Temple Square to Times Square

This has been a whirlwind adventure. Aside from a French Fry bandit, everything has been going smoothly. More on him below.

Last Sunday I was on Temple Square and last night I was standing in the middle of Times Square. As Hughey Lewis would say, "It's Hip To Be Square."

Tour started on Wednesday morning and even though I have only been gone for only three days, I feel like I've been away from home for a week. We have done so much in the time we have traveled.

Most of my day-to-day doings have been documented on social media, largely twitter. I didn't want to over feed my Facebook feed. You are welcome, everyone.

We arrived in Baltimore, Maryland and stayed at a Marriot. We performed in a beautiful hall called the Strathmore. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, had dinner and had some free time. My roommate Dennis lived in this area and after dinner we decided to go on an adventure. We took the metro to the Capital building in Washington, DC where we walked around and eventually found ourselves on the back steps listening to a military band. It was a beautiful night. The sun was setting, it was cool and I saw fireflies for the first time. We found out it was "The President's Own" military band playing. What? I was super shocked. We performed with them last September. I was so moved by that broadcast that I wrote about it. Click Here.

Dennis and I went up to the conductor afterward and talked to him. Dennis mentioned we were members of the choir and he was surprised we were there. He knew the choir was in town. They are also doing various concerts as well. He mentioned how well they were treated when they came to Salt Lake City and how moving it was for them to be part of the broadcast. He said they had another performance after that afternoon and it was hard to get up that early to perform but that it was absolutely worth it. He asked about our concert and said if he could he would visit but it would be difficult because of their schedule. We thanked him for taking time to talk to us. He was so gracious. As we were walking away we heard him saying to people waiting to talk to him, "Those two are members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and we performed with them last September...." It was an amazing adventure on our first day of tour and a feeling I will never forget. We came back to the hotel to rest and arrived at 10:00 pm. I was surprised to see other choir members out and about actually going out at that hour. I love to mingle and socialize but I also like to sleep. LOL. We turned in and had a great rest.

The next day, Thursday, we were at Strathmore the entire day. We rehearsed in their beautiful hall. It's gorgeous. We had a matinee in the afternoon and then we had an evening concert. I was also introduced to the guest conductor aspect of tour. The first concert was a Rabbi and the second concert was the man in charge of Homeland Security.

Both concerts were beautiful. Unfortunately, I still cannot sing, "Come, Come Ye Saints" without bawling. The arrangement is powerful and really support the message of the lyrics. It starts with Basses holding a solid note while the sisters sing and I can't seem to keep my emotions in control.

We returned to the hotel and crashed. We were tired. We also had to leave early in the morning for Washington, DC for some sight seeing before heading to New York.

I'm so grateful for Dennis (he's my roommate and fellow bass) as he knows these areas so well he knows how to best get around. We rented some bikes and rode around the mall. So awesome. I can't believe I was there.

We took a bus ride and finally ended up in New York City at around 8:10 pm. Checked in and grabbed some dinner, visited Times Square and turned in for the night.

Want to feel small? Come to New York. LOL.

I will say this, I think being a therapist is helpful in New York. We were having dinner at the Shake Shack and there were no seats so we had to stand at a table. Well, this guy comes up and stands by us and watched for a bit. He then reached down, picked up a french fry and began to dip it in the french fry sauce to eat it from off of Ryan and Jennifer's tray. My therapist instinct immediately kicked in and I called him on his behaviors. I was like, "Hey! What are you doing?!?!?! That's not yours. You need to go away." He looked at me, dropped his fry and slowly walked away as I was like, "Seriously dude, what the heck? Not your food." As a therapist it really is observe and describe behaviors and calling  people out when they are inappropriate. It really is second nature in my field to address behaviors so I had no problem doing it. I think this skill will be very helpful here in New York. After that experience I realized that what security said is true. We need to be careful. At the same time I think we all have the skillset to address concerns and to act when moved upon without fear. It was an eventful night.

We are staying right in Times Square. All the Broadway shows are across the street. Literally, across the street is Lion King, Matilda, Everything's Rotten, Mamma Mia, Finding Neverland, etc. It's crazy to think we are staying this close to Broadway shows and to Times Square. Just amazing.

It has been busy, fun and a lot of travel. I miss my wife and daughter. I wish they were here. Dennis misses his wife and children too but we also know this is a part of our calling in the church right now so we are going to serve.

I woke up today refreshed and excited for the day ahead. I'm in New York City and right in Times Square. I feel extremely blessed for this opportunity. I'm so happy to be here.