19 April, 2016
Let the jet-lag commence!
Our final blog of this tour comes to you from Tom – thanks to everyone who has read this far and don’t forget to keep checking back as we will be back in the States before the end of the year!
The day of our final performance in Milwaukee was a long one with the entire group of us (and our forbearing Houston hosts!) having had to drag ourselves out of our comfortable beds before 6am. A car ride, van ride, two flights, shuttle ride, and a much-needed shower later, we were standing inside the beautiful polished granite space of the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist, toying with the vast array of options for positioning ourselves around the building for different acoustic and dramatic effects. All told, we ended up utilising five!
After ending our final concert of the tour on a high, we rapidly donned our boogie shoes and made our way to a fantastic spy-themed bar called Safe House. One of the fun things about this place occurs before you’ve even set foot through the door into the bar – you’re asked for the password and if you don’t know it, you’re made to do something embarrassing. In this case, eight of us were made to dance, in silence, as if we were at a disco in the 70s. The worst was yet to come, however, as only when you make your way into the bar do you realise that there are enormous television screens in every room with a direct CCTV link to the site of the humiliation. Much hilarity ensued as a result of all this, and it set the scene for a night of well-earned ‘leisure’.
[PHOTOS OF OUTRAGEOUS DANCING REDACTED.]
It was a good thing we had such an *ahem* impeccably behaved evening as the final bout of singing wasn’t until the following morning at a lovely little church, St John’s On the Lake, for their Sunday Eucharist. To get an idea of the interior of the church, picture a giant blue and white Wedgewood plate design as the walls and ceiling and you’re 90% of the way there. One of the parishioners had turned 100 years old during the week but to say she didn’t look a day over 80 is an understatement – here was a lady who could read without glasses and walk without help, and she clearly had every one of her marbles to boot! She was quite an inspiration.
With a wonderful brunch at a Latin American establishment called Trocadero (with their own very spicy take on a Bloody Mary – just what the doctor ordered), followed by a very attractive walk around and through the Milwaukee Art Museum, the book closed on this tour. I’m currently writing this in the air over Canada and feeling grateful to have been a part of yet another enormously successful and thoroughly satisfying US experience with this most excellent band of friends!
