Catch-Up

Our choir Christmas party was held the Friday before our San Antonio trip, at the home of one of our sopranos and her bass hubby. Their house is so beautiful with about 8 Christmas trees. There was singing - of course - of Steve's songs about the choir and of my song about Steve the Director, set to the tune of Frosty the Snowman. There was also lots of food and plenty to drink and laugh about - plus a rousting game of "Swap". It was relatively new to me and many others, but made for quite a loud game which enticed many to join in.

Saturday morning K came by to pick me up. It was a warm day - about 75 degrees - but we packed our coats and toboggans in plan with the forecast of a cold front coming through. We stopped at the Dell Children's Hospital to see K's niece for an hour or so - wearing our pink fluffy halos and bringing bags of goodies. We arrived at the hotel about 4:30 and met up with Jim and Paula - then got ready to head to the river walk. We were to meet at 6:15 at St. Joseph's landing to load the first boat. K parked at the Mercado and we rode the trolley back to the river walk, where our driver did not let us out exactly where we wanted, and we ended up searching for the landing - which no one really could direct us to - making it there just in time, out of breath and sweating from the warm weather. We carried our coats, just in case.

There was some drama about who was to ride the first boat - evidently Steve didn't know the current status of some sweetie-pies who wanted to ride together - so they were scheduled on separate boats - que lastima!! After a delay, we were set to go, sitting on our coats, wearing our flashing necklaces and glow-in-the-dark earrings and hair pins. According to our driver, Rachel, the river walk was the most crowded ever - as we could tell - and she has been driving for 9 years. We enjoyed singing and waving to the crowd, pulling up next to folks enjoying their dinner, a wedding, and an outdoor scene from "Wonderful Life". There were lots of smiles and hand waving, cheering, and good wishes. During one portion of the ride where there was no one around, Steve wanted us to sing the Hallelujah Chorus - just to see if we could. We did, and from then on, about every 3rd or 4th song was the Hallelujah Chorus. I must admit we sounded pretty good with the acoustics of the bridges over the river!

Round two found less drama - except for the fact that I dropped my coat in the river - but before we got started, the local visitors convention group came to video tape us performing in the boat and are going to use it for a promotional video. Our driver just had time to down a bite of supper, then off we went. We passed other boats that were singing, too - but not near as loudly as us. It seemed they sung into their song books and not to the crowds. Our driver said we were the best boat EVER! David retrieved my coat and I wrapped it in a WalMart sack for the rest of the trip.

We trekked back to the Marriot to use the facilities and find the trolley stop to catch a ride back to the Mercado. What a crazy driver he was. As we gathered at the corner to walk across the street to "Mi Tierra", our group of 7 decided not to go along, and we headed to K's car. A quieter dinner was in order - and we found that at Chili's at the Quarry. Still laughing, sharing drinks and dinner, we were sort of glad the season was 'over' for the choir - then we headed to the hotel to sleep.

I got up the next morning about 8 to shower and get ready, allowing the others to sleep in, or so I thought. Seems the sound of the hair dryer woke them up. We found out that the cold front came in while we slept - and it was a windy 32 degrees. No coat - but thank goodness for the toboggan and scarf and gloves! We went back to the Mercado, so La could shop for something for her Mom, then headed out. A few miles down the road, we stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch - where I took off my hat at the table - a big mistake - as my hair was ridiculously shaped into the hat hair I loathes. I actually didn't see it til I went to the restroom - OMG! What a mess, but what a laugh I had. Toboggan all the way home.