Conner and Travis were going on tour to San Diego with the choir. At the tour meeting, they asked Travis if I might be able to go along as a chaperone as well. After some figuring, I was able to go.
Wednesday, we met at the school at 6:45 am to gather to board the buses to San Diego. We took 3 large buses. After a long, but not too bad bus ride, we ended up at Mission Beach in San Diego in time for the sunset and dinner.
After a short stop at the beach, we loaded up to head to the hotel. After getting checked into our rooms, we went to bed to get ready for the busy next day.
Thursday morning we went to the USS Midway for a tour. Here is the choir in front of this famous statue right next to the Midway.
A Bob Hope troop memorial.
Trav and I on the banks of the San Diego bay.
We had two hours to explore the USS Midway and it wasn't enough. What a huge ship! Here I am in the brig.
Travis making decisions for the carrier.
Conner and Aaron in some jump seats.
Me in the cockpit.
Up on the flight deck.
Inside a transport carrier.
Dangling out over the ocean! It's a long way down!
The flight deck was huge!
After the USS Midway, we drove to Old Town San Diego for lunch and some exploring.
On our way into town, we saw a sign for the Mormon Battalion Historic Site so we walked around (in the wrong direction) until we found it.
Very cool interactive exhibits!
So glad we were able to spend 45 minutes there enjoying the history of the Mormon Battalion.
We even got a cool photo at the end too!
After Old Town, we headed back to the hotel to change for the dinner cruise.
The CHS band was down there too competing, so we joined them for a dinner cruise on the San Diego Bay. There was a yummy dinner and dancing.
It was a fun, but loud night!
A yummy truffle to finish off the evening.
Friday we got up and headed to the San Diego Zoo. We didn't have enough time there either (The story of our trip)! Trav and I took a bus tour through the park. It's a little complicated to get from place to place at the zoo, so we were glad that we had taken the bus tour because we got to see a lot of different things. I always love the giraffes!
The flamingos were super bright!
The huge elephants!
My favorite thing there were the polar bears. They were playing in the water and were so fun to watch!
The koala's were pretty cute too!
On our way trying to get back, we came across this jungle oasis in the middle of the park.
The San Diego Zoo is celebrating 100 years.
Conner was so excited to get a picture with his parents! :|
After the zoo, the kids headed to rehearse for 3 hours while the chaperones got a little time off. After rehearsal we picked them back up and all 140 of us headed to Bucca di Beppo for a yummy dinner.
It was so crowded and so noisy, but it was a good evening.
Saturday morning we got up and drove out to the HS where the Heritage Competition was. All three groups performed and did a great job!
We made a quick stop back at the hotel to change and then headed to Sea World. (Again ... not nearly long enough!) Here are some of the chaperones posing for a picture on the way in.
Yikes ... a shark!
Lines were kind of long and we didn't have enough time, but we did get to go on the Sky Ride and got a beautiful 360 degree view of San Diego and the water.
My very favorite part of Sea World was the penguins! We went though the exhibit twice and I could have spent more time in there. They are so funny to watch.
After dinner we all gathered with the band and all the other groups that were competing for the awards ceremony. Here is Michael and Conner waiting for the awards.
Although they didn't score quite as high as they had hoped, they did a great job and were good sports! Ladies First got Gold, 2nd place. Show Choir got Silver (with an 89.3% ... so close to a gold), and Concert Choir got a Silver too.
After the awards all the groups gathered again for a very loud dance. Then, we headed back to the hotel and back to home on Sunday. We had a great trip and Travis and I were lucky to chaperone terrific kids!
