On the way home

Our buses are on the way back to WHS.
In the attached photo you can see the last of our four buses as it
heads towards the freeway.

Tram

Heading home soon.

Time to go.

Our trip is almost over.
Students are buying souviners and heading to the parking lot trams.

Hide from the camera

Some people will even use their friends when trying to hide from a
camera.

Waiting

Still Waiting

We're still outside the Hyperion Theatre.

Another picture...

...of our group waiting to see the Aladdin show.

Aladdin

We're here at the Hyperion Theatre in California Adventure waiting to
see choir alum Dylan White who plays the Genie in the show.

Checking' Out

The final room checks are done.
All of our students and tour moms and dads are ready and we're about
to leave the hotel and head to Disney's California Adventure.

The Awards are underway

Students gather around Mr. Rose at the "safe area".

Smiles all around

In line for Buzz Lightyear's AstroBlasters

Space Mountain

It's a Small World...

...and these students are enjoying it.

Disneyland

We're here!

Hotel Problems

The fact that the Wi-Fi internet connection that we were told was free
actually costs $10 per day is the least important problem we've run
into at our hotel.
The biggest problem was a shortage of rooms.
The hotel assigned Alan Rose and Tery Williams to a room that was
already occupied by someone else.
Then they changed it to a room with only one queen sized bed.
Obviously neither of these room would work.
While the front desk folks worked to find another room an even bigger
problem presented itself.
There were no rooms assigned to our four bus drivers.
They were reserved, the hotel just hadn't assigned them and as a
result had trouble finding empty rooms.

After about 15 minutes they found one room to give to one of our bus
drivers.
5 minutes after that another bus driver was given their room key.
10 minutes later our third bus driver was assigned a room.
That left just one bus driver and Mr. Rose and Tery still in need of
rooms.

Eventually we had to just give up on resolving the issues before
having to depart for Pirate's Dinner Adventure.
We'd just have to hope that the last two rooms we needed would be
available when we got back.

Well... Alan and Tery's room was ready and waiting but they had
forgotten about our bus driver.
Needless to say... Mr. Rose was not happy!
Now the hotel's unexcuseable ineptness was affecting our Saturday
schedule.
By law bus drivers must have 8 hours off after driving us as many
hours as they did on Friday.
Since one of our bus drivers would not have a key to a room in time,
we had to alter our plans for Saturday morning.
We'll now be leaving the hotel later and the choir will have less time
at Disneyland on Saturday.

Despite the hotel issues, the trip has been fun for the choir so far.
They seemed to enjoy the day at the competition and many of our
students got to be a part of the show at Pirate's Dinner Adventure.

Freshman Chorus line up to take the stage

Our last choir to perform at the Anaheim Heritage Festivals
competition is Freshman Chours.

In the attached photo you see them lined up to take the stage at the
Wilshire Center at Fullerton College.

Mixed Chorale can relax

Their part of the competition is over.

Members of Mixed Chorale can now shed their robes and sit back and
listen to the other groups perform.

After Mixed Chorale performed...

...Virginia Martin passed out.

She was then escorted from the stage to the lobby where chaperones
(including her mother) looked after her.

As you can see from the picture, she felt better fairly quickly.

The Trip Meeting

Mr. Rose goes over the rules for trip with the students and parents.
We're looking forward to a fantastic trip!

Anaheim Pre-Trip Meeting

The Anaheim trip meeting will be held in the Westlake HS Library at
6:30 pm.

This meeting is especially important for freshman and mixed chorale
members who have never been on a choir trip with the WHS choral music
department.

Friday is competition day.

We will be getting up aroud 5 to 5:30 am, leaving the hotel around 7 am,
and arriving at the competition site around 9 am.
If possible we will post photos to this blog during the day.

We're all here... Time to go!

Test

This post is a pre Seattle Trip test.

More Dance

Since it's raining outside, the girls are happy to be inside working
on their choreography.

Valerie

Valerie has been working very hard this weekend.

Paying attention to Valerie

The dancing is underway.

The rain has held off long enough for us to unload the Lister Rents
truck, get our things into our rooms and set up our risers and snack
tables in McNeil Hall.
Women's Chorale is now dancing with Valerie and will do so until lunch.

We expect the storm since 2005 to dump rain on this area over night, but
we don't expect to have to be outside in the foul weather.

WC Idyllwild 2008

It's been about a year since we last used this blog during a trip.
The trip below this entry is Women's Chorale's Idyllwild trip from 2007.

This year we arrived in Idyllwild right on schedule.
There was no snow to speak of, and there was no rain upon our arrival.
We won't escape the rain for long. It's supposed to be here by dinner time.

A full morning of dance

The girls have spent their entire morning learing their choreography
with Valerie.

Pie is served!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
Apple Pie.
Cherry Pie.
Pumpkin Pie.
The choices go on.

Idyllwild Pines has been selling pie slices and ice cream in an effort
to raise funds for building improvements.
Mr. Rose has been nice enough (on the past several Idyllwild trips) to
buy pie slices for the entire group.

I gotta go. A slice of apple pie awaits me.

;-)

1 1/2 more hours of dancing

It's 7:30pm and the girls have 1 1/2 more hours of dancing tonight.
After that Mr. Rose has one more fun activity for them before we call it
a night.
While today was cold and windy, everything here in Idyllwild is going
according to plan.
More entries to this blog will be posted on Saturday, January 6th.
We'll also be working on our first ever podcast while we're here this
weekend and hope to have it posted no later than Saturday night.

Snow on the ground

Women's Chorale will be pleased to find Idyllwild looking so beautiful.
The past two storms that passed through the San Bernadino mountains both
left snow behind.
A bit of fresh snow fell as recently as last night.
No additional snow is expected over the weekend, but the low
temperatures may allow what's already on the ground to stay put.
As this blog entry is being composed (9:16am) the bus is still about 30
min. from arriving in Idyllwild.

Departing for Idyllwild

The Women's Chorale trip to Idyllwild is off to a good start.
We departed from Westlake High School on time.

Men at Work

Mr. Racine is our official foreman on the construction project that the
dads are working on this weekend.
The attached image shows the dads going over the plans.

Blocking

Our choreographer, Joanne, is spending a lot of time this morning
staging and blocking the holiday concert so that the kids understand
their purpose and position on stage during the concert.

Intruder Alert

When Mr. Rose learned about a possible security problem he responded
right away.
The attached photos show Mr. Rose walking to the girls' dorm to resolve
the issue.
This morning the kids are dancing in McNiel Hall and a few of the
parents went back to the dorms to take showers and/or naps.
While Mrs. Garcia was trying to take a nap she had a strange visit by an
"out-of-sorts" woman who is part of an AA group that was also spending
the weekend at Idyllwild Pines Camp.
It was the second intrusion into the girls dorm this weekend. Last
night another woman from that same group wandered into the dorm.
We lock the cabins when no one is in them, so the kids' belongings are
safe, but we only have one key for each cabin, so when someone is in
them the door is usually unlocked.
In addition to locking up our cabins when no one is in them, the doors
are also locked at night after lights-out so that no uninvited visitors
(human or animal) can get in.

Everybody! Come on! Dance and Sing!

Everybody! Get up and do your thing!

The parents have been put to work.

While the kids take their first break after dancing for over an hour,
the moms and dads are still hard at work.
The dads are cutting sheets of plywood to make props for an upcoming show.
The moms are sewing green dresses for the holiday concert.
Check back this evening for another update.

On our way.

On the way to Idyllwild.
First stop will be McDonald's at Ontario Mills.

Idyllwild Weekend

Information regarding the November VE trip to Idyllwild is now available
at http://whscmd.org/idyllwild.html

VE in Idyllwild

The 2006 Vocal Ensemble Idyllwild trip should be fantastic!
Mr. Rose has been planning activities for the past few weeks.
We have a new choreographer (from the California Dance Theatre) and she is looking forward to the trip.
Upon our arrival in Idyllwild we'll be posting new items on this blog a few times each day.
Be sure to check back here for daily photos and updates from Idyllwild.

On the plane

Well... We're packed in our sardine can and ready to be shipped
overseas.
Boarding and swapping seats was "interesting" to say the least, but it
was painless for the most part and now we'll be on our way.

Starting tomorrow our updates to the web site will be less frequent and
will most likey be in the form of photos added to the "Digital Images"
area.
We'll try to post pictures every day but we will be at the mercy of our
hotel's internet options.

Now for real... Off we go!

Killing Time

We're about to board our flight to New Zealand.
We've been at the airport just long enough for some of the kids to get a
bit restless.
They are all still behaving wonderfully, but everyone will be happy to
finally get on the plane.
Well... Maybe not "everyone". We do have a few students who have a fear
of flying.

While at the airport the kids killed time in a number of ways (as you'll
see in the photos we've attached), but we'll be killing the biggest
amount of time once we're in the air and we cross the international date
line.

Off we go!

Australia

The countdown is in its final stages. We're leaving tomorrow!

The gavel changes hands.

At last night's awards ceremony, department president, Dean Lang, gave up his gavel to next year's department president, Juan Ricafort.

Clean up

As the masses leave El Dorado Park
our students are starting their final task of the
day.
Clean up.

After that we'll be on our way home.

Finale

The mass choir finale is under way.

Men's Ensemble...

Men's Ensemble was our last group to perform.
There was only one group that followed them.
Temple City HS, the hosts of the blue stage,
wrapped up the day's performances by individual
choir groups.

More performance fun

The Treble Makers and Premiere have now
performed and Men's Ensemble will get their chance
very soon.

Additionally... The service projects have been
great fun.

No caption to speak of...

...just more pictures.

Donation Line

As we unloaded our truck filled with donated items
each student was able to take part by passing the
items down the line from our truck to the truck
from the Los Angeles Mission.

Two Frosh and a Soph...

...waiting to take part in our next service project.

Mixed Chorale

Mixed Chorale took the stage just before 11:30am.
at the time I'm sending this they are still performing.

Performances Begin

So far ACA and Freshman Chorus have performed.

Day two begins

We're here.
We're busy.
Everything is going great.

On the way home

The first day of America Sings has come to an end.
We're loading the busses and getting ready to make
the drive back to WHS.

It's almost over for the night

John Jacobson is on stage now and he's just
about to start the final event of the evening.

You can't tell much from the photo, but the
stage looks great here.

The evening's festivities begin

The U.S. Navy Band is here to "rock the park".
Our students are ready for the show.
Tonight should be fun, but Saturday's events are
really what "America Sings!" is all about.

Work and Fun

ACA rehearsal on the main stage.

Choir students set out food in one of the project
tents.

We've arrived in Long Beach

El Dorado Park is beautiful and our choir students
are already working hard.
We've unloaded our Lister truck and are already
almost finished helping with the initial set-up of
the stage we're hosting.

The bulk of the work and fun are yet to come.

AMERICA SINGS!

The America Sings event in Long Beach, CA should be both fun and educational.

We'll be posting updates here at least a few times on both Friday and Saturday.

What do you think?

If you're a parent or guardian of a WHS CMD choir student, let us know what you think about this method of keeping you informed of what's happening on our trips.
We'd love your feedback and comments regarding the frequency of our updates to this "mobile blog" and we'd be interested in knowing how often you checked for updates during our trip.

Sadly, many of you probably didn't even know we had offered this feature during the Anaheim trip because the technical details regarding how to submit new photos and text while we were "on the go" were being worked out until the day before we left.

A few of you, however, did manage to find this while we were away.
We know this because a few students told us that when they talked to their parents on the phone they mentioned having seen it.

We leave on another trip this Ffiday and, if there is enough interest, we'll use this method of keeping you informed once again.

Homeward bound

We had a great day.
We're on the way home.

Parents... Please remember...
Mr. Rose expects all our choir students to be
at school on Monday.

Our next trip is in 5 days!
It's America Sings! in Long Beach.

Matterhorn Mountain

A bunch of us made it onto the Matterhorn
Bobsleds after Space Mountain was closed down.

Disneyland Resort

Despite all of the hotel problems last night
we all seem awake and ready for the day here
at the Disneyland Resort.
While some of us were waiting in line for
Space Mountain, it broke down.
Despite that bit of bad luck we're still looking forward to a great day.

Awards and Hotel

The awards ceremony was packed!
Over 2500 students from all over the U.S. and
Canada attended this weekend's festival.

Our choirs are bringing home some very nice
awards.
We would have detailed information posted here
but the ceremony ended early due to a sudden
and quite heavy rain shower which started
a downward spiral of unfortunate events.

When the ceremony was cut short we attempted
to head to our hotel which was 11 miles north
of Disneyland, in Norwalk.
Just getting everyone back to