Last week, the RAHS band and orchestra went on their music trips, to Denver and Winnipeg, respectively. The band left Wednesday afternoon and drove overnight to Colorado. The orchestra woke up early Thursday morning and got to Winnipeg in the evening.

Junior Emily Hayek, violin, said “[Winnipeg] was pretty cold, but so fun! It kind of reminded me of the Twin Cities. This was my second orchestra trip, and I’ll definitely go again next year.”

Going on the music trips made many people in the groups feel much more bonded with the other members. Senior Samantha Mermelstein, flute, said “I thought that we were all so much closer and better friends when we went back to school on Tuesday.”

Because the groups went to very different places, they did very different activities. The band, in Colorado, went on a lot of hikes, went to museums, and went to the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs. Everyone had different favorite activities, and Senior Natalie Kors said “my favorite part was definitely the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, and I loved feeding the giraffes , because they had really weird tounges. I also loved the Royal Gorge Bridge, it was so cool. It’s a bridge over a valley and you could zip line across it.”

In Winnipeg, the orchestra went to museums, the Assiniboine zoo, and even went curling. Senior Mimi Van Voorst, a cellist and president of the orchestra, said “curling was so fun, and it was fun to see what Dr. Jannings talks about so much.”

The choir leaves for their trip to New York on April 27. They are the only group that is flying to their destination, and are also excited. Junior Andy Zan said “I’m most excited that we get to be in such a big city with all our friends. We don’t have an itinerary yet, but I’m sure we’ll be doing a bunch of tourist stuff and it’ll be fun.”