Day Two...
It was an eventful day, beginning with a decent continental breakfast and a brisk walk to the Outlets at Orange.  The athletes made the best of their two hour shopping excursion, culminating in lunch at Johnny Rockets.  Then  it was back to the hotel and prep for the competition.

The level of these AllStar athletes is awe inspiring.  We had to perform in Juniors with one short; poor Hannah was struck with the flu and she just couldn't compete.  The kids did fine.  Coed competed about 90 minutes after juniors, on the big stage, and they too did a great job.

There were a few blips... at the end of the junior routine, the MC announced "And that was Victoria School of the Dance".   LOL   At the coed routine, at 45 seconds they go into their cheer, which is not a component of AllStar cheerleading.  When the music stopped for the cheer, the MC said, "And that was Victoria School of the Arts".  The athletes didn't miss a beat and just continued with their routine.

Bella Maclean hung out with us after her late afternoon ACE performance; she was around to cheer us on!

Unfortunately the wifi here is awful and my pictures won't load, so they will have to wait until we are back in E-town! 

Sunday we will be hanging out at the Convention Centre after a leisurely morning, some pool time and some us sleeping in!

Until later...

Safely Arrived in Anaheim!

Despite an earthly morning (thank you to all you dedicated drivers!) the crowd had an energetic and warm first day in Anaheim.  Our flights were smooth despite a short turn around in the very busy Vancouver airport.  The TCS bus driver was waiting for us as expected and took us to our little hotel.

It was 32 degrees today! Smoggy sand sunny, if this isn't an oxymoron.  Our rooms are fine, the carpet is new and only a day old.  The pool is small but nothing stops these kids from having fun.  They held off on pool time until early evening and thus avoided sunburn or heat stroke! It is great that this hotel is beside a few small fast food places and a convenience store with SLURPEES! Multi flavored and easily accessed...

It is a short walk to the convention centre, where we registered this afternoon, picked up our Disney tickets and stared up at the towering palms.  Tomorrow we will walk to the Outlet Mall and spend a very short time shopping before a quick lunch at TGIFridays.  Then its the big time...

I will update this post later tonight with pictures and a review of Boca di Beppo.  Off we go...

Warner's VIP Tour and Norwalk High School Visit

April 1, 2014

Today began with a really early start to take the bus to Warner Studios in Burbank.  This proved to be a fabulous tour, as we are all on an extended golf cart with personal guides who drove ober the extensive lot and showed us sets and properties that the students were familiar with from their own television watching.  We walked through the sound stage for the Fosters, an HBO show, saw many properties from Pretty Little Liars, and explored Warner’s museum which had an entire floor dedicated to Harry Potter, complete with the original sorting hat and the stool from the movie.  Lots of us got ‘sorted’. 

Leanne gets sorted.

Potter mail

Pretty Little Liars house



Small group golf carts took us around the studios.

It was a short visit because our bus driver was late picking up and got confused finding the venue entrance… the Bus company, CTS, did not impress me.  By 10:30 we were back on the road to go to Norwalk High School.

 Norwalk High School Cheer Team is coached by Liz and by Chip.  Liz was one of our three coaches that visited us this summer and provided a workshop for four days.  Their team won Nationals in their division.  The High School has over 2600 students, and is the smallest high school in the city of Norwalk!  We were surprised by the layout… there are no corridors or inside hallways; everything is outside.  Classrooms are in blocks facing a huge courtyard which serves as a meeting space and also the cheer practice space.  Mats are pulled out and laid on tarps every practice in this courtyard, so the athletes practice in the outdoors. 

Over lunch hour the students shared in an informal pep rally.  It was a great event!  We presented Norwalk with a Canadian flag as a symbol of our friendship at this International pep rally.  The principal was there as were hundreds of students who clearly were enjoying the event. I chatted with several and they were thrilled to have the visit.  The school does pep rallys at lunch on a regular basis to build school spirit.

After the rally, we walked to In and Out Burger with the three team captains and the coaches and had a delicious burger lunch (remember ‘animal style’?)

The highlight of the day, and for me the entire trip, was the shared practice after lunch.  Back at Norwalk, we had an informal practice were ties were made with the athletes.  By the end of practice, stunting had become mixed groups… some Victoria athletes, some Norwalk.  Presentation of t-shirts were made to each other and Canada pins given to all their team members as well as Canada tattoos.  Our team has Norwalk t-shirts.  Parting was difficult for some as there was a pretty quick and strong bond made that day.

Liz demonstrating techniques

Final group chant

 Back at the hotel, I took a taxi to an Olive Garden for pick up to serve the students as they packed up to fly out early the next day. 

 

 

 

Some Disney Images

 

 

Disneyland!



The entrance to Disneyland... note that the wheelchair is supporting an injury outside of Victoria Cheer!
 

The Swinging Ferris Wheel.  Don't be fooled by its gentle appearance!

Dancing in Car Land! 

 

 

Photo Updates from Competition Day

Thought I'd add a few more shots from the competition for your enjoyment.  These are some individual shots as they were getting ready to compete.

 

 

Stay Tuned... Camera Problem Solved

I have debugged my camera problem and by tonight should have some great (lower resulution) photos.  Yahoo.  Stay tuned...  Meanwhile, here is some morning swim shots from my iPad.

Competition Day

Well done, Coed!  Tenth in this incredible competition!  We are very proud of our team.

The top 6 teams continue tomorrow, and we will have the pleasure of watching them.  For now, the kids are thrilled to have placed as well as they did.  A few 'bobbles' and a pyramid that didn't quite complete.  A warm up tumble.  Despite these, dedication, perseverance and commitment through difficulties, team work and enthusiasm earned the team a place in the top ten Coed Varsity Large Advanced School teams at the USA Spirit Nationals. 

I have some great pictures with my (new) camera... and they are hiding on my laptop here.  For some reason, Blogger will not upload any of them!  I will definitely need some technical help.  After playing around, I have discovered that if I load a picture to Facebook, then save it, Blogger will upload it.  Until this glitch is solved, there will be limited pictures... and be updated later.

You can't imagine the scale of this competition until you are here - it is all school teams, no All Star Clubs... and so each and every performance connects to the athleticism of our athletes.  Of course there are many divisions, however the divisions reflect different stunting rules and team composition and size, not skill levels.  The novice athletes from Norwalk High School, are incredible and we are very much looking forward to their "International PEP Rally on Tuesday!