Ready, Set, Tour

Day 1: 18 June 2018

Palm trees are magical. They have the ability to lower ones blood pressure in moments. I always forget how much I miss these happy sentinels until I see them again.

Mr. Mo and I are off on our next grand adventure together with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. This time it’s a 16-day “Classic Coast Tour,” with seven performance venues in Southern and Northern California, Vancouver Canada, and Seattle Washington.

Twas The Night Before Tour…

I unintentionally pulled an all nighter packing and repacking my carry-on and day bag that I’ll be living out of for the first 4, and final 6 days of our 16 day tour. Then, there was an inordinant amount of frustrated fussing over all my electronics. I have an older model iPad, and a newer model Android tablet. Each have strengths and abilities I like, and weaknesses that annoy me. I spent at least one hour trying to get them to synch to my travel sized keyboard to no avail. In the end the iPad would finally synch, but isn’t cooperating with my WordPress app, and the Android works like a champ with WordPress but will not synch, forcing me to “write” using my old lady one-fingered texting technique … Ugh.

At 2 am I took a break and went outside to get some fresh night air and spread several bags of wood chips around our flower beds. Yes, it is technically dark at 2 am, but due to a freakishly bright streetlamp next to my house (a rant for another day) I could see perfectly fine to do this, and “playing in the dirt” enjoying the scent of cedar wood and roses was very therapeutic.

At 3 am I checked my phone for the hundreth time to verify I had correctly scheduled our LYFT ride to the airport for a 4:15 am pickup. I’ve never used LYFT before, and the feature of pre-scheduling a ride was cool. Would it work? Would someone actually be up this early and show up to get us to the airport on time?…

Then, back inside the house for more fussing with the tablets. In the end, I just gave up and brought BOTH tablets (a decision I’ll likely regret) reasoning between the two I’ll manage to share something passable with all of you. (side note: I’m writing this post on my cell phone. Haha. Live and learn… please forgive typos)

At 3:30 am I unloaded the dishwasher, wrote a love note (with last minute instructions) to Daughter Bee, showered, dressed and put on some makeup. Despite my sleep deprivation I felt fresh and ready to roll.

Getting a Lyft

At 4:02 am my phone chimed, alerting that my Lyft driver – Travis – would be arriving in 12 minutes. The app was tracking the car in real time via GPS. I watched in fascination as a little cartoon car moved along the roads in the screen toward our house, and sure enough, as the cartoon car turned the final corner we looked up and saw the real car arriving. How cool is that?!

Driver Travis is a middle school math teacher who began driving LYFT as part time supplemental income during the school year, and now will be driving full time during his summer break. He helped us put our luggage in his (spotless) trunk, and we enjoyed riding in his (incredibly clean and comfortable) car. He was so cheerful, friendly and chatty. He served an LDS mission to Argentina, and said his fluent Spanish has come in handy as a LYFT driver. He told us many stories about the interesting people he’s met. He was a great driver and got us to the airport in 16 minutes. (And did I mention how CLEAN and comfortable his car was?!).

Driving ourselves and parking at the airport would have cost us $130. A taxi would have been $78 (one way). An Airport Shuttle priced out at $52 (one way).

Our total LYFT = only $26.18 + a $10 tip (because, Middle School Teacher AND well deserved) = $36.18

LYFT has a new fan!

Catching The Wave

The choir, orchestra, staff and guest group is about 600 people. So, we fly in “waves” throughout the day. Mr. Mo and I were assigned to the earliest wave out, and required to arrive by 5:00 am to the airport. Thanks to LYFT driver Travis being so prompt, we arrived by 4:30, which turned out to be a good thing, since there was a small snafu with my boarding pass that needed to be sorted out.

Choir members got to hang out in the Terminal 2 Delta Jazz Room while we waited for our flight. They even served us snacks (although it felt much too early to really eat anything).

Up and Away

Another insanely late night in a series of late nights over the past week meant I was desperate for sleep! As soon as we boarded the plane I donned my neck pillow, sleep mask and earbuds and actually slept the entire flight until the captain announced our final decent into Los Angeles.

R and R

We were originally told we would not be able to check in to out hotel until 5 PM, but the hotel blessed us with room keys when we arrived at 10 am! (sooo awesome). We can see the Palm trees swaying and the ocean in the distance from our deck.

Room with a view

This day is all about travel and rest and that’s exactly what I did! I took TWO naps, and did some exploring of a nearby shopping MECCA called Fashion Island.

Tropical Buffet

We dined together as a choir for our “welcome dinner” on the lawn. So lovely!

How perfect is this?! #spoiled

Nightime Stroll

After dinner we took a stroll back through the “Island” and discovered many relaxing fountains.

Tomorrow morning we have a little free time together in the morning and then all the performers will head to the Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts to rehearse and present our first tour concert!!

I’m so excited! Singing and sharing our musical message is always the BEST part of every tour!

Love from California, MoSop