Band & Choir trip to Disneyland

Derek's Band and Sade's Choir (& the Orchestra) got to spend Friday and Saturday at Disneyland and California Adventure Park. We arrived at the school Friday morning at 4:30 am and loaded all of the buses. By about 5:30 we were on the road, on our way to the "Happiest Place on Earth..." I chaperoned, and luckily, the choir bus ended up being the quietest and nicest bus out of the three! We arrived at Disneyland around 10:15 am.


While we waited for out tickets and further directions I snapped my one and only pic of Derek... he only spoke to me when completely necessary! :) I guess that's how some 14 year old boys are...too cool to like their mom (at least in public!)



Friday was basically spent at California Adventure Park.


The orchestra performed first in the Hollywood Backlot! While we waited, Sade and I went on the Monsters, Inc ride...very cute! The band and choir listened to the orchestra perform. They did a great job! They ended up with quite a good sized audience, too. Once the orchestra finished, we grabbed a bite to eat before we had to meet again for the band to perform and the choir to attend their workshop. Since the band and choirs activities were at the same time, I didn't get to see the band perform. Derek said they did a really good job, and once they started playing more upbeat, "fun" music, the audience really grew! The choir had to take a stroll over to the Disneyland park where they participated in a singing workshop behind the scenes in ToonTown. What a great opportunity for the kids! They worked with one of the music producers in Disneyland and sang two songs from popular movies and made a music video with their voices and clips from the movies to take home.

Once the workshop and concerts were over the kids and chaperone's had free time in the park for 3 hours. Sade and I went on California Screamin' and The Hollywood Tower of Terror two times each! Neither of us had been on the Tower of Terror... Oh, my goodness...


Before we left for the day, the whole group met up to watch the good 'ol Electric Light Parade. They took it away from Disney many years ago and now brought it back and run it most nights now at California Adventure. Sade loved it and how fun it was for me since the last time I really remember seeing it was when I went the summer before I was in 6th grade!
We love "Peter Pan" & "Pirates of the Caribbean"...and who doesn't love G0ofY?


Saturday was our "FREE" day at Disneyland. We had 10 hours to play and do whatever we wanted! Sade and I had a blast! We went on almost every roller coaster-type ride in the park...Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones,
Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain Railroad, and of course, Star Tours.





We even drove the cars at Autotopia three times Sade can't wait to drive!!!!)
We even stopped to eat and shop, too! At 9pm we all gathered to watch the fireworks before we left for Vegas. The fireworks show is spectacular! A real-live Tinkerbell even flies over the castle! It's amazing!



Our drive home was quiet and uneventful until our bus driver decided she needed to get coffee and stretch her legs... so around 2 am we pulled off in Baker, CA to do just that. That's when Derek's bus ran out of gas! Imagine that... a charter bus out of gas on a trip! We ended up having to unload the band bus, all of the instruments, garment bags, luggage & kids and disperse them onto the other two buses. We finally made it back to the school at 4:30 am. We unloaded, went home and straight to bed!!!

All in all, we had a terrific time! Derek had a blast hanging out at Disneyland with his friends, and Sade & I had a great time hanging out with each other... a girls weekend in Disney... can't go wrong with that! My chaperoning duties were pretty much fulfilled at the hotel when I had to "tape-in" our kids so we knew which ones tried to get out in the night, waking them up in the morning, and checking them out of their rooms so we could get back to Disneyland by 9:30 Saturday morning. Otherwise, my instructions as a chaperone were to have fun and be at the check-ins just the like the kids.