The last few days have been a whirlwind of activity and concerts, with little sleep, and a lot of great music and fun. Everyone woke up to a bag of "spoon messages" attached to their doors. 



Then we met for breakfast in the ball room of the hotel, where we also had our Farewell Awards Ceremony. It made for a very emotional and heartwarming event. Some of our funniest moments were revisited as members of Musicians Anonymous (MA) distributed awards. Several of us were brought to tears when our directors gave their farewell speeches.



We then boarded the coaches and departed for Cedar City, where we attended Les Miserables at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, a timeless classic about turbulent early 1800s prior to the French Revolution. This performance provided moments of emotional depth that left some of us speechless, while it gave others (who stayed up a little to late the night before) a great chance to catch up on their beauty sleep.



After the performance, we split up in groups to find lunch at nearby restaurants, pizzerias, and bakeries. You could feel the end of tour looming near, as many of us were exchanging phone numbers and demanding that they hang out together. We then returned to the coaches and began setting up for our final concert just outside of the theater. A small audience perhaps, but it made for a fun concert.

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​As we started loading the buses with our equipment, the sprinklers attacked! Mr. Thompson began shouting for people to step on the sprinkler heads while we load the bus. As soon as some of us were carefully situated over the sprinkler heads, we continued loading the bus. Once everything seemed settled and we began loading the last of the equipment, another set of sprinklers went off. Mr. Thompson dove to save some of the remaining instruments. I took off towards the coaches, slipped, and fell on my butt in the wet, cold grass. We started running away from the sprinklers and save the equipment. Some of us continued to run through the sprinklers, laughing as hard as they could. It was a fun way to end tour.



We then boarded the coaches, and made our final departure back to Taylorsville. Many of us fell asleep with smiles on our faces during the long ride. Once we got back to Taylorsville High School, we said our goodbyes and exchanged hugs and phone numbers. The lessons and skills that we have learned as well as the great friends and memories we have made will be with us forever. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported the Granite Youth Symphony in this truly unforgettable and life-changing experience! I can't tell you how grateful and honored I feel to have experienced it with so many incredible people. Thank you for reading this final submission in the 2012 Granite Youth Symphony Summer Tour Log. We hope to see you next year!



~Justin