The bells!

Some friends and I took a field trip to our local bell tower for a private tour and concert. I was so, so, so excited to see it up close and personal. The tower is part of Altgeld Hall on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus. Real bells chime each quarter hour, and real chimers play a 10-minute concert every week day from 11:50am-12:00pm.

The kids got to use the "practice" board. You can see the real one behind them. It's a mess of levers and a few pedals that individually pull each bell's clapper.

It was stinkin' hot and humid, though, so when I do this again, I'll be sure to select a more temperate day. It was also nearly impossible to find close parking on campus, so I might opt to take the bus next time. And, to be sure, it's a nice long hike up several flights of stairs to get to the top, so I might not choose to do it after my regular gym work out again. Ugh.

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and the pleasant company. Here's a little video featuring 1) the bells playing above us, 2) Matthew watching himself and others on the phone screen, 3) James punching through to steal his moment of fame, and 4) my befuddled expression as I try to stop the recording. Enjoy!

The chimer who took us up happens to be LDS, and everyone in our group was LDS, so he played a few songs from the Children's Songbook during his 10-minute concert: Popcorn Popping, Do As I'm Doing, and I Am a Child of God were the ones I remember. There was also the theme to Looney Tunes somewhere in there, and a few others.

I took the little ladder all the way up to the bells themselves. What a treat! Snapped a selfie:

Can't wait to show the bigger kids this part of the tour!

The bells are engraved with the school name.

This was the view from the bells' height. Bonus points if you can spot James looking up at me. Extra bonus points if you can find Matthew. I can't find him.