Alanna's baton twirling team was in the
Washington DC National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade!
This was our first twirl trip, we were very excited!
Alanna's been twirling since she was six and it is so weird that she's is a Maine-E-Act!
This was a very well coordinated trip! Andrea, her coach, did an amazing job! The girls were in several newspapers and Ingrid, Alanna and Cassie were recognized and wished good luck during a school assembly! We've been semi planning this trip since last September and officially planning since January. It was pretty stressful for Amy and I (being first timers) but it went SO good! About half the team is new so a lot of us were in the same boat.
We left Maine on Wednesday evening to drive through the night to DC.
After a loooong night we arrived at a restaurant to eat breakfast at 6:30am and got ready for the day.
I can't say I have ever, ever brushed my teeth in a public restroom before! As we were all doing hair, make up and getting dressed I knew then I was going to get to know these girls and their mom's really well!
First official stop: The Capital Building.
We all had to wear earphone's so we could listen to our tour guide. It was neat!
Next we went to the Newseum.
The 911 exhibit. Newspapers from around the world.
Outside the fourth floor with the Capital in the background.
The girls and Andrea fooling around on the big screen TV.
Alanna is on Andrea's right.
The girls at the Jefferson Memorial.
The mom's and one dad!
Our tour guide informed us that we were lucky the blossom's peaked the exact time we were in DC. I guess they've mostly fallen the past few years. In fact the girls had to fill in a journal Andrea made for them and they had to collect a blossom but there weren't ANY on the ground yet! And of course you can not pick them off the tree's!
They were beautiful!
We ate lunch and then went to the White House.
Later we went to the National Institutes of Health hospital. The girls had previously had a service project where they made gifts for the children's hospital. An employee came out, accepted the gift and gave us a vocal tour of the Children's Inn-as they call it-you can't go in. The security was very intimidating! It was really very fascinating. It is right across from Walter Reed. We ate dinner at a Italian place that was pretty good then we went to our hotel.
The next morning we went to Arlington National cemetery and watched the changing of the guards at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was very, very neat. We decided that this is the way to see DC-on a chartered bus with a full time tour guide!
Then we went over to see the Lincoln memorial and we ran into..........
Sean!!
He flew in Friday late afternoon so he could watch the parade the next day! I still can't believe he was able to leave the office during the busiest week of the year--but he couldn't miss watching Alanna! (Glen was supposed to be flying down and back with him but he mistakenly booked the wrong flight so Sean got on the plane and Glen got back in his car and started driving down!)
Me, Amy and Kelley with Andrea in the background!
We only got to see Sean for 15 minutes before we had to board the bus and go to the Pentagon to see the 9/11 memorial. Since he was not allowed to ride the bus he stayed and checked out some of the sites. Then met up with us for dinner at The Hard Rock Cafe. Side story: as we were walking from the bus to the memorial at the Pentagon our tour guide told us your not allowed to take pictures of the the Pentagon and if you do a guard or cop will come and make you delete the picture. So we are all walking when a cop comes out of no where and starts talking to a family who had just taken some pictures. Sure enough he took her phone and I assume deleted them. I was so busy watching them I almost ran smack into a metal street light. It was so close my nose just grazed it. I yelled out and started laughing because about a million people just almost watched me splat into a huge metal pole! (People in our group, other tourists and various military people walking to their cars and of course anyone watching for security purposes.) I thought it was so funny (as did several other people) but what was even more funny was the fact that Amy INSISTED I stop talking immediately or she was going to laugh and pee her pants!!! That of course made me laugh even more. But since I love her (and knew she was dead serious) I shut up!
Awesome picture of the girls at dinner.
After we ate Sean headed to the Metro while we boarded our bus to go back to the hotel. When Sean met us at the hotel he said that Ford's Theater (where Lincoln was assassinated) was right next door to the Hard Rock.
The next morning at five o'clock the girls had to report to Andrea's room to get their hair and make up done. We all boarded the bus--we were a bundle of nerves!
It was so exciting! The girls looked beautiful!
(Photo courtesy of Andrea)
It was a beautiful day! It had been cold and rainy the past few days! The parade volunteers said this was the warmest it's been the day of the parade in five years! 53 degree's. The bus dropped the girls off at the beginning of the parade route then drove all us mom's to the end and parked. We walked a few blocks up to where our seats were in the grandstands. We happened to be right in front of the White House! Sean and Glen met up with us and we waited for the parade to begin.
Andrea wouldn't let us get pictures of the girls (trying to keep them calm and focused) but she promised she'd take a bunch and text them to us.
This unicycle group was impressive!
Here they come!
Alanna is third over in the last row.
They did amazing! We were SO proud of them!
Post parade pep talk by Andrea.
The girls changed clothes on the bus and we were set free to go around on our own for the rest of the afternoon.
Alanna was a little grumpy (she was starving) and it very, very crowded. We hopped in a taxi and went back to a gift shop across from where we ate dinner the night before--Alanna wanted a Cherry Blossom shirt we found but didn't have time to buy.
We ate at &Pizza-Oh, it was SO good! After eating we went and toured Ford's Theater. While we were in there Sean's business partner, Matt, told us there was a shooting at the capital. We had to change the location of where we were all meeting the bus. After we wandered around for a while longer we met up with everyone.
Andrea took a bunch of pictures of the girls. And we went dinner and to our hotel.
We had such a great time! It was so much fun! I had so much fun with the girls and their moms! We only see each other in passing at practice so it was great to get to know everyone! Andrea entertained on the bus with stories and comments about herself and the girls--we laughed a lot!! We walked a lot too! about 12-15 miles a day! Andrea said this was the best group she's had in a long time. The girls we're sweet and kind--they weren't allowed to have their phones all day long! They followed the rules and had a great time together. It is really a privileged to have these girls/coaches be great role models for our girls-Alanna and Embree! The older girls especially Carly, love Bree! She was a little sad to be left home. My mom took her shopping and to see Cinderella-so she had some speical time!
Our bus left at 5am Sunday morning to start the long drive home. (Amy, Glen, Sean and I went to Wal Mart to buy pillows to sit on! The bus seats were SO uncomfortable!) Sean decided to skip his flight back to Maine and drive home with Glen. We met up at a rest stop in CT for lunch and made it home by 5pm. We were happy to be home and hug our other kiddos!
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