General Information
Travel, Week's Plan, Accommodations
Travel A frequent question about the trip: why did we fly from Oakland and not Sacramento? In order to guaranty booking and travelling as a group, reservations needed to made in January. At the time the flights were booked, travel from Sacramento would have cost a couple of hundred dollars more per person and the Oakland flights couldn't be changed later, even though the Sacramento pricing would eventually drop to near our already booked price. With that situation cast in stone, the most logistically reasonable way to get everyone to Oakland was on Amtrak rather than trying to coordinate additional drivers or renting vehicles, etc.
The Week's Plan With a travel day on each end, there were 5 days available for activities in New Orleans. The first 2 days would be service days, with the group working on St. Bernard Project house rebuilding sites. A day of performances and a clinic with Jesuit High School of New Orleans and Loyola University. A fun activity day: airboats in the morning and New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in the afternoon. And on the last day, the World Stride's competition, dinner, awards and dance. Fit into the space around these activities were visits to the French Quarter, sectional practice and a few other opportunities. All-in-all, a well rounded mix of work, fun and music.
Accommodations Our first 3 nights were at the Mustard
Seed Ministries Mission House. This was a mostly rebuilt home that had been damaged in Katrina,
only really lacking finished floors in bedroom areas. Sleeping arrangements consisted of
2 bed bunks on 4x4 legs with wooden frames with enough bunks to put all 19 boys in 3 rooms.
The chaperones had a separate small room and Mr. Cargile opted for the couch in the main
room. (Our band director had a hotel room.) Except for the couch,
all beds were just mattresses with a plastic cover, we provided our
own bedding (most came prepared, a trip to Walmart supplied some additional pillows and bedding.)
Our remaining 3 nights were at the Hampton Inn & Suites Elmwood (5150 Mounes St., Harahan, LA 70123).
There were four boys to a room (one room with 3).
The Jazz Band on the Road A few words about the boys on this trip. A great group of guys - they were respectful, and followed the rules as well as to be expect; they took pretty good care of themselves. We had several volunteers with smart phones helping navigate during the drives. The only injury noted was a skinned knee during the construction work, and one poor student woke up on our return day with a fever and looked a bit miserable during the return trip. All of them stayed in groups, as instructed, for the most part when allowed to venture, such that we were able to contact at least one of their group when it was time to leave somewhere: just about the time the chaperones would start to worry about keeping to the schedule, they would all show up. Issues were mostly minor such someone snoring or talking and interfering with sleep. We did note that some of their parents have had them exposed them to the process of hand washing dishes, while others apparently have been spared that necessity to quite a large degree: some of the washing shifts at the Mission House did noticeably better than others. And someone obviously picks up after many of them: the Mission House and vans would get a bit trashy until a clean up was ordered. With everyone's help, we even managed to leave the Mission House a little cleaner than how we found it.
Day 1, Monday, April 21
Travel day: Amtrak, Airport Shuttle, Southwest Airlines
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Amtrak 5:45am - 8:20am The day began with most of our group meeting at the Amtrak station in
Sacramento Amtrak Station
Aboard the Capitol Corridor train
Sacramento before 6 am. It was a
bit of a hike from the terminal to the platform,
for those with larger instruments this
was a bit of an effort (pity our tuba player). We took
train 525 for the Sacramento
to Oakland (coliseum/airport) portion of its run, departing Sacramento around the scheduled
time of 6:20 am.
Our tickets were for unreserved coach seats and we all walked to the far end of
the platform in order to be able to get
Sacramento Amtrak Station
Airport Shuttle queue
seating all together. We were split with most on the upper deck and a few boys in the smaller area of the lower deck in order to keep an eye on the instruments and luggage taking up most of the storage areas near to them. A few of the boys grabbed some items from the café car. The first two photos shown here are of everyone meeting at the Amtrak station and aboard the Capitol Corridor train. We had a few students who live west of Sacramento and joined us at the Davis stop. At the Oakland station, we walked out to the main street, down a half-block and crossed the street to the shuttle bus stop. The next pair of photos show us disembarking the train and waiting for the shuttle. The next bus already had a significant line ahead of us and we were planning on having to split up but somehow we all squeezed on, tuba and all, just barely able to stand behind the yellow lines at the front. It took long enough to get us all on, that the next bus had pulled up behind ours. 10-12 minutes later we were at the airport.
Southest Airlines 8:30am PDT - 8:00pm CDT Everyone managed to get through the ticket counter,
Waiting to board Southwest
Mr. Cargile's magnetic personality
checking the bigger instruments with the luggage, and through TSA fairly efficiently. Our flight to Dallas had a stop in Albuquerque. In Dallas we changed planes and proceeded on to New Orleans. The three photos here are from just before our first flight, our arrival in New Orleans (you'll have to ask the boys to explain their joyous embrace for Mr. Cargile) and one of vans still packed upon arrival at the mission house.
Van issues 8:00pm CDT - 9:25pm CDT
In New Orleans, the three 8 passengers vans that Mr. Cunha
Mustard Seed Ministries Mission House arrival
had reserved were no where to be seen. There were two 7 passenger models available and more like those somewhere in another area, but that was going to leave us with a problem getting the 23 of us around New Orleans. (We had expected to make multiple trips to get all the luggage and instruments moved a few times.) After complaining about not having our vehicles waiting and not having the type requested, the supervisor offered to comp us a fourth van which made our week much easier logistically and let us get all of our luggage and instruments moved at the same time. From the time we headed to the rental counters, until we had the vans loaded was almost 90 minutes. We had about a 35 minute drive from the airport.
Mission House 10:00pm - midnight (I won't publish the address here for security reasons since I
Mr. Cargile's magnetic personality again
Bunks at the Mission House
Watching Ken Burn's Jazz
don't see it on the official web sites, but it's not far from 600 E Judge Perez Dr. in Chalmette if you are trying to find the general location.) About 10pm we arrived at the NOLA Mustard Seed Ministries Mission House for the first night's stay. See the photo in the paragraph above for our first view of our accommodations. The mission house is a rebuilt residential home damaged in Katrina, still missing flooring in the bedrooms, but otherwise in good condition. (Again, you'll have to ask the boys to explain their sudden affection for Mr. Cargile in the first photo here.) The house has a large great room, with a parallel hallway accessing 3 bedrooms, one with a full bathroom. There was also a full bathroom off the hall and a half bath near the rear of the house just before the laundry room. At the rear of the house was a good sized kitchen with a pass-through into the great room. On the opposite end of the great room was a smaller front bedroom with had a door leading into part of the garage that had been finished with a sink and could be used as a fifth bedroom. As noted in the "Accommodation" paragraph near the beginning of these narratives, sleeping arrangements consisted of putting all the boys in the 3 main bedrooms, where there were simple 2 bed bunks on 4x4 legs with wooden frames. The chaperones used the small front bedroom and Mr. Cargile opted for the couch in the great room. (Our band director had a hotel room.) Except for the couch, all of the beds were just mattresses with a plastic cover, we provided our own bedding (most came prepared, since we knew the arrangements in advance). A quick trip was made to Walmart for some food and bedding for those needing either or both. Before the band retired for the night, all the boys were required to watch the first episode of Ken Burn's documentary "Jazz" ("Gumbo (Beginnings to 1917)") - which is why everyone is staring at the TV in the final photo above. So bedtime was bit late (around midnight) after a long travel day.
All the photos from Day 1 can be found here: New Orleans Day 1 photo set
Day 2, Tuesday, April 22
Work day: Sectionals and St. Bernard Project
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Wake up 7:00am - 8:00am, Breakfast 9:00am - 9:45am The day began with wake up calls at 7am.
The original 9am breakfast time had been changed to 8, but that information had gotten lost somewhere along the way, so everyone was ready a bit early. Our mission host, Rachel, lived nearby and after a quick phone call rushed over with breakfast a bit before 9. Breakfast that morning was scrambled eggs, bacon and a biscuit, with milk and orange juice available (we found the coffee and had used the coffee maker earlier - with a paper towel filter, not finding the stash of real coffee filters until later.) After breakfast, several of the guys, for reasons unexplained, felt the need to prepare to make some fashion statements for their début in New Orleans should the need arise. Along with the breakfast photo here, you can see their ideas of prêt-à-porter fashion in the other 2 photos.
Packing lunches 9:45am - 10:15am Along with breakfast, we were brought lots of bread, deli ham
and packaged cheese slices and some bags of chips, so that we could pack lunches for the work site. So what did the guys do? Most of them borrowed one boy's personal supply of peanut butter and used the jelly supply from the refrigerator to make PB&Js. (We bought a good supply of both smooth and chunky on one of the Walmart runs soon thereafter.) The remaining peanut butter warranted a little side note in the last day's narrative. As you can see in the photo here, lunches were all neatly bagged and made ready to go (note the paper sacks on the pass-through counter), which turned out not to quite be how things unfolded, if you read down just a bit farther.
Sectionals 10:15am - 11:00am In lieu of band rehearsal at this point, Mr. Cunha held sectional
Trombone and Tuba Sectional
Trumpet Sectional
Sack lunches
practice for all but the rhythm section. (Some of the lunch packing, including the adults, overlapped practices too.)
About St. Bernard Project 11:00am - 11:45am About 11am, Tim Guernsey, Volunteer Coordinator
Tim Guernsey of St. Bernard Project
Francis Drive house
Lesseps Street house
at St. Bernard Project came to talk about the destruction from hurricane Katrina, the status and challenge of rebuilding and the role and work of St. Bernard Project. Then he talked about the daily work plans and the types of projects we would be working on. The first photo here shows Mr. Guernsey speaking to our group and the other 2 show the information that was handed out on the 2 work sites for the day.
Lunch/Down Time 11:45am - 1:10pm We had been expecting to leave for the work site right
There goes the neighborhood
Jungle Gym?
Leapin' Lizards!
after Mr. Guernsey's talk, but were told we weren't to show up until about 1:30pm, after the morning crew had finished. With that timing, we told everyone to go ahead and eat their lunches, or as much as wanted so they could take some of it as a snack too. Most of us ate and the guys had a little bit of free time, as seen in the photos here.
Work Sites 1:30pm - 6:40pm This day there were 2 work sites. About a third of us (one van of
Francis Drive house
Francis Drive house
volunteers)
went to one site and the rest (the other 2 vans) to the
other.
(Mr. Cunha and a student allergic to the work site dust took
the fourth van in
search of possible activities for the later in the evening.)
The site with the larger crew was about 6 miles from the mission house and on the way
to the other which was about 10 miles from our home base.
The first
Francis Drive house
Francis Drive house
Francis Drive house
photo here is the Francis Drive house and you can see that the exterior was fairly well completed; in the interior, the bottom floor was framed, but there was no further work scheduled for the lower floor, which will have separate ownership when funding and paperwork are ready. (A few adults were working on the second floor porch on the back of the house, it wasn't clear if they were volunteers or contractors.) On the upper story, the morning crew had done almost all of the skim coats of plaster and sanded most areas. The task for our crew was to go back over all the walls and ceilings and sand out all the imperfections, occasionally skimming areas that had been missed or couldn't be smoothed with just sanding. The next few photos show the guys sanding, using a work light held near the wall to highlight flaws, and creating a sci-fi movie type of scene with all the dust in the air when cleaning up for the day.
Lesseps house crew
Lesseps house crew
Lesseps house crew
The crew at the house on Lesseps Street had more unfinished plaster work, but a lot of finish sanding to do also. This house was larger, having original been 2 residences, it was now being rebuilt in it's single family incarnation. It was a single story with high ceilings, requiring ladders to reach a good portion of the work.
Lesseps house crew
Lesseps house crew
Lesseps house crew
Lots of photos here of the work crew, notably using the work lights to find areas that needed work. The were admonitions to "be one with the wall" and in several of the photos in the set but not seen here, you can see a few of the guys interpreting that in their own special way.
Posing with owner
Francis house crew pays a quick visit
There's a very brief clip demonstrating the fine dust created from sanding here. In the next to last photo, there's a nice shot of the crew posing with the owner, who was present while the guys worked and was happy to explain the layout and her vision for her future home. The final photo is most of the other crew paying a quick visit on their way back to the mission house as noted in the next section.
Showers and Dinner 7:00pm - 8:50pm
The smaller group was advised that the work site
First dinner at the mission house
was usually closed up a bit early for security reasons, so the Francis Drive crew headed over to see the Lesseps Street project which was only one street over from the return route. (This should have taken less than 10 minutes if we hadn't missed the sign for a side street, taking an extra 5-10 minutes and a phone call.) After a quick introduction to the future owner and a brief look around, this same group headed back to the mission house to get some showers in before the rest would return. Dinner arrived some time after 7:00pm, with Rachel preparing red beans, rice and corn bread. We held off the early returners from eating as long as possible - which was until the first van from the second crew started opening the front door. After dinner, Mr. Cunha had recommended an area near The Spotted Cat Music Club for us to hang out and the guys to catch some jazz, at least from the street outside the clubs, since nearly every establishment was 21 and over only. Some guys were tired, but we assembled 2 van's worth of adventurers and headed out.
Street Band/The Marigny 9:15pm - 10:15pm Bordering the French Quarter is Faubourg Marigny
Street band
Watching the street band
Street band
(recently being referred to as just The Marigny) where Frenchmen Street is a mini-version of the French Quarter. On the corner of Frenchmen and Chartres Street we drove past a street band attracting a lot of listeners. With all the guys clamouring to get out
and listen, we found parking within a couple of
blocks and everyone dashed back to the intersection.
3 of the photos here show the band and the boys across the street.
After listening to the band for perhaps 20 minutes, the guys split into smaller groups
to wander around and find some shops or other music. There was an open air arts and crafts
market just around the corner, shown the other photo,
but all-in-all the age restrictions didn't provide a lot of
options and everyone was ready to head back at the appointed regrouping time.
A short clip of the street band is
here.
MORE DAY 3 MATERIAL COMING SOON.
All the photos from Day 2 can be found here: New Orleans Day 2 photo set
Day 3, Wednesday, April 23
Work day: Sectionals and St. Bernard Project
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Wake up 7:00am - 8:00am The day began with wake up calls at 7am again.
Breakfast\Washing Dishes 8:00am - 9:00am Breakfast was a baked egg-casserole with instants grits available.
Breakfast
Breakfast
Monopoly begins
There were different casseroles - some with sausage, some with bacon. After breakfast, our Monopoly Maniac (you know who you are) mustered enough players to begin a game of by-the-rules or else Monopoly, to the death - at least it sounded that way.
Sectionals and Lunches 10:00am - 12:30pm Again, Mr. Cunha held sectional practices.
Saxophone Sectional
Trombone and Tuba Sectional
Trumpet Sectional
Along with breakfast, we received more bread and cheese, baloney, cereal bars and apples with which we could make lunches again. By this time, we had stocked up on peanut butter and many chose that option again. Everyone had the option of eating before we would leave or packing a lunch or a little bit of both.
Work Site 1:00pm - 7:10pm This day there was a single work site. The first photo here shows our
Caffin Ave. Opportunity House
St. Bernard Project Opportunity Houses
crew introductions, where we all, including the
St. Bernard team, went around the circle with each person
saying where they'd like to travel to as part of their bucket list.
And unlike the previous day's houses, this was an "Opportunity House",
which is a site purchased as a blighted property and built or rebuilt
to provide affordable housing - see the description in the second image.
Hanging drywall was a new experience for most of the jazz band.
There was a session on driving
Drywall cutting demonstration
Measuring ceiling cut-outs
Front room crew
screws and on the best method
for cutting the drywall.
Downstairs the work consisted of putting a second layer of drywall
on the ceilings. This was for noise insulation, since this house
would have a separate upstairs residence. The sheets for this
purpose were 5/8th inches thick and 12 feet by 4 feet - so they
were a bit heavy.
The combination of large, heavy drywall, using long screws to go
through 2 layers, working on the ceiling and inexperience with
driving screws made this quite a challenge and occasionally frustrating
for the guys. Everyone kept plugging away and we made some progress
although there was disappointment we didn't get more accomplished.
We had 2 teams, one in the larger front area and 1 in a small
room in the middle of the building. The smaller room proved
more problematic with sheets needing to be fitting into the
smaller area and with several cut-outs for fixtures.
MORE DAY 3 MATERIAL COMING SOON.
A video of the end of the day a cappella performance of "Blue Note Special" is
here.
Birthday and dinner 7:30pm - 9:15pm The morning's Monopoly battle truce ended immediately
Monopoly continues
Birthday trumpet and cake
Jambalaya
upon our return, as seen in the first photo here. This day was a 15th birthday for one of the trumpet players. His mother was coincidentally in New Orleans on business, so her appearance was not a surprise. However, the big secret was a new trumpet - see the next photo. After arriving with a cake and the gift, there was the obligatory "Happy Birthday" and then a run to Walmart for ice cream while everyone had dinner, which had arrived during the celebration. Dinner was a sausage Jambalaya (third photo), salad and bread, with the salad being mostly ignored by our guys. During dinner, the cake was cut and everyone had dessert after the meal that evening.
"The Resistance" 9:45pm - 11:15pm
The evening ended with a game of "The
Playing "The Resistance"
Resistance".
All the photos from Day 3 can be found here:
New Orleans Day 3 photo set
Day 4, Thursday, April 24
Music day: Jesuit High School of New Orleans (JHSNO) and Loyola University
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Wake up 7:00am - 8:00am The day began with another wake up call at 7am.
Breakfast 8:00am - 8:45am
Breakfast"
Breakfast on this day was bananas, muffins and sausage patties
with left-over baked egg casserole or instant grits available.
Once again there was plenty of milk and orange juice,
with several pots of coffee getting us through the morning.
Packing/Ironing/Cleaning 8:45am - 10:30am After breakfast it was time to prepare for the performance at Jesuit High School NOLA. We also needed to pack - we would be in our hotel a little after 9pm on this day. Several guys ironed their dress attire and everyone started packing. In order not to be charged a cleaning fee, we needed to give the house a thorough cleaning. Luggage and instruments were collected on the front porch and walkway while all the folding tables where collapsed and the chairs stacked. The entire house was vacuumed, dishes washed, bathrooms scrubbed and floors mopped. Several loads of laundry were also run including any towels/clothing anyone wanted to have washed as well as sheets, blankets and dish towels that we had used or planned to leave behind and hadn't been washed the night before.
Jesuit High School of New Orleans 10:50am - 1:10pm At Jesuit HS of New Orleans photo set We arrived at Jesuit High School of New Orleans just before 11 am. By 11:10am we'd met our host,
Rhythm section setting up at JHSNO
Jazz Band warm up in the auditorium at JHSNO
Mr. M. Joseph Caluda - their band director (among other roles), and the rhythm section was setting up in the courtyard where the band was to perform, while the remaining band went into the auditorium to rehearse and warm up. While the band warmed up with Mr. Cunha, the other adults chatted for a bit with Lawerence "Top" Abshire, Prefect of Discipline who told us that the auditorium had just been renovated before Katrina hit. When sections of flood walls alongside major drainage canals collapsed, their school suffered crippling damage from the five feet of water that inundated the entire neighborhood. The auditorium we were in needed $12 million dollars to restore. Immediately after Katrina hundreds of their students attended satellite schools, first in Houston and then also in nearby Metairie. On November 28, 2005, 90 days after Katrina — Jesuit NOLA reopened, the first flooded high school in Orleans Parish to do so. Full repairs and renovations were not completed until 2007.
Lunch 1:40pm - 2:15am
After driving past Loyola University, Mr. Cunha chose a
Burger King
Burger King about 2 miles away for lunch (on S. Carrollton Ave. just off S. Claiborne Ave.). A few of our troupe did not fancy there options there and went across the street to the Walgreens to find what they could.
At Loyola University of New Orleans 2:35pm - 5:20pm After lunch, we headed back to Loyola.
Loyola jazz band
Loyola clinic
Loyola clinic
We were supposed to have reserved parking ready, but there was no communication as to where that was to be. 3 of our vans found spots on Calhoun Street, near the corner with St. Charles Ave. while the last van parked a few blocks down St. Charles on another side street. On Calhoun there was a reserved area along the street a few spaces from where we parked and was probably meant for us, since it was next to the Communications/Music Complex building where we had our clinic. There's a short clip of the Loyola band rehearsal as well as recordings of the clinic session available, although the audio is not ideal. John Mahoney, Professor and Coordinator of Jazz Studies was our clinician at Loyola. There is a playlist of these videos here: At Loyola University playlist.
Loyola posers
Loyola posers
Tulane posers
After the clinic we assembled all the students for a group photo. The one van that parked farther away took a couple of photos of their own: at both the Tulane University sign and a Loyola sign (Loyola University New Orleans and Tulane University are adjacent to each other along St. Charles Ave.) All the photos from our time at Loyola are here: At Loyola University New Orleans photo set
All the photos from Day 4 can be found here: New Orleans Day 4 photo set
Day 5, Friday, April 25
Fun day: Airboat Adventure and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
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Airboat Adventures 9:50am - 11:50am Airboat Adventures photo set Airboat Adventures is a tour
Airboats heading out
Alligator by land
"Let's Make Some Noise"
business that uses the kind of shallow water boats with the big propeller on the back that we usually associate with the Everglades to take visits through canals adjoining Lake Salvador near the town of Jean Lafitte. Most of the tour consisted of lower speed
excursions through the
various channels encountering numerous alligators and some overhanging vegetation in the narrower
areas with occasional
bursts of speed requiring all to wear ear protection against the noise of the engine and propeller.
We were in the largest airboat due to our group's size, in the first photo here you can see
several of small boats heading out from the dock ahead of ours.
The next photo shows one of the alligators lounging on the shore; most the ones we encountered
were floating in the canals.
The third photo shows everyone using their hearing protection -
not needed at lower speeds, but our guide would indicate it was time to put them on by
stating "Let's make some noise" just before we'd
start accelerating.
Most of the channels were fairly wide, some big enough for large barges, but there were a
few, like the one pictured here, with vegetation overhanging almost completely.
We were advised not to come in contact with dried mossy material hanging down unless
we were prepared to be
Something seems dangerous but I can't quite put my finger on it
Leapin' Lizards! Oops, I mean Alligators
covered in spiders and other insects. Our guide gave details on the history, purpose, ownership and geology of the canal areas off and on. We stopped numerous times to take photographs and watch our guide feed and interact with the 'gators. In order to lure the alligators towards the boats, marshmallows are tossed into the water. They were also fed hot dogs from a stick, getting them to jump several feet out of the water for that treat. Our guide also lured one to the boat by slapping and riling the water with his hand and then deftly picking its head up out of the water by reaching under the jaw in a manner that prevents getting bitten
Lips that touch 'gator best not kiss you later
Everyone made it back with all their fingers still intact
(almost all of the time).
The next 2 photos shows our guide picking up an alligators head and getting it leap
up for a bit of hot dog.
Near the end of the excursion, a baby alligator not quite 2 feet long was produced from a
cooler on the boat and passed around while our guide gave details of the lives and biology of these
reptiles.
Everyone held it, with the notable exceptions of our 2 faculty members who refused to be
coerced into participating.
The last 2 photos here show the baby 'gator and finally everyone back at the dock still
in possession of all their digits.
The accompanying photo set has way too many pictures of the alligators, so be prepared to
skip over quite a few shots.
See a video clip here:
feeding the 'gators,
a complete playlist of video clips (including the feeding one) can be found
here, some parts may be a little boring, when the boat is just cruising the bayous,
or observing some alligators, but there's also some interesting commentary from our
guide scattered amongst the clips.
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 1:15pm - 6:00pm New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival photo set At the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the boys went off in groups. If this link is still active, here are the day's lineup options: April 25 lineup The Murphys, joined most of the time by Mr. Cargile and the Clesi parents saw the following artists:
Chris Thomas King, in the Blues Tent 1:20pm - 2:20pm Chris Thomas King photo set A video of some of the performance is here.
(food stops for Poboys and other fare 2:20pm - 2:50pm)
New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, on the Fais Do-Do stage 2:50pm - 3:45pm Sitting on the grass, shuffling multiple times back into the shade of a large tree as the sun moved and other patrons left their coveted spots.
Irwin Mayfield & the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, in the Jazz Tent 4:00pm - 5:00pm Standing room only for quite a while, until we all eventually grabbed freshly vacated seats, some of the boys also joined us here. Videos of some of the performances are here, here and here.
Carlos Santana, on the Acura Stage 5:10pm - 6:00pm
We all split up with the Murphys snaking into the SRO area of the Acura Stage for Carlos Santana,
while most of the boys opted for Public Enemy on the Congo Square stage.
Some videos of Santana are
here (brief clip),
here (a longer clip) and
here (brief clip).
And there is a video of
"Black Magic Woman" and "Oye Como Va".
At 6pm, everyone regrouped near the entrance in order to avoid the coming traffic surge and
get back to the hotel for cheaper dinner options and a last minute band review.
All the photos from Day 5 can be found here: New Orleans Day 5 photo set
Day 6, Saturday, April 26
Competition day
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Follow the links to a set of photos on flickr
Wake up 8:00am - 9:00am The day began at 8am.
All the photos from Day 6 can be found here: New Orleans Day 6 photo set
Wake up and breakfast 8:00am - 9:30am Wake up call was for 8 a.m., everyone made it down for
Breakfast and discussing plans
How did anyone manage to eat breakfast before cell phones?
breakfast and back to their rooms to dress for the competition. Some of the guys even knew their rooms had an iron and even more surprisingly, what to do with it.
Assemble and drive to the competition 10:00am - 10:30am By 10 a.m., everyone was dressed in their black performance attire and assembled in the hotel lobby for our drive to the competition. Well,
Bright and early? Yes. But maybe not quite so bright.
At least in this room you can still see some floor.
almost dressed - there was a fairly concerning search for a left dress shoe including looking through the vans that went on for about 10 minutes prior to our scheduled departure. Then, to the amusement of a handful of other hotel patrons standing just outside the hotel entrance taking in the slightly disorganized attempts to herd everyone into vehicles, came this loud announcement: "Hey, these are 2 left shoes." A quick hand off and a trip back up to the room recovered an overlooked right shoe and the need to blacken a pair of tennis shoes with a Sharpie was averted.
Competition and clinic 10:30am - 1:10pm We arrived at Landry-Walker High School around
Landry-Walker College and Career Preparatory High School
Landry-Walker College and Career Preparatory High School
Enthusiastically watching another competitor, wait, maybe not so enthusiastic
10:30 a.m., which you can see a bit of in the first couple of arrival photos here, and in some other shots in the full set. After dropping off their instruments in a spare room, everyone headed into the auditorium between sets where we listened for a short while another competing band.
band from the competition. After that, we were allowed into the warm up room for rehearsal until the band was called to the stage. Videos of the performances are available here: "Another Zydobeto", "Blue Note Special", "Chronometry" and the clinic. The adjudicators for the Jesuit performance were Dr. Gary Thomas Schallert, Associate Professor, Western Kentucky University, Dr. Ron Hufstader, Director of Bands, Univeristy of Texas at El Paso and Mark D. Lighthiser, Assistant Director of Bands, Tulane University, New Orleans. Our clinician was Mr. Lighthiser who was only given about 8 rushed minutes to give his live feedback.
Dinner/Awards/Dance 7:10pm - 9:30pm All regrouped at the hotel to dress for the evening. Then we weer off to the New Orleans Event & Film Studios Facility (a rental hall at ) for the dinner, awards and dance. Somehow, the lead van's GPS took us to the 200 block of Newton in Gretna instead of in New Orleans, fortunately the 2 addresses were only about 3 miles apart, so we arrived about 10 minutes later.
Day 7, Sunday, April 27
Travel day
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Follow the links to a set of photos on flickr
Wake up 4:00am - 5:00am The day began with wake up calls at 4am! Mr. Cargile displayed a bit of a masochistic streak, having us request room wake up calls for everyone at 4am and revelling in being able to bang on all the boys' doors around 4:30. Everyone made it to the lobby, packed and ready to go by 5am. The hotel would normally prepare a sack breakfast only during weekdays for patrons departing earlier than the breakfast times, but made an exception and prepared a bag for each of us on this Sunday (a muffin, apple, snack bar and a water).
To the airport 5:00am - 5:30am With Sabrina and one having left us the evening before, we had arrange for 2 taxi vans in addition to our 3 remaining vans to get all of us, luggage and instruments to the airport. Dave and Linda Clesi hung out with the boys at the airport, while we returned the 3 vans.
Southwest 6:20am CDT - 11:45am PDT Our return flights had a single change of planes in Houston, then on to Oakland. (Ed. Add peanut butter sandwich note here.)
Shuttle and train 12:10pm - 4:00pm PDT A few students were picked up in Oakland while the rest took the shuttle bus and train back to Sacramento. Those remaining caught the shuttle immediately after claiming their baggage and waited at the Amtrak station for the 1:55 departure of train 734, for the return from Oakland to Sacramento. A few disembarked at Davis and the rest arrived in Sacramento around the scheduled time just before 4:00pm.
All the photos from Day 7 can be found here: New Orleans Day 7 photo set