How I spent my spring vacation report!
A bit overdue, but here’s my report! I think I was actually better at posting while I was away – because I worked at prescheduling so much – so maybe I need to plan my next trip so that I get back to all that prescheduling…
I had the privilege to travel with the Burlington Teen Tour Band to Ireland in March (actually a month ago this week!). They were invited to participate in the Dublin St. Patrick’s Day Parade and had a number of other scheduled performances as well. I volunteer as one of the photographers for the band. It’s a great way to work on my photography and editing skills, give back to an organization that has meant a lot to me and my family, and hang out with my band friends (both young and not so young anymore).
Photo: Burlington Teen Tour Band – Dublin St. Patrick’s Day Festival Parade 2023
The Burlington Teen Tour Band is a city sponsored marching band of youth – aged 13-21. (Right now, they are a pretty “young” band, I think they are mostly around 15-16 years old??). The majority are from Burlington, but we also have teens who travel from nearby cities to participate. They march, but also perform concerts (sitting down…), and include a colour guard section (the ones who carry the flags and twirl the baton). I was a member when I was the right age…LOL, and later my son was also a member in his teens, which is how I got re-involved with the band. The parent group, the Burlington Teen Tour Band Boosters, do a lot of fundraising and also chaperone on trips and events with the band, and I actually reconnected with a lot of people that had been in the band at the same time as me! My son retired from band a few years ago, but I stuck around as one of the volunteer photographers.
(spot the band in red in the sea of green as they make their way along the parade route)
This tour had been delayed a couple of times due to COVID, so it was great to finally see it happen! Unfortunately, the band equipment was delayed in arriving in Ireland (despite being packed and at the airport for transport days in advance of the band’s actual departure/arrival), so a couple of performances had to be cancelled and schedules re-worked, including a last minute extra practice once the equipment DID arrive! In the end, it was all good – the band performed really well in the Dublin St. Patrick’s Day Festival Parade and won Best Overall Band, topping a number of US college bands, which is quite a feat.
We did also get to do a bunch of site seeing, historical castles and building, farms (sheep and horses!) and cities. Number one most purchased item (besides the badges/pins for band jackets) – RAIN GEAR. It rained pretty much every day. One of the positives to so much rain (besides a very green landscape) though, is the number of rainbows we saw.
If you want to learn more about the Burlington Teen Tour Band, their website is https://teentourband.org . If you want to see more of the pictures from the trip and other activities taken by myself and Andrea, my fellow photographer (and also a fellow band alumna), you can go here.
Last but not least, you may have seen my attempt at a travel reel – I did one on Instagram, but I also did one on TikTok – and I think the TikTok editing was a little better….LOL. You can see that if you follow me on TikTok – or below! (yes, I usually post crafting videos, but had to commemorate my first time travelling internationally in 4 years!!).
And we will now resume regular paper crafty postings….
