone 1 to 101"!) This place is very, very large since they now have a new addition that doubled its size, added in 2008.

Fun in the Bubble Room!

Here's where a person could lift a bubble up around them

This is a picture of the Jack and the Beanstalk climbing structure - this is 3 stories tall! The structure gets smaller and smaller as people climb higher.

I really enjoyed the artwork displayed in this museum

Glass balloons hanging from the ceiling in the entrance of the museum

NCC Touring Choir Trip to St. Louis - Day 3 (5/2), The Arch

It was a beautiful day to visit the St. Louis Arch - wonderful weather with great visibility!

The observation deck, from below
We went up to the top according to our groups and we were fortunate to be one of the early groups to go.

Here are the girls in the little pod.

Views from the top

The Mississippi River side - river was still very high from the spring thaw and rains

The girls at the top

Waiting to go back down

Doing what teens do best -> "hanging out" (we had finished going through the museum and getting souvenirs). There was also a general store that had very yummy candy - we purchased some lemon drops to take home and then chocolate covered cherries to eat during the trip.

This was a special highlight of our visit to the arch:

On our way out of the arch, we saw a number of veterans visiting and they were in the park near the base of the arch. The NCC leaders got the children together for an impromptu concert of the Star Spangled Banner - there wasn't a dry eye in the house after they finished singing, it was very moving with the harmonies they sang as part of the song. What a privilege to be living in the United States.We had lunch aboard this Riverboat - we were to go on a Mississippi river cruise, however, the water was too high for the excursion.
Climbing back up the stairs! ....to head back to the busses
A shot of the choir with the arch in the background, before we left the park.

NCC Touring Choir Trip to St. Louis - Day 2 (5/1), Concert

On Friday evening, May 1st, the NCC Touring Choir participated in a joint choir concert with the Kirkwood Children's Chorale, Concert Choir group.

We got to the venue early, a batist church in Kirkwood, so that the kids could practice before the concert - I was able to get a few pictures of them practicing. The larger group pictures taken when both choirs were practicing didn't turn out as well, due to the low light (had to be back a lot further to get everyone in the picture.

The Kirkwood choir showed our group wonderful hospitality by serving us all dinner between the practice session and the concert.

The kids had a wonderful night of singing with another choir, hanging out with the other kids at dinner and sharing all of their music to everyone who attended the concert.

Miss K played violin for a couple of the songs - here she is during rehearsal with one of the leaders
During "Mayem, Mayem", Dr. Bridges played along with her
Here is a picture of both choirs practicing together

NCC Touring Choir Trip to St. Louis - Day 2 (5/1), Cathedral Basilica

After the zoo, the touring choir boarded the busses and traveled to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. This is the 2nd largest Cathedral in the United States - the largest is located in Washington D.C.

Unfortunately, since the busses let us out in the back of the Cathedral, I didn't get a picture of the front of it.

Sculptures in the outside garden

One of the entrace doors to the Cathedral Basilica

As part of our visit there, our group was given a tour of the Cathedral which included seeing the significant areas of the Cathedral Basilica, all of the history of how it was built and information about all of the mosaic artwork that adorns the walls and ceilings of the building.

"Being Rich He Became Poor For Your Sakes"
Pictures that show the incredible mosaic artwork that adorns the ceilings

The touring choir also had the opportunity to give a concert while visiting - the acoustics inside were incredible and it was a very neat experience for the children to sing in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.

Picture of the Touring Choir with leaders (Miss K is close to the right side, 2nd row from the top)
Picture of all of the chaperones - I'm on the right
I couldn't resist including this nice pic of Miss K with one of her good choir friends

NCC Touring Choir Trip to St. Louis - Day 2 (5/1), The Zoo

St. Louis has a wonderful free zoo and we spent all of Friday morning at it. (Also, Miss K took some of the pictures - she got some nice shots of the animals.)

I and another mom combined our groups for the morning - here is a pic of all the girls between our two groups.

This zoo had a very nice Bird Garden area with a beautifully landscaped walking trail winding through the exhibits and aviaries.