San Fran Part Dos

You may have been overwhelmed by the last monster of a post. I told you to expect a lot. It was just simply a beast of a trip.

This post will be much shorter so don't you worry. Only one or two things...

-Fisherman's Wharf! Possibly one of my new favorite places ever just from the sheer amount of things to do there. And I just spent my time there on Pier 39! There were 50 other things to do and not enough time to see em all. Oh well, gives me a reason to go back. We found a fun little puppet place.. we had a good time.
This wonderful specimen of seal lion is known as Magnus. I mean isn't that what you would name him? Just look at him!
I had the BEST seafood I have ever had. You think I'm exaggerating? You should see the look on my face right now. Not exaggerating.

-Final big concert of tour! The Chapel of the Chimes. I mean the name itself is heavenly. The church and attached mausoleum were even better than the name suggested, the architecture exquisite. Plus we had, in my opinion, one of the best concerts we've ever had. The serene mausoleum (yes I had to look up how to spell that word).


-Dinner at Fenton's. For those of you who don't know what Fenton's is, think of the movie Up. At the end of the movie, Karl and Russell are sitting on the curb eating ice cream cones.

They are sitting in front of Fenton's. Pretty legit. Seriously had one of the most delicious ice cream sundaes I have EVER had. It's a San Fran MUST. PS- Those glasses that I have on. Pretty legit right? New favorites. Not real. But still love em.

-Last but not least, we got to sing in the sacrament meeting of my choir director's home ward. A nice end to a hectic trip...

But wait.. there's more?!

Due to a closing of the Donner Pass, our trip home was diverted on a different route than the one we had originally planned. Diverted about 5-6 hours. Therefore, instead of getting back home at 12 or 1 in the morning, we did not get home till 5:30 am.. we spent ALL night on Le Bus. Things got a little loopy.. Nuff said.

But that wraps it all up. Best choir experience. Ever. The End.

The Foggy City

This past week of my life was spent in the city of California known as San Francisco.

Ever heard of it?

It quickly became one of my new favorite places. I mean just look at it! The architecture, climate, and the fact that it was so GREEN and summer-like made me want to pick up and move there immediately!

The UVU Chamber Choir decided this year to escape to this paradise to tour at a few different places. Our director is from the area so, obviously he knew a lot about it.

In all honesty, I have NEVER done so much in one week as we did. It felt like we were on San Francisco Overload, and I certainly did not mind one bit. Let me just give you a run down of the kind of trip I had:

-A stop at the Golden Gate Bridge was a must. The first stop of our trip actually.


-Chinatown, in all it's glories! Oh how I love the Chinese.

















-A visit to the LDS Oakland Temple, a gorgeous edifice if I do say so. That same night we had a sang with a Tongan choir from the local LDS congregation. They fed us before.
Do I need to repeat that? We were fed a Tongan dinner. Nuff said.

-Next stop: Coit Tower and Lombard Street,"The Crooked Street" Both were beautifully awesome. For those of you who are confused by the last two pictures, go watch the movie Hot Rod. Understanding will come to you.

-Singing in Grace Cathedral. OH. MY. GOODNESS. Words cannot express the pure delight and awe that I felt at getting to sing in this awesome space! I mean look at it!

When we would finish singing, the notes would literally hang in the air for a full minute. It was beautiful.

You tired yet? It was only the second day...

-A visit to UC Berkley for a workshop with the choir director there. She was fantastic. We then went to dinner at telegraph avenue where I had literally the BIGGEST calzone I've ever seen. It was deliciousness.

-Next: Golden Gate Park. It was raining. We were miserable. But we made the most of it as you can see below. Still prolly my least favorite moment of the trip. I was soaked for the rest of the day..


-A clinic with the director of the San Francisco Symphony. He's Swedish. It was epic. We then went and sang at Mission Dolores, the oldest building in San Francisco. The basilica inside of it was unbelievable and it was one of my favorite places to sing. You don't realize how much these resonant spaces matter in music till you get the chances to experience them firsthand. This was the space we sang in. Fantastic right?


-The San Francisco Symphony! One of my favorite moments of tour. The director that we had had a clinic just that day directed the San Francisco Choir and Symphony in Bach's B Minor Mass. I was worried that I would fall asleep during the performance, we all were pretty tired at that point. Nope! Stayed awake for the whole thing and loved every minute of it! I realized once again how much I love music.. Don't we look snazzy?



-We then spent the night at a hotel on the beach. And we woke up to this: Ireland or Scotland anybody? It was stunning.. I just wanted to stay in that moment forever.. You see I'm a hopeless romantic, and my favorite kinda days are the brooding, cloudy, rainy, foggy, wet, everything's so vibrantly green from the rain that it hurts your eyes, waves crashing on the cliffs.. This was my kinda place.

And that brings us to the last few days of the trip.. Are you in shock of how much we did?

Yep. So were we.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

I realized how much is in this post so I might just save the last few things for the next one. So stay tuned for San Francisco Part Dos!