Back in February, I competed in the local round of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competition. My division wasn't very big, and I ended up placing 2nd. Within a few weeks, we got word that this year, NATS was adding a regional round to the competition for those who placed in the first round, with the intention of adding a national round in the next few years.
BYU's vocal faculty organized a rental car & provided a hotel for the 3 of us who decided to participate, so on Friday, April 26th, we piled in a car with Dr. Reich and began our roadtrip to Las Vegas, stopping in Beaver for some squeaky cheese & at SUU to rehearse with our accompanist, Dr. Bohnenstengel. We got to Las Vegas late in the afternoon, just in time to attend the NATS masterclass, after which, we checked into our hotel and went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. We had a couple hours to kill before bed, so we all walked down to the Strip and found the M&M factory to wander around in. The crowd in there was a little less crazy than outside. :)
Saturday morning, we woke up early enough for our voices to warm up, dressed up in our semi-formals, and headed back to the UNLV campus for the competition. I sang at 11:45, and I felt really good about it. At least one of the judges was really nice, and I felt totally comfortable singing. My leg wasn't even twitching, which tends to happen when I banish the butterflies from my brain and my stomach. Dr. Reich was listening at the door and told me afterwards that it was the best she's ever heard me sing. Despite that, I didn't place. This time, my division happened to be the biggest, and there was a big age gap, but I was fine with that. First place winners sang in a winners concert that afternoon, and Geneil (1st place in the upper college classical division) and Dr. Reich left right after to drive home to Provo. I stayed and hung out with Angela and her in-laws, wandering around the Bellagio and through the malls and casinos.
At 11 that night, a van full of Singers arrived on their way to California. We stayed the night just outside of Vegas, crashing on the floors and couches of a friend's brother-in-law. Sunday morning, we woke up and went to church. Cassi played "Mom" the whole trip and had a cooler full of things to make sandwiches in the parking-lot right after church before continuing on our drive.
We arrived in California around 6 PM, one group of 5 staying at an aunt's house in Corona and the 6 of us with a young family in Irvine. They were so kind and had Hawaiian haystacks waiting for us for dinner. Before bed, we sat around and sang some hymns together for them and drove the 15 minutes to Laguna Beach to go on a walk and dip our feet in the freezing water. And almost step on sleeping hobos. Just sayin'.
Monday morning dawned bright and early. We packed our bags with granola bars and fruit snacks and tangerines and set out for the Happiest Place on Earth. Mariah and Jordan, who opted to skip the park in favor of spending the day with local friends, dropped us off near the entrance, and I skipped right on up to those gates. When I got up to the ticket window, I asked for a 2-day park-hopper ($200). The thought popped into my head that maybe there was a small discount for military, so I pulled out my military I.D., shoved it under the window with my debit card, and said, "I don't know if this does anything...." The lady at the window turned around to ask her coworker something, the coworker nodded, and the lady turned back to me and said, "Actually, I'm going to give you a 3-day park-hopper because it's cheaper" ($125!!!! The normal price of a 1-day park-hopper!). Not even 10 AM, and it was already a great day!
 |
| Hannah Johnson, Mark Zabriskie, Andrew Ford, Rachel Brown, Jason Ross, me, Devin and Rachael Anderton Not pictured: Cassi |
California Screamin', Toy Story Mania (longest wait all day - 40 minutes), and then we headed over to Disneyland, but not before grabbing some fast passes for the new Cars Racers ride and tickets for World of Color. Rachel Brown, my dear friend and friendly neighborhood Disney fanatic, has a family tradition of starting every Disneyland trip with Mr. Toad's Wild Ride because "you have to go to hell and back before you can enjoy the Happiest Place on Earth." :) So she and I went to that while the rest of the group went to the Haunted Mansion.
We met up at Pirates of the Caribbean (because let's be honest, I can't NOT go on that ride), and then ate lunch there in the New Orleans part of town. Ginormous, juicy turkey leg? Heck yeah, baby. I think after that, we headed over to Splash Mountain and then Indiana Jones and ended with Finding Nemo. - Tangent: While we were waiting in line for Nemo, we could see the Jedi Training show across the way where Jedi train a bunch of little kids from the audience, and then they get to fight Darth Vader and Darth Maul and the Storm Troopers. As we were watching, we noticed they included a Downs Syndrome adult in the group of kids. When it was his turn to fight the Dark Side, he ignored the training and his inner Jedi took over. He went crazy on them with that light-saber, and they totally played along with him! He used the force on the Storm Troopers, and they flew back and crumpled in a heap on the floor. He turned to the crowd with the biggest smile on his face with his hands over his head in victory like it was the best day of his entire life. Sweetest thing ever. - We made sure to hit all the big rides, and then headed back over to California Adventure.
A couple of us went on Soarin' Over California, and we used our Fast Passes for Cars Racers and Tower of Terror. A couple people split off for another go on California Screamin' and Grizzly River Rapids. We ate dinner on the pier, and that's when the temperature started dropping. Rachel and I went in search of some sweatshirts or blankets, but all of them were waaaaaayyy overpriced. Shocker, right? A quick stop at the Ghirardelli shop for some hot chocolate cured our shivers, and we headed down to the water for the World of Color fountain and light show. Oh. My. Word. Life-changing. I don't care how silly that sounds, but it really was for me. I laughed and sang and danced and bawled my eyes out during A Whole New World and shrieked like a 13 yr. old when Captain Jack Sparrow's face appeared as big as the ferris wheel. I was so incredibly happy. Easily one of my top 10 happiest moments in my life. And I was surrounded by people that I love and who I know love me. I wanted to stay at Disneyland pretty much forever, and Rachel, Cassi, and I walked out of the park that night with our arms around each other.
Tuesday was beach day. I LOVE the beach, and I haven't been in 4 years. We had a nice relaxing morning with a big breakfast and then drove the hour up to Long Beach. We could have picked a closer one, but one of our good friends just finished his first year of his doctorate program at USC, and we wanted to see him, so we picked a location that was more half-way. Unfortunately, it was a windy, cloudy, cool day. We played some sand volleyball for awhile, but the water just looked a little too freezing. We ate lunch and collected sea shells. We even found a little cluster of live, goose-necked barnacles and named them Hydra. And Andrew set up his slack-line so we could test our tight-rope abilities. Around 3 in the afternoon, the morning fog finally burned off, and the sun shone through a bit. While it still wasn't exactly hot, two of the guys and I felt that the beach trip was wasted if we didn't get in the water, so we grabbed the boogie boards and headed into the freezing water. Jordan was a ninny and wore a wet-suit. We paddled out to the buoy and then back in to shore, catching a couple minor waves, but nothing too great. I did get some nasty sand burn on my thigh while body surfing. I stuck with the boogie board after that. The rest of the group mostly sat and built sand castles. After a few waves, we brought the boards in and just sat on the sand. Looking out into the water, we saw a seal swimming out at the buoy where we'd just been minutes earlier. That freaked me out a little bit because sharks eat seals, and most shark attacks occur with people on boogie boards because they look like wounded seals. A little freaky. We also watched some pelicans dive from 40 feet up, spotting the little fish and crabs and belly flopping on top of them. And just as the sun was setting, a pod of dolphins swam past, also right out at the buoy. Crazy! For dinner that night, Andrew's aunt invited us all over for a BBQ, which was SO fun. We had a little musical jam session, too, because that tends to happen when a group of Singers gets together. Once again, we went to bed exhausted but happy.
Wednesday morning, my half of the group left to go back to Provo for Spring term. On their way out, they dropped me back off at Andrew's aunt's house so that I'd be with the other group. I showered and got ready for the day, and they fell asleep on the couch for 3 more hours before anybody else was awake. We spent the day up at the Getty museum where I got to add to my tally of originals I've seen by Monet, Manet, and Renoir. For lunch, we found this little corner pizzeria right down the street from the LA temple, and then we drove through Beverly Hills, stopping at Ross in Sunset Blvd. so that Rachael A. could get some new shoes and so that I could get some flip-flops. Yeah, I ended up with flip-flops, a pair of flats, and sunglasses, but whatever. :) Before it got dark, we decided to hit up Hollywood Blvd. so that I could find Johnny Depp's handprints. I will probably forever be a little obsessed with him even though the life-size cut-out and posters and magazine cut-outs and blanket and pillow that once took up a portion of my room have all been stuffed away in the closet and under my bed. Oh, and one of the Spiderman impersonators invited me to go somewhere with him that night. Mmmmm...tempting, but not really. No. When we got home that night, Andrew's aunt, Donnette, had tri-tip steak and potato salad waiting for us. She's kind of amazing. And by kind of, I mean she's one of the most amazing ladies I've ever met. She's a cancer survivor, devoted wife, biological mother of 3, adopted mother of every kid in the area (especially the local young men who've grown up in less than desirable circumstances), friend to everyone including the Chinese ladies who've done her dry-cleaning for 25 years, special educator/speech pathologist, faithful church member, etc. Love her.
Thursday morning, the rest of my friends left to go back to Provo, so I got to hang out around the house by myself all day. When Donnette got home from work that evening, she took me out for dinner and pedicures, but we only had time for dinner because my aunts and uncle and cousins were getting into town. I said thank-you and goodbye to Donnette and loaded into the minivan with my family. We checked into our hotel that night and went for a walk through Downtown Disney before crashing into bed.
Friday morning, we were up early and checked out of the hotel. We walked the half mile to Disneyland and got through the line quickly. The temperature was supposed to reach 100 that day, so the park was pretty empty. KC and Sherry got annual passes this year for themselves while Royal and Dottie can still get in for free, and Kaylani decided to tag along and bring Ollie. With the little kids, we spent a lot more time on rides like Buzz Lightyear and Rockets and Merry-go-rounds, but it was still a super fun day. All of Wednesday, I'd worn one of my new pairs of shoes so that they'd be broken in, but it didn't work too well. After a couple hours of Disneyland, I had blisters, so I stopped in the shop right outside of Pirates and bought a pair of $30 flip-flops. Possibly the most I've ever spent on shoes except for my boots, but it was worth it to not have blisters. Instead of using fast passes, we did a lot of taking turns using the single rider lines while someone stayed with the kids. I was really hoping to see World of Color again, but KC insisted that the firework show over the castle was spectacular, so we went to that. I was pretty disappointed, and the show ended up being a different one from what KC thought, but it's still Disneyland, so it's still awesome. Luckily, I still have 1 more day to use on my park-hopper ticket before the end of September. :)
 |
| Royal |
 |
| Dottie |
 |
| Ollie |
 |
| Once Upon A Time costumes with the inspiration for my Halloween costume on the right. |
 |
| Cars Land panorama |
That night, we got back in the van and drove through the night back to Mesa. KC and Kaylani were champs and switched off driving, and the kiddos stayed asleep pretty much the entire time. 10 minutes from home, right before 6 AM, we blew a tire, so KC got out and changed it. And just like that, the adventure ended. I still can't really believe I randomly decided to spend a week and a half in Vegas and California, but it's honestly just what I needed, and I couldn't have picked better people to spend it with. It was the perfect vacation, with just the right amount of busy and relaxing.
