Today was a travel day. We arrived in Tromso, and checked into our hostel. Five star hostel! For one, showers in each room. No squeegee-ing! Ask your sons about the squeegeeing in Svalbard.

Dinner at the hostel was delicious: baked chicken and rice, salad, and ice cream for dessert. Never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to make boys happy. FOOD. In large quantities. Quality is a bonus. We had both tonight.
Boys in the Park
We then decided to take a hike to the park adjacent to the hostel. Beats rehearsing, the original plan. WOW! The backdrop for this park is indescribable. I won’t even try – see pictures. Hopefully they’ll do it justice. Of course they will! Because we have Laurie Harbeson. Thank you Laurie for the amazing pictures. Your photography is awesome and we love you for it!)

It was so fantastic to see the boys running around and being boys from a by-gone era. Some were collecting shells on the beach, some skipping rocks along the surface of the lake-like tidal waters of the bay. Some were playing on swings. Others engrossed in serious games of volleyball (ask your sons about the Princess ball) and frisbee football. Everyone together and happy and CONNECTED and DISCONNECTED from video games and cell phones and computers. My, I sound old!

Our aim was an early night, and we succeeded with the trebles. The grads…not so much. They stayed up planning the repertoire for the final tour concert at the Arctic Cathedral tomorrow night. I think a new tradition has been born. So gratifying to witness a bunch of high school boys so impassioned about choral music. Their work then morphed into a wonderful open forum with the staff about life, bullying, challenges of growing up, being an arts-minded young person, and more life. It was the kind of tour moment that reminds us educators how much we impact the lives of the young people we teach and how much they enrich our lives. Also, a reminder of how bright and thoughtful and insightful our boys are. Only on tour is there time to have these dialogues with them. Yea for tour!

More later…