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!

Day One: Anaheim Coed Cheer Trip

     We are all delighted to be here in the warm and sunny climate of Southern California!  Our flights may have been early (I saw a few stifled yawns this morning as we met at 5 AM) but were smooth... touching down in LA at 2 pm.  NO lost luggage! No flight delays! No snow!  

     Check - in at the Anaheim Plaza Hotel was equally smooth, and we were off to the Convention Centre with no delays.  Our athletes were quite amazed at the size of the venue; it is a full arena with 3 tiers of seating similar and just a bit smaller than Rexall Place.  

There are cheerleaders EVERYWHERE here in Anaheim this weekend!  We watched the competition for quite a while, and Norwalk High School cheerleaders sat with us.  I was very impressed with our team; despite the very long day, they were extremely engaged in the cheering and were cheering the cheers with the teams, even from our third tier seats.  After such a long day and a short night previously, they still had lots of energy.  

     Everyone even kept patient when we arrived at our team dinner destination (one of my all time favourite restaurants, California Pizza Kitchen) to find that another cheer team had taken our 30 seat reservation.  Sigh, it was a long extra hour waiting for enough seats to free up, but well worth the wait!  

     The team walked back to the hotel with coaches and Mr Penner, and I headed to Walmart to buy breakfast groceries.  Around 8 pm there was a small earthquake which we didn't feel at all, but later, 9:30 ish? we had a 5.3 rumble that left us feeling the earth move under our feet.  Everyone was working on their hair and doors were open so all were quickly reassured by very unflappable Mathew Penner and coaches.   Our lights out / room check included procedures to follow if there was another tremble; the geologists say that it is very unlikely.  Just another little adventure and story for the kids. 

     Breakfast is ready for the morning!

     Tomorrow we are up early to see Norwalk compete at 8:30, then a mat practice and some low key cheer shopping.  We will be back at the hotel for naps and then it is competition time!  I will have my (new) camera to take some shots to share.  

     Quite a few of the kids have loaded WhatsAPP to their smart devices.... we will be able to do group texts in the Convention Centre and in Disneyland.  It works far better than regular text messaging for groups... if you add it to your phone, be sure to add my cell to your contacts... 780-239-5979, and let me know, and I can then text you as a group easily.

    FYI, the hotel wifi is not included and so the kids do not have access to it. Otherwise, the hotel is roomy, convenient and seems to be fine!  

   Look forward to comments and hope you follow this blog by putting your email in the top!

Goodnight, and hope you have warmer days ahead too.