When I was 16, our high school choir took a trip from Illinois to Califonia and back by bus.
In my wildest dreams, I would never do it again…but at the time, it was the coolest trip I ever made.
We saw all the sights, went to the Grand Canyone, Disneyland, San Francisco, and lots of other great places. The trip was about three weeks, if I remember correctly, and it was the longest I had ever been away from home.
What was your best/most interesting/worst long-term class trip?
Well, this one time at band camp…
I have been a chaperone on several youth trips of one week duration. We’ve done Panama City, FL several times as well as a couple of ski trips and a couple of white water rafting trips. One week with a room full of sweaty, shower adverse teenage boys is more than enough.
Our high school band took a couple interesting trips, to Disney and Mertyl Beach …
Of course, I wasn;t in the band, and since I was poor I couldn’t go with the bandos and have fun. No sir. I had top sit in class practically alone.
So if you really want the lowdown on tholse trips that I didn’t get to take, you should ask that bit … er, my wife. She went on all of them.
Cracken-fracken.
My sophomore year, my band (Jackson Twp, Ohio) took a trip to the Fiesta Bowl parade in Phoenix…that trip was great. We did the pregame show at the Fiesta Bowl…not performing unfortunately, but we held the super giant American flag that was unfurled. We marched in the parade, and also performed at Old Tuscon, before it burned down.
My senior year, we were going to do the Orange Bowl parade, but the organizers wouldn’t let us plan our outside of parade schedule, so we ditched it and went solely do Disney World. Played in the Christmas parade there, and then just hung out. It was cool.
My HS band takes a big trip every two years, and did the Tournament of Roses parade two years after I graduated. Those trips were awesome.
Jman
My director always turned down any bowl game-, Macy’s parade-type trips because he cared more about concert season than he did marching season.
Thankfully, I too cared more about concert season than marching season. Our band was selected to play at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago my sophomore year in high school, which was way more work than fun. We worked from May-December to prepare, but it was very cool playing in front of 3000 high-school, college, and professional directors and musicians.
Chicago was so much fun since we went during Christmas time. I suggest going during the winter to anyone.
The summer before my Senior year of HS my choir went to England (for some competition I don’t remember the name of) then to Paris (for fun). We were gone 9 days.
My high school band and chorus - Ichabod Crane from Valatie, NY - went to Washington, DC for an overnight once. We stood on those steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial, the ones that go down to the reflecting pool, facing the Washington Monument. An Australian dignitary was visiting and when we finished our performance we heard him cheering for us in the tent on property, and one of his entourage came out to tell us he’d very much enjoyed it.
After the performance we got to go visit all the other monuments, still in our uniforms. The FDR memorial with all the statues provided great photo opportunities since nothing and nobody stops you from climbing onto the statues’ laps or posing as if you’re dancing dirty with one of the bronze men in the bread line. However, we went from there to the Vietnam memorial, where all wisecracking and hijinks ceased. I don’t think our group had ever been as quiet as we were there. A lot of kids had a name to look for, or had been sent by friends or family to leave something at the wall; the rest of us just stood and pondered.
Then it was on to the Korean memorial, where we posed for a group photo to put in the yearbook. I was the only one who thought anything of that one, because the man my mom called Daddy had fought there, and nobody else in my class was even aware that we’d had a war there because we were never taught it in history class.
We almost got kicked out of our hotel. There was a soft porn showing on tv - the hotel had cable and Cinemax - and kids were running all over with the pizza that had been provided (I kid you not, there was an entire pizza per student; those who only ate a piece or two were evened out by the boys who ate entire boxes cardboard and all) jumping into each others’ beds and getting loud about the pornography. My roommates and I weren’t interested in the porn - we were all either devout Christians or, in my case, had just seen enough of that on TV at home - so we watched Gladiator on HBO instead.
The next day they said we were going to go to the Smithsonian, but we’d only had time to go down and look at Richard Petty’s car before they called us back and said we were missing our bus. So I have yet to see the museums. I’m going back someday.
I was a band geek and thoroughly enjoyed all of our trips to festivals and competitions.
My sophomore year we went to Nashville, TN which was interesting. We didn’t really know what to expect and most of us got the impression that food in TN must be terrible b/c everywhere we ate was terrible. The hotel food was terrible. The food at the cafeteria on Andrew Jackson’s plantation was terrible. But Music Row was interesting, the Grand Ole Opry, and some of the other historic sights were fun even if you werent a country music fan.
Junior year we went to Toronto, Canada which was a blast. Went to Niagara Falls, rode the Maid of the Mist, had dinner at the top of the CN tower, walked around downtown Toronto (an absolutely gorgeous city, I might add), eating at a McDonalds that had part of the menu in French. A fun experience, but MAN OH MAN was it ever cold in April there!
Senior year was the Orlando trip, which for waterlogged, brainfried seniors in March was the pinnacle of our existance. Day long trips to University Studios, Disney World, Seaword, coming home with a tan, it was the BEST experience in my 4 years in band.
One time in band camp…
hardy har har!!!
The choir I sang with in college went on an all-expenses paid tour of Europe and sang in various churches all over the continent – the Vatican, Cologne, Chatres.
Of course, that was the semester after I graduated. Grrrrrrrrr.
My HS band travelled every year. Even years we went somewhere close (domestic) Odd years we went somewhere far (intl).
Freshman year we went to California, LA & Disneyland by bus. 24 hours non-stop (well, pee breaks)
Softmore year we went to Germany & Austria Munich & Salzburg, that was the best trip!)
Junior year we went back to California back to LA & Disney land, again, by bus, I was pretty tired of Band trips by this time.
Senior year, the band went to China, but I went to DC with a different year. NEVER regretted that decision even for a second.
Sophomore year, spanish class (all five of us) went to Costa Rica for ten days. Absolutely beautiful country, and we got pics of our teacher screaming as she rode a zip line hundreds of feet above the ground.
At the end of my freshman year our band went to Florida. We were down there for a week, marched at Disney World and did EPCOT and MGM. One day we were given a choice to go to EPCOT again or to the beach. One of our tubas, a loveable dumbass, got stung by a jellyfish.
20 hours on a bus. Good times.