ID4 2010

I woke up in the morning, listening to Brady ask my mom, "What time did Daddy and Tita Sherry come home last night?"  Aww, he missed us.  When Dad brought Olivia downstairs, I was happy that she didn't shy away from me, and Brady spent some quality time with me, too.  It was nice to have him there to cuddle for a little while.  The family then went into its usual "What are we doing today, and let's confuse each other for an hour as we figure it out" routine.  I laughed with each change in plans, each question about who had to be where by when.  We finally decided to "allow" Allen to barbecue some burgers and hot dogs for us for lunch, so he and Auntie Milda went to the store to buy up the fixin's.


Allen did a great job, the food was tasty, and we enjoyed our picnic outside.  I learned that a Southern Hot Dog has cole slaw on top, so I tried that, and it was yummy.   I'm going to be doing that from now on, unless it's a chili dog.


OMG, I love seeing Miss O in this hat!  She's one of those babies that tries to eat everything, so here she is, chewing on a Taggies blanket.

After lunch, Bro and I trekked to Pasadena to enjoy the Rose Bowl festivities.  We were happy to be parked in a location with easy landmarks to remember (the driving range).  We saw that the line was really long to enter the Bowl, so we decided to watch some corps warm-ups.   We saw that the mirrors were being unloaded for the Blue Devils, so we walked over to see them up close.  I guess I didn't have to worry about glass being broken on the field, because the mirrors were actually just very shiny material on a board.  Yes, they DO have a separate truck just for those mirrors.  Wow.  We saw the drumline marching down the pathway, and listened to them when they stopped to play for the crowd for a few minutes.  Then they went wherever, and we headed over to the drumcorps trailer area.  We saw that the SCV drumline was walking somewhere, so we followed them, and listened to their warm-up until we decided to get to our seats.  

SCV Bass Line

Our seats were on the 50-yard line, 50 rows up from the field.  We were seated near the mother of Chris, the backfield drum major for SCV.  She was really proud of her son, and she said that his girlfriend is the backfield DM for Phregiment.  Cool!  We enjoyed hearing her talk about him.

The Star-Spangled Banner was played by The Academy.    I would have been happier if they had saved the fly-by for *after* the National Anthem, so that we could actually hear it.  They also lit a few fireworks during the anthem, which annoyed me again.  Each corps then performed their regular 2010 show.  No judging, just fun.

PACIFIC CREST

Somebody dropped their stick, as well as something shiny on the field.  I liked seeing the formations from our view.  

MANDARINS

One of the CG gals had a flag in her face as she ran down the field.  I can't see the synthesizer guy's fingers move for the proper singing notes. 

Here are those cool CG uniforms.

THE ACADEMY

OK, I was annoyed again.  People were doing the wave during the quietest portion of their show, giving the corps no respect AGAIN.  The woman next to me, sitting in a *reserved* seat for drum corps fans, remarked when she was one of the only ones doing the wave in our section: "It dies by the time it gets over here."  That's because we're WATCHING THE SHOW, woman!  AUGH!  There was also tooting from horns not on the field, and I thought I was going to lose it.  I love it when the corps plays fortississimo!  I also like the double purple flags.  Two sticks ended up on the field.  Perhaps the drummer got caught up in the festivities and did his/her own wave and forgot to play.  Like that action shot?

INTERMISSION

They had a tribute to the Pasadena Firefighters, as well as a tribute to local military who had died in the line of duty, entitled "Honoring our Fallen from San Gabriel Valley".  No, they didn't toot horns during that.

SANTA CLARA VANGUARD

OK, I get the ending now.  I've deemed the raising of the one CG move the "Red Martha", because it reminded me of last year.  Christopher's mom is funny.  She talked about how Chris' arms would get tired from all of the clapping as he would lead the corps onto the field.  I had asked Bro during warm-ups if the drums were brown.  He said, "Yeah, like bark.  Bark-tok."  That's my Bro.  I had no choice in the matter, you know.  :)

BLUE DEVILS

A flag got stuck between 2 of the mirrors when they were next to each other.  Oops.  They are Coolness Drumified:  awesome percussion feature.

 There are just so many of them!

All of the corps then returned for their patriotic portion, and played to that crazy crowd.  

PC:  "Strike Up the Band" and "You're A Grand Old Flag"

Mandarins:  "An American Salute", which included "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"

Academy: Hymns of the Armed Forces

SCV:  "Let Freedom Ring"

BD didn't play anything alone, but their drum majors led all of the corps in "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".  

I like this shot of BD and SCV with each other.  Nice red and blue!

Then came the fireworks, which the hosts stated were "the biggest in California, the West Coast, the nation, and the world!"  I have news for you people:  the world outside of USA is probably not lighting fireworks in celebration of *our* independence tonight.  I'm pretty sure about that, especially in England. ;)  It was, indeed, quite a long fireworks show, and I'm pretty sure I got some ash in my eye.

Afterward, I looked at the souvies again, but didn't buy anything.  I had already bought a handmade patriotic necklace from The Academy's trailer earlier in the day.  The pathway back to the car was lined with carts of bacon-wrapped hot dogs, which smelled absolutely delish!  We had to wait for a very long time before we could even move the car, and even as we were leaving our section, the hot dog vendors were selling to people in their cars!  Bro and I decided on some Del Taco for our ride home, though, and drove back to Wildomar, wondering if the rest of the family got to see some fireworks, too. 

Happy 224th, USA!