Seattle!

Choir tour was very fun, but maybe my expectations were a little too high, or maybe Seattle was just too wet and cold for my taste or perhaps it was the occasional drama I was putting up with, but it wasn't as absolutely incredible as I was expecting, but still very fun! Part of it was probably how tired everyone was, as we were always go go going (each day literally felt like 3 or 4 days, you think I'm kidding), and had practically no down time and the fact that, okay, it was choir tour and it is practically a requirement to stay up until two or three o'clock in the morning doing all kinds of stuff. And then pull an all-nighter on the last night so that you can sleep on the bus the next morning...that was really fun. Anyway here are the pictures:

This is the hotel we stayed at in Seattle, Embassy Suites. It was so much fun! It looked like this all the way around. This picture was taken outside of my room on the second floor. Breanna and I enjoyed writing notes to our maids, and we think that they thoroughly enjoyed it as well. We also raced around the circle of our floor. You can't see them in the picture, but the elevators were pretty much made out of glass or something so that you could see out, and they were actually really fun, except for in the morning when they kind of made your stomach jump up into your throat, even more than normal, which is saying a lot for me seeing as ALL elevators force my stomach and throat into becoming pals.

This is Breanna and I at the hockey game we went to on Friday or maybe Saturday... nope, Friday, I just checked my ticket that is taped in my journal. I think our faces say pretty much how we felt about it. But, for the benefit of those who are not good at reading facials, I will simply say that we did not enjoy it very much. (Sorry about the terrible picture quality, needless to say, hockey games do not have the best lighting for pictures).


This was at the Experience Music Project that we went to on Saturday. Some of them actually played...how cool is that?? They put this intense machinery on some of the guitars that...yeah, made them play. It was really cool. I felt like we were an hour longer than we needed to be, but at the same time, the last hour was spent in a little room with a few of my friends "recording personal histories" which is what the room was technically for, however since no one really knew about this studio, we pretty much just chilled out in there and made dumb videos. It was excellent. And the videos are permanent. How fun is that??? There are videos of me and my friends looking like we are on drugs permanently recorded in Seattle. Life is beautiful. On Saturday morning we had a clinic with a man at the University of Washington, and that was pretty good. After that we went to that Music Project thing (where they had like, recording studios and stuff - like, legit, they were soundproof and everything! It was way cool) This is a kind of bad picture of the top of the building, taken from the Space Needle, it was pretty cool, if you can tell at all.

On Saturday we also:


Yep, went to the Space Needle! It was SO amazing! It was really cool, because pretty much the whole day was rainy and cold, but when we went up into the Space Needle, it was clear and beautiful. I took these pictures from up there:





Beautiful! The view was absolutely INCREDIBLE! Here is especially for my BYU fans who read this:

Hopefully you can see that it makes a "Y." Congrats to the Cougars for how well their basketball team has down this year (yay Jimmer!).
Speaking of sports, I'm pretty sure this is where the Seattle Seahawks practice, so I was a little bit of a creeper, here are the pics (and again, sorry about the random lines, there were ensuring my safety while up on the Space Needle, which, while appreciated, makes picture taking somewhat difficult):


So ta-da and yay for the Space Needle! That is where I got most of my family's souvenirs, including one for my yet-to-be-born sister, who will be receiving an adorable pink Space Needle onesie purchased at a ridiculously overpriced amount, but was worth every penny. This is why they overprice these things. How did they know my weakness for my little sister?

Sunday was SO fun! All of us woke up in the morning pretty much drained of all energy, until we arrived at the Ebenezer A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopal) Zion Church, a church made up almost entirely of Black people.


Again, sorry for the poor picture quality, but it was raining outside, so I took this picture from inside my bus (the "popular senior, choir tour romance" bus, which I'm not sure how ended up on, but hey, if I'm a junior and on the popular senior bus, I'm doing alright for myself). Anyway, going to this church was the single most fun part of ALL of tour. Seriously, if you have never been to a church like this, you cannot even comprehend the amazingness. Because at their church "its a party!" as they sang to us in the first song, which included a sweet guitar solo. The singing was incredible! The whole choir (my choir) quickly picked up on the chorus's to most of the songs, especially the repentance one: "I gotta clean up what I messed up! Start my life all over again!" I could still sing it for you. So amazing! These people had so much energy! They totally got all of us involved. Because when the Pastor asks you how you are feeling, you tell the Pastor how you are feeling! Here is the story behind that: after church started, the Pastor asked the congregation how we were feeling. The actual congregation responded with a lot of "good Pastor!"'s while the group of us just kind of sat there, still not quite sure how to act, due to the fact that we were all used to sitting reverently in Sacrament Meeting. While there is nothing wrong with that, that is not how things were done at this church. Anyway, when we just sat there, one of the women at this church said to us, "hey, when the Pastor asks you how you are feeling, you tell the Pastor how you are feeling!" So the Pastor proceeds to ask us again, how we are feeling and then EVERYBODY responded with "Good Pastor!"'s. :) Anyway, if you think it is simply a stereotype in movies and books that people at these churchs say "Amen!" and Hallelujah!" and "Teach it to me Brother!" you are wrong. Because that is what I thought going in and I left with a totally new outlook on life. I think the coolest part was probably the evidence of how much these people truly believed in Jesus Christ. They meant each "Amen" and "Mm-hmm" they said. You could tell that they lived it in their every day life. Do not get me wrong, I love the LDS church with everything in me. I KNOW that it is true. But these people love God their Father so much. They live and breath their religion every day of their lives. They know it, and they want other people to know it. They do not hide their light under a bushel. I loved it so much! The other thing I loved was how incredibly friendly these people were! Not one of them had a single bad thing to say about this big group of white Mormon kids from Orem, Utah coming to their church thinking they could sing. No way! They accepted us the minute we walked through the door. They clapped for us. They "Amen"-ed for us. They even prayed for us. May God truly bless each and every one of these amazing people of the Ebenezer A.M.E. Zion Church.
The next day was spent on the bus. All day. Except for a few stops. We got home around 1:00am and I still went to school the next day. I should get cookies.
Well, that was tour! It was a wonderful experience, and I cannot wait for next year! Except I don't want to be on the popular senior bus next year, because I will be a Senior and I don't really like my class... how sad is that? Anyway, there you go!

Keep Smiling!
~Ali