Band/Choir Trip to Chicago
by Jennifer Trenhaile
May 31, 2009
36 students and 8 sponsors loaded up their bags and headed to Chicago at 10:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 27th. After a long bus ride, we arrived in downtown Chicago early Thursday morning to go up to the 99th floor of the Sears Tower. Currently the 104th floor (sky deck is under construction to add sky boxes). After a magnificent view of the city we headed to Northwestern University for the choir and band clinics with Dr. Robert Harris and Mr. Daniel Farris. Following the clinics we all headed to Navy Pier for lunch, and our Seadog River and Lake Architectural Tour. It was rather cold that day and being out on the lake only added to the extreme cold. The students and sponsors were happy to be back on land for some shopping at Navy Pier where it was warm. Thursday evening concluded with a pizza party and swimming at the hotel.
Friday morning we loaded everyone up and headed to Lincoln Park Zoo. It was a bit warmer that morning and the zoo was packed with many other elementary school children from the Chicago area. We loaded the bus again and headed for Wrigley field for the first pitch at 1:20. Our seats were not the greatest and the north wind and clouds in the afternoon made for an extremely cold and miserable ball game experience. Needless to say, we stuck it out until the bottom of the seventh, when things started to get interesting. The game was scoreless except the seventh inning where the Cubs pulled out a 2-1 win over the L.A. Dodgers. We headed for Millenium Park for some sight-seeing and then to the Hard Rock Cafe for a nice sit down meal.
Saturday we spent the morning at Gurnee Mills Outlet Mall not far from Six Flags. After lunch the students spent about 8 hours in the park riding the various rides and playing games. Everyone was ready to come home after a long day of walking in the park. We arrived home about 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning.
A big thank you to the
sponsors who went along:
Brent Sebade, Marykae Emmons,
Jane Koopman, Lynn Jakub, Glenda Theel, and Marilyn
Schuele.
Also, thank you to all of the parents who donated snacks and water for our trip. Everyone really does appreciate it!
