Just posted Day 4!

And now: Day 4 - The parade

WHEW! Funny how long it took to document a four-day trip! But now it's all online.

Well, except for Katie's parade video, and then there are Ryan's video recaps...

And now: Day 3.

Below you'll find three more back-dated posts that recount Day 3 of our California Adventure:

Hooray for Hollywood
BONUS: Now and then
Magic Mountain and Rose Parade Eve

Day 1 is up!

Just posted: Day 1 from our California Adventure.

The adventure begins
Float decorating
Bandfest
Santa Monica Pier

Wowzers! It's 2011!

I can't believe New Year's Day has come and gone! And what a day it was! Katie and I spent the morning in Pasadena to see Ryan march with the All-Birdville Band in the Rose Parade.

(This shot's from the local paper.)

(So is this one.)

(This one I took. Several trees in front of our grandstand cast some pretty stark shadows!)

It was unbelievably exciting for us to be there to see the band's big moment, and it was a bunch of fun for us to follow the kids to some of the SoCal tourist destinations they visited.

I still have a ton of photos to edit, and Katie took hundreds, too. And then there are Ryan's pictures, which I haven't even seen yet (even though I'm dying to see what he shot)! Until I can get actual blog posts written, here are some Facebook photo albums from our first day in Cali.

Float Decorating
Bandfest
Santa Monica Pier

Day 4: THE PARADE.

Finally, finally, FINALLY the day had arrived. 1/1/11. Rose Parade day.

Katie and I were up and at 'em at 3:30 that morning. Since we would be going straight from Pasadena to LAX, we had to be completely packed when we left our hosts' home at 4:30 a.m.

After loading up our rental car, we drove to Pasadena. Since I was worried about running out of gas while stuck in traffic after the parade, we stopped in Alhambra at a nearly deserted gas station. It was still dark outside and a little spooky in spite of the well-lit station, so I was startled when a man approached me for directions. Turns out the guy was from Fort Worth and just needed directions to the parade!

We arrived in the chilly predawn hours, getting to our parking garage without any trouble. Walking to the parade route, we were cold and sleepy, but that was nothing compared to the thousands of people who had camped along Colorado Avenue for prime parade-viewing spots. These people were serious about their camping. They had patio heaters, hibachi grills, big tables and chairs marking off their group's territory. And in the middle of all that, there were all these lumps. It took a bit to realize that those lumps were people in sleeping bags! Soon after we arrived, a convoy of tow trucks roared down the street, blasting their horns. As we walked, we could see all those lumps start to move, woken up by those truck drivers.

Since we couldn't sit in our reserved grandstand spots until 6, we walked down Colorado, looking for something warm to eat. We ended up at Andy's Coffee Shop, arriving early enough to get a table. We ordered a nice breakfast and even got to use the bathroom there (since we were paying customers and all).

After that, we did some major people-watching as we walked back east on Colorado.

We found our reserved seats and were relieved to see that the trees in front of us would not significantly block our view. Those trees cast some pretty mean shadows, but at least we weren't looking into the sun,
AND we weren't sitting on a roof!

To pass the time, we entertained ourselves by taking self-portraits.

Lots and lots of self-portraits.

Katie even used her panoramic function to create this:
Since we were pretty far from the parade's starting point, it took the entries about an hour and 15 minutes to reach us. We heard the Stealth bomber fly over at 8 a.m., and then a little later, Facebook friends posted that they had seen the band on TV. It was so exciting to know that our Birdville kids had been on TV and were on their way to us.

(These photos from our local newspaper were taken near the parade's beginning.)

Then I got a text message from a friend:
"Is this Ryan?" he asked. I screamed and even cried a little. Our friend Michael had spotted Ryan on TV!

At last the parade made its way to us at 1570 E. Colorado. We oohed and aahed and waved at Grand Marshal Paula Deen, the floats, the equestrian units, even the pooper scoopers. But then, the 15th unit in the parade arrived.





Oh. My. Goodness. It was so incredible to see them! Katie and I yelled, stood and clapped while the people around us cowered. OK, not really. But they were really curious about this ginormous band. After the band had marched out of view, I explained how the group was comprised of three high schools' musicians. Then I posted a status update:

I was beyond proud, and tears still spring to my eyes just thinking about that moment.

Of course, the parade didn't end with our band.

Wisconsin band

TCU

One of the floats we'd seen being decorated

Cirque du Soleil on the LA float

Crazy rider

Pac-Man sousaphones

The very tall float in honor of Pac-Man's birthday

Pac-Man with his cake

City of Burbank

HGTV's Dream House float

(We're so glad HGTV shows the parade without commercial interruption! It was on HGTV's broadcast that we got the best view of Ryan.)

9/11 tribute

Truly, all of the parade was UNBELIEVABLE. I'm so thankful Katie and I were able to be there to see it all in person.

At one point during the parade, Katie told me, "I could break my arm right now and this would still be a good day." Yep, it was a VERY good day.

From there we waded through tons of traffic to get out of Pasadena and make our way back to the car rental place. We both really needed to use the bathroom, but lines were too long when we left the parade area, and we never found a good place to stop on the road.

Even though they didn't have a public restroom, we still had to stop at one place before dropping off our car:

Donuts in hand, we drove down the street to return our little Versa. We planned to use the restroom at the rental agency, but the shuttle bus arrived as soon as we did. Thankfully, we made it to the airport just in the nick of time. (I'm surprised TSA wasn't alarmed by that crazed look in my eyes, though!)

Aboard the plane, Katie continued to document our trip a little too thoroughly:
But really, aren't airplane toilets fascinating?

We really enjoyed our view of the beautiful sunset.

About four hours later, we were back home in Texas, tired but ever grateful for our California adventure.

Day 3: Magic Mountain and Rose Parade Eve.

While Ryan and the rest of the All-Birdville Band were in Buena Park at Knott's Berry Farm, Katie and I headed north to Valencia and Six Flags Magic Mountain.

We had heard that Magic Mountain had more thrill rides, and since we could get in free with our Six Flags season passes, we decided we didn't have to follow the band this time. Besides, Magic Mountain closed at 6 that day, so we knew we wouldn't be tempted to stay out too late.

Our first stop was X2, billed as the world's first "4th dimension" thrill ride. The line was really long, but we waited since (1) lines were long everywhere and (2) this was like no ride we could find at home.
The seats actually extend past the track and since they rotate on their own, riders can rock and roll as the train flies through drops and twists. It is INSANE! We loved it; it was definitely worth the wait. The shooting flames and other effects along the track were cool, but they had me at the on-ride soundtrack. Check out this point-of-view video on YouTube for a virtual ride.

This is definitely a coaster park. In fact, Magic Mountain is advertising that in 2011, it will once again have the most roller coasters of any amusement park on the planet, 18, bypassing Cedar Point. Unfortunately, during our afternoon there, we only got to ride three.

Some, like Superman: Escape from Krypton, weren't open yet, and others had prohibitively long lines. The rides were fairly far apart, too, and since Magic Mountain is on a big hill (duh), moving from one area to another took longer than we're used to. Since our time was limited, we opted for the unusual coasters that were unlike anything we could find at home.

Tatsu was one of those unusual coasters that made the cut.

After boarding, our legs were put in restraints. Right before taking off, the seats tilted forward until our bodies were parallel to the ground. Courtesy of this pic from Six Flags, here's what riders look like when the ride's in motion.

And here's what we saw as a train departed the station:




AHHHHHHHHHH! So very cool. We had ridden the Batwing at Six Flags America back in July, but this "flying coaster" seemed more intense than the one in Maryland.


MM has the Sky Tower instead of the Oil Derrick, but because of our experience with SFOT's tower, we weren't surprised to see that this one was closed.

The third unusual roller coaster we tried was the Ninja, classified as a "suspended swinging coaster." It was different, but because of the long, and I mean LONG time it took to get from the end of the ride back to the station, it kinda fizzled out on us.

We were disappointed that we never made it to the other side of the park to try out the giant wooden coaster, Colossus, or the Titan twin, Goliath. We also missed riding Viper, Revolution, Batman: The Ride, Riddler's Revenge...

So many rides, so little time.

Still, we were glad we made the 40-minute drive to Magic Mountain to see a new park and try out one mediocre and two awesome coasters.

Back in LA, we were thrilled to see our hosts had left us a New Year's Eve feast:

K&D had gone to that night's Lakers game, but they left us this menu AND...

New Year's party supplies!

I made Katie get her party on.

Our hosts left instructions for how to use their TV plus the newspaper story about the parade. It was cool to see the All-Birdville Band listed in the LA paper!


After our huge dinner, I mapped our route to Pasadena (avoiding the 101). We packed as much as we could, celebrated the New Year on Texas time, and then tried to get some sleep. We'd be awake at 3:30 a.m. to get ready for the ROSE PARADE!