Okay, so many, or few, of you know that I went on the
MJH Jazz Band Trip to California, June 7-11. I'm back!
On Sunday, at 6 pm, after taking one group photo of everyone in PJ's, we boarded the really nice tour bus and headed for California. I got to sit by Keenan. Which was fantastic, believe me! Until it was time to sleep....I couldn't get comfortable, so I sat up and let him get comfortable and let him sleep. I woke him up when we got to Vegas. After that I seriously could not calm down. The lights...wow..lol. My mom gave me some like advil PM (trying to get me to sleep) which did not work! We stopped in
Barstow, California, at
2 am, for a bathroom break/get a snack. I got some really good bubble gum which kept me entertained for a while :) Then it was back on the bus, and we drove all the way to Anaheim. There were these really weird lights on a hill on the way there. I said to Keenan at like 4 in the morning,
"Keenan?"
"Yeah?"
"What are the lights for?""I don't know."
"....That's gay."Lol. It was exciting! I finally, finally fell asleep in Keenan's lap about an hour before we got to Food4Less in Anaheim to get muffins and juice and cereal and fruit to eat for
breakfast. It was around 6 AM, wayy too early for me!
We went to the hotel to try and check in early, but they only had a few rooms ready, so the other group of girls my mom was in charge of had to put their stuff in our room. We had about an hour to "freshen up" and get back on the bus to go to DISNEYLAND!! Yeah...the "freshening up" part was rather disastrous... 8 girls, one mirror, one sink, one shower, one toilet. Luckily the toilet and shower were separate from the sink.
We boarded the bus and headed to Disneyland. The Jazz Band had a workshop with a Disney musician. It took a long time. We learned to play Pink Elephants (from Dumbo).
When it was finally over, we went into the park. Keenan had gone in when we got there instead of coming with the band, and I wanted to find him. He didn't have a phone yet, so I had no idea where he was. Someone mentioned It's a Small World, me, my mom, and Manna headed over there. He finally got off, and he looked like he was in pain.
It turned out that the ride had broken down just a few feet from the exit, and they couldn't get off, but the annoying music continued playing. I think he was stuck there for about 20 minutes? I don't know. Poor kid.
I went on some rides in Disneyland, then over to California Adventures. My favorite rides there are the ferris wheel, the Tower of Terror and Screamin'. My favorite rides in Disneyland are Space Mountian, Teacups! I honestly don't remember much of Disneyland. The Materhorn was so much fun cuz I went with Madeleine and we were screaming the entire time (it's not even a scary ride!!) :] yay.
At the end of the night, I remembered that we were only going to be there one day, and I HADN'T BEEN ON TEACUPS!!!!!! So I dragged Manna and Keenan there. Keenan didn't want to go...but I made him. He was miserable. We were heading back to ESPN when the fire work show started. That was fun to watch. We bought churros and went over to the ESPN zone (where everybody met) then walked two blocks back to the hotel, at MIDNIGHT! I was exhausted and could barely walk, so Keenan pushed me most of the way back.
I shared a hotel room with four girls. I showered and went to bed with my hair wet. In the morning I hurried and did makeup and hair and went downstairs.
I went outside and found a bunch of people playing hacky sac. I tried to play...and totally made a fool of myself. We boarded the bus and we had these weird sandwiches that made me sick on the way to
SANTA MONICA PIER!! I was
really hyper as the ocean came into view. (I'd never seen the ocean before) I was bouncing in my seat. Keenan was practically asleep against the window. No body else was acting like me. They all seemed bored. But I was sooo excited! We got into the parking lot and the jazz band grabbed their music folders, stands, and put their instruments together right there in the parking lot. I was kinda scared to touch the sand so I didn't, we went right up to the pier to play. That was exciting! We were about to play our second song when someone shouted,
"LOOK!! DOLPHINS!!" And everybody turned around and looked out into the ocean. And there was a pod of dolphins there was! Awesome!
So we played for a while. I got to solo, and the humidity was messing with my saxophone so I couldn't hit my high notes at the end of my solo. I was disappointed. So Justin, the other first tenor, dropped his mouth piece when he was putting together, and it broke! I mean, last week of school he tripped and broke his new expensive
Buffet clarinet! So he used a BAND-AID and put his mouth piece back together. Someone had red duct tape so he used that too. It was stupid. After we were done playing I went and put my sax away. Everyone headed down to the beach but Manna, my mom, and I figured that we'd shop first while we weren't wet and sandy. I bought a super cute yellow floppy sun hat. :) yay. It was a lot of fun. When I finally decided that we should go down and play in the ocean, everybody else was going up to eat and shop. So it was just me, Manna, and my mom down there. Madeleine was feeding some
courageous seagulls while I edged my way to the ocean. IT WAS COLD!! After feeding the seagulls, Madeleine rolled up her pant legs and joined me in the ocean. Those dang
courageous seagulls were going through my bag and started dragging my
sunglasses across the sand!! I mean, really!? lol. Manna and I only got thigh deep in the ocean, but it was so much fun! We went back up to the pier and ate, then everybody got on the bus and we were on our way to Six Flags!!!
Six Flags was SOO much fun! You don't even know! It has the cr-iz-aziest rides in the world! A billion times better than any ride at Lagoon. Most rides got up to 2 Gees. It was INSANE!!!! So much fun!
We got there, and I had to peee!!! And so did most everyone else. We found a bathroom and I took a bit longer than everybody, and I. GOT. LEFT! No one waited for me! Except for my good ol' madre. If my mom hadn't come on the trip, I would have been alone in Six Flags! I was soooo pissed off. We finally found the ride where everyone had been meeting, called Scream, we got in line, and I saw Miah's head almost about to get on so I shouted and told him to wait for me. He shook his head and of course I started crying. My mom told me to stop crying because people around me might have been thinking I was crying because I was scared. I was just angry!!!
I HATE GETTING LEFT!!! My mom and I got on the ride, and the kids who were nice enough to wait for me (Miah decided to wait as well, I think he misunderstood me before) started yelling and pointing at their eyes. My mom yelled, "I know, I'm crazy!" and someone shouted,
"GLASSES!" My mom was all strapped in and we were starting to go so she just stuck them down her shirt with
"the girls" and zipped up her jacket. And if she hadn't taken the off, they would have flown away and shattered on the ground (as we saw when we walked toward the exit) We went on a ton of crazy rides. There was this weird dare devil show going on there so we went to that. It was really loud. :( I was so bored!! Then after there were these crazy parasailers (think that's what they're called) that were pretend fighting as they came down. That was pretty cool, though I was very very tired! I don't want to tell you about every single ride. There were so many! Amazing too!
But I will tell you about one particular ride...THE RIDDLER. A.K.A. Miah's Nightmare. (Dun dun dun!!!!) So it's this ride where you're standing, but you're strapped in. You adjust the seat to your height before the ride starts. And there's this kinda seat, not really, between your legs. Of course Miah was messing around with the height, pushed it up way to high, and it locked. His feet were dangling, and this ride slams you up and down. He was basically crying. I felt so bad for him! But I couldn't stop laughing!! He got off the ride and waddled to the exit. He had to sit down and breathe for a while. And of course, the girls we told laughed their heads off, and the guys we told moaned and winced in sympathy. Lol.
At the end of the day some of us were standing in line for a ride called DeJaVu when we had to leave. We found my mom and hustled to meet up with the rest of the group. We took a
wrong turn and got lost. It was bad. We finally found our way back to the group and got on the bus and went to Jimmy Deans. That was fun I guess. Too much fast food on the trip though. We checked into a new hotel. Mr. King had reserved a room for us to use to play games and just chill in until about Midnight. It was fun playing cards with people. :) Slowly, people started heading for their rooms. I finally went up at around midnight and flopped onto my bed and fell asleep.
The next morning I hurried and packed up, and went to my mom's room to get ready for the day. She went downstairs and got some of the breakfast that the hotel was providing and
brought some up to me while I prepped for the day. I finished getting ready and went back to my room and grabbed my stuff. One girl forgot like 6 things so Esther grabbed them. I was waiting for Esther because I didn't want her to be alone in the hotel, and we were the last ones out to the bus. That was kind of embarrassing!
We departed for a second day of Six Flags. Our last day in California. :( Once we got in, we headed to a ride called
X2. It didn't look so bad. It was just loopdy-loops. My mom was feeling pretty confident when Keenan pointed out the ride we were in line for was not the loopdy-loop one. This one went straight up and straight down. The seats rotated 360 degrees. Upside down, loops, I mean, this ride was CRAZY! Some people told us they actually blacked out!!! My mom was really tempted to get out of line, but she couldn't find the "Old-White-Lady Exit". So she went!!! It was awesome! The seats had speakers next to your ears and played really cool music during the ride. I can't even explain how CRAZYYYY the ride was!!! Before we got on every ride my mom would say to Keenan, "Why?" And he would just smile and say, "Because Julie. Because."
We were walking past this one ride, called Tatsu. (one of the best rides there, honsestly!) when all of a sudden we see this black thing fly past us and hit the ground. My mom thought, "Crazy bird! Wait a second, birds don't make clattering sounds!" Someone's
CAMERA had flown out of their pocket and almost killed all of us! It was sooo scary!!! I feel bad for whoever lost their camera, but we almost died! That could have killed someone! Bah! But no one was hurt, which is always a bonus on trips!!!!
So my two crazy-fun buddies, Keenan and Miah, convinced me to go on this "
Dive Devil". It's like the SkyCoaster at Lagoon, but taller I think. (Everything at Six Flags is a billion times better than Lagoon, seriously) So they let me pull the rip cord. I got up and I heard someone say "Alpha 3, 2, 1" and I pulled the cord. We went soaring!!! It was awesome!!!! I screamed for a second, and then after the initial drop I just started jabbering. Lol. That's me alright. Always jabbering. So Erin, Miah's little sis, wanted to go on it as well (only 3 people can go at a time) so Miah, Keenan, and Erin went again, this time Keenan got to pull the rip cord (it was his birthday!) I watched the video that had been taken of us, and me, my mom, and Miah's mom, Toni were laughing so hard we could barely stand up and we were crying. As we dropped, Miah's face had caught the wind just right...oh goodness. I'm still laughing about it. :)
My mom's phone rang, and it was Matthew. We were both really nervous because we'd been expecting his mission call to come while we were gone. It came! And we were in California!!! We searched frantically for a quiet place to listen as Matthew read his call, but everywhere we went there was screaming, or music blasting from speakers on the roofs of buildings. We ran to the Guest Relations building and hid in the corner, straining to hear what was going on back home. The music was blaring outside and the door was open. It wasn't even good music, I pointed out to my mom. So Matthew opened his call and he's going to
Burmingham, Alabama!!! Dang! he's going to come back with the nastiest accent! lol jk:). I was shaking and I needed a hug from Keenan, but he was on the Batman ride. (I never ended up going on that ride...:/) So when all of them were done they came and met us by this GIANT fake tree! We decided since we were leaving in about an hour that we should go shopping for souvenirs. I agreed. I got my hug and went shopping. It was Keenan's birthday so I wanted to get him a present! I got him a shirt. I felt lame, but he wore it yesterday so...:)
We were all waiting for everyone to meet by the gates. Just chillin' around! I got a really awesome
WonderWoman shirt that says
"Strength & Beauty", a
SuperGirl cape, and a
yellow
WonderWoman bracellet. I am
WonderWoman because I survived the dive devil!!! :) wooo
So we all loaded the bus and I heard Toni (Miah's mom) behind me say to Erin, "I can't find my camera". My stomach dropped. She had sooo many pictures from the trip on that
camera. We think left it on a bench at Six Flags. Oh goodness, it still makes me sick to think about it! Her husband was on his way to Vegas, and we were going to
In N' Out Burger then jetting home. :( I never found out if she got it back!
Okay,
In N' Out was NOT a good idea just before a 12+ hour bus ride. There were HUGE slabs of onion on everybody's burger. I took mine off (I don't like onions) but a lot of people didn't. The bus ride home was MISERY!!! Almost all of the boys kept farting in their sleep! It was soooo bad. The bus smelled like something had died and been left to rot for a month or two! It was terrible!!! And of course, I still didn't sleep at all on the way home. I sat by the window this time. I let Keenan put his head in my lap so he could get some sleep. He's a very peaceful sleeper. (Yes I watched him sleep. I was soo bored! I couldn't use my phone or iPod because I sat kinda in the front of the bus and the light would wake everybody up!) Driving through southern Utah on a cloudless full moon night is...incredible! I mean, you could say,
"The Hills Are Alive." It's awesome! Woo.
We stopped in St. George for a bathroom break and stretch. It was probably like 5 in the morning. Not completely night time, but not quite day time yet. After going to the bathroom and jumping and walking around for a bit, I got back onto the bus and almost threw up. It was soooo bad! It smelled like we hadn't showered or exited the bus for 3 weeks. It was awful :(
I sat down in the stench and we left St. George for the final push home. Mr. King told us to all go back to sleep. "Not a word, I'm serious." He was a teacher again for a minute. It was scary. Before the band trip, Mr. King was just a teacher. A teacher who I didn't like sometimes. But now...he's just a friend. Someone to hang out with. I was on a bus for Youth conference and I kept expecting to hear King over the intercom. It was weird!
When it got too light outside to sleep, we watch Back To The Future. What a weird show!!! We stopped at a Flying J in like Provo or Ogden or...wow, that's wrong. Maybe it was Spanish Fork? I really don't know! My face got this weird rash thing on it during the trip. It really burned!!! I wanted to buy some face lotion at the gas station, but there wasn't any. I played hacky sac with a group of people then we got back on the bus and went home to MJH. It was raining on the way home. It rained at home the entire time we were gone. :) We took the sunshine and brought it back.
I really miss the band trip. It was sooo much fun. I love the bus rides to and from California. I will remember this trip, and those involved, for the rest of my life.
What an AWESOME way to end my 9th grade year!!
FIRE POWER!! At the superman ride!
at the beach!
I loveee this picture!!! :)
Madeleine and her COURAGEOUS seagulls!
The red one is Viper, the other one is X2
I saw this just before I was getting on X2, and decided it was my mom's motto. :)
This is The Riddler. This was just before we left. Look at Miah. You can see how high up he is. And I KNOW that he is not that much taller than me!
Bugs was being a butt cuz he saw my mickey mouse sweatshirt...
All of my buds. Left to Right: Zack, Eric, Me, Keenan, Erin, On the ground:Miah
YES! THE TERMINATOR RIDE HAS FIRE!
And then after the fire you see this white stuff in the air and you're like, "CRAP! SMOKE!" So you hold your breath, but it is just mist! It's the tightest ride ever!!!
Getting suited up for Dive Devil. My mom yelled my name to get my attention, took the picture, and the camera died.
oh and I really like this picture... not me particularly, but..
