POSTCARD FROM VANCOUVER, BC - SUNDAY, June 20, 2010 - HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

What a great day!!! It was truly a different type of performance than what we are used to! To begin with, everyone got up early enough to grab our breakfast at the hostel that began at 8 am. Fully dressed in formal concert apparel by 8:40 am on the bus heading for the Christ Church Cathedral. I'm not so sure the other roomers in our hostel on our floor appreciated the strong concert commitment our kids have become accustomed to - as they were up and down the hallways getting prepared! But onto the bus right on time (every day - you just MAY not recognize your children when they return!) we were and Captain Jim whisked us right to the door of Christ Church Cathedral. Walking in, it was an amazing sight. The cathedral was BEAUTIFUL, contemporarily reconfigured and just a warm and welcoming facility, let alone the staff members that were there to greet us, show us where and what we needed - we knew we were in the right place and all was meant to be!

After a brief warm up in the Sanctuary, we were off to the choir room for warm ups and final instructions before lining up prepared for the service to begin. Walking into the area behind the altar, the choristers all lined up on the risers and began the service with Zions Walls to a FULL house! This was truly an amazing opportunity for all of our kids and did they ever live up to the challenge and opportunity to bring Wisconsin to Vancouver! The people of Christ Church Cathedral were so wonderful, welcoming, open arms and so helpful and appreciative. We truly couldn't ask for anything more. During the service, the choir was part of the worship eucharist service including the offeratory, communion and postlude, and were invited to sing after the service was finished. Between the incredible accoustics, atmosphere and special place, this was an absolutely amazing experience for all of us to be a part of and we are incredibly grateful to Christ Church for including us in their Sunday concert line-up.

Wrapping up the service, back onto the bus, to the hostel, distributed all the clean t-shirts, collected one more set of dirties, kids bundled up their concert attire, and chilled for a bit before we took off for our memorable Vancouver experience - the Capilano Suspension Bridge! OMG! What is truly unbelievable that 100% of us (yes, including the adults - that means Sue and Chris T. who have SERIOUS issues with all that was the Capilano Suspension Bridge and Captain Jim) were SUCCESSFUL in concquering that feat! Check out the website for a true representation of what we actually did:

http://www.capbridge.com/index.html

What a blast!! Including the suspension bridge, there is this wonderful treetop experience that took us from HUMUNGOUS tree fort to tree fort via mini suspension bridges. It was a BLAST! Lots of good photos from that treat! Following the Capilano bridge challenge, we were off to the waterfront to view the Olympic Flame from the 2010 Vancouver Winter games. It appears the plaza area is under construction, perhaps to create a more permanent visitor area, but all the same, was fun to be in the same place we had all seen on TV in February! How can anyone come to Vancouver now without some touch of the Olympic games???

Captain Jim returned us to our "hood" where we split up and took in a dinner of whatever cuisine so moved each of us and some fun on Davie Street in the West End. Our hostel is in a really adorable area that has a street full of shops that range from used book stores to florists to money exchanges to clothing. Lots of fun for this taste of Vancouver.

Early to bed tonight - we are scheduled for a 7:00 a.m. departure - that means ON THE BUS! because tomorrow we have at least NINE HOURS of bus time and that won't be including our breaks for crossing the border, for breakfast or lunch - YIKES!

Don't forget to check out our photos!! www.wisconsinchildrenschoir.org!

Til next time, Sue