Maine

We left quite early to head out to Bangor and Portland, Maine for the USA portion of the tour. We had a 3-hour delay at the border because a computer glitch had caused one of our singers’ visas to not be processed in time. All we could do was wait it out and hope everything turned out for the good (which it did). The concert in Bangor was at 3:00 pm and our extended wait at the border left us with no time for a meal, which meant GAS STATION LUNCH. My favorite purchase was my huge Hot Mama Sassy Pickle. One was big enough to feed the entire choir, and came individually packaged. (I kept mine as a souvenir and am hoping that it doesn’t get punctured and leak all over my concert tuxedo.)

We put the pedal to the metal and made it to the church in time to sing the concert.

St. John’s Episcopal Church in Bangor was the perfect setting for us. The beauty of the place added to the beauty of music and some of the repertoire we were performing was waiting for this beautiful acoustic to make it shine. It felt as though the music flowed out effortlessly.

Fabi is limbering up for the upcoming choral acrobatics.

Small price to pay for such a rockstar body!

We were back on the bus for a quick trip to Portland, ME. Some of our members went to extreme measures to battle snow blindness.

Portland is so cute and full of great restaurants and gift shops.

For lunch I made a few of us go to a restaurant called the Porthole. I had seen it featured on a show on the Food Network called “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives”.

 

 

Mmmmmm… my lobster sandwich.

We saw some crab fishermen…

…and, oddly enough, we saw a piece of the Berlin Wall.

It was this image that my mind kept going back to as we performed a piece on our program called “Dona nobis pacem” (Give Us Peace).

The Merrill Auditorium in Portland is beautiful!!!! This picture doesn’t begin to do it justice, but you can see the barrel-vaulted ceiling. Stunning!

After the concert, pretty much the whole group of us went for a lobster feed.

I have had more lobster in the last 2 days than I have had in the last 2 years, and I can honestly say that I am lobstered out…

(which is good, ‘cause we’re going back to Canada tomorrow and we all know that on a musicians’ salary we can’t afford it there ).