Mmmm...Cinnamon Toast

DCI Finals Week

Travel Day

Sunday, August 9, 2026

Bro and I were the only ones who woke up at our regular times this morning, so we walked across the street to Cafe Patachou for breakfast.  It's good we got there before 9am as there were still several tables open.  We had tried to eat here a previous year but it was very crowded.  I'm familiar with the place because they used to have one in the airport and I liked to get breakfast there before going to my gate.  They don't have one there anymore, so I'm glad Bro was interested in it.  

They have a coffee bar with unlimited coffee, but I wanted herbal tea.  Bro ordered a make-your-own omelettte that sounded like the flatbread we used to get a Tastings.  I got a basic eggs & chicken sausage breakfast, but the highlight of my plate was the cinnamon toast.  It was soooo good that I ate all 4 slices that came with my meal.   Bro also had the cinnamon toast and it reminded both of us of our mom toasting buttered bread with sugar in the oven, but with cinnamon.  

We lounged in the hotel room until checkout time and took an Uber to IND.  We still had lots of time before boarding, so we had time to relax and eat lunch.  I also bought candy from the expensive candy place at the gate, and my Jelly Belly flavors included "Assorted Bubble Tea", which had matcha, strawberry, taro, and Thai tea.   I now need to see if I can get those as a pack by themselves.  

As we were boarding the plane, a guy in front of us was having trouble with all of his carryon items, and we wanted to help him, but V said that we would make it worse because then unknown people woul be handling his bags.  He ended up sitting next to the nephew.  I was happy to see that he was wearing a Pacific Crest corps jacket.  

During the flight, I watched "Rocky" because I had never watched it in its entirety.  

When we go to LAX, we took a shuttle back to the economy lot.  One of the guys on the bus had a signed drum head from SCV.  I think his mom was carrying an age-out feather in a box.  They were talking to another family about what food he missed while he was on tour.  I think he wanted a burrito from a certain restaurant, but someone was already making some good home cooking for him at home. 

I was jealous of the sticker on his water jug, because I had never seen it before.  It's probably only available for corps members, because it's not in the store online, nor was it in the booth at Finals.  

See how cool it is with the chains?

When we got back to Bro's place, I got my stuff that I had left there before the trip, and Bro and I were going to go by ourselves.  But the nephew hadn't eaten all day and was asking for In N Out.  Then the niece wanted to join.  Then V didn't want to just be by herself.  So everyone piled back into Bro's car to go to my house and exchange me for Coda after picking up In N Out near my house.  

I had a great time on our trip!  Bro and I will be making arrangements this week for next year, because it will be SCV's 70th anniversary.  We might make plans for other places because I'll have more free time next summer.  Also, so that maybe we can travel elsewher with the kids for drum corps.  The niece's school schedule conflicts with Finals next year, and the nephew found the whole Finals experience to be too exhausting and will not be joining us next year.  

Until then:  Drum Corps Withdrawal 

The Nibs Go To Indy

 Travel Day to Indy

August 5, 2026

Bro had picked me up the night before when he dropped off Coda for my dad to dog sit.  While he and Brady were there, they mounted my new TV onto the wall.  Thanks, guys!  I woke up very early the next morning to take a shower and be ready for all of us to get to LAX together.  Bro parked our car in economy parking, and we could see the new peoplemover, but they're not finished testing it yet.  We took the shuttle to terminal 3 for Delta Airlines.  We all had Touchless ID for TSA pre-check, but not all of us needed to do the same thing to pass the first TSA agent.  I didn't need to show anything but my eyeballs, while others needed to scan their boarding passes.  At any rate, it was much easier than it's been in the past, so yay!  Well, other than V, who got stuck behind other people that didn't seem to know which security line to enter. But it wasn't all perfect.  V's bag got searched manually because they thought she had two laptops in her bag, and they only allowed one per bag.  They saw that the second item was not a laptop, but the battery pack, and sent it through x-ray again.  

I got a lemon poppyseed muffin and water at Homeboy Bakery to support their very worthy cause, while the others got stuff from jamba Juice.  We ate our breakfast at the gate, and were there pretty early, so we heard the announcement that emergency exit row seats were available at no charge if people wanted to change their seat assignments.  V jumped up and did so.  When she came back, Bro said that now there would be a stranger sitting between me and the niece, so V got up again to talk to the agent.  Bro then joined her to make sure she had the right info, and then he came back with his own seat in the emergency exit row.  By the time they were done, my FlyDelta app had sent me 3 notifications of the change in seat assignments, and the niece and I were now seated next to the nephew.  We kept laughing at all the craziness of the sats.  V said that on the other airline, they only allowed a seat chnage to the exit row for people with status, so brownie points for Delta! 

Then, after I came back from the restroom, Bro told me that they were allowing folks to check their bags for free due to the full flight.  Yay!  My wrist has been aching lately, so taht was good news for me to avoid lifting it into the overhead bin.  The agent asked for my last name.  I told him, adding, "You know, the family that's been doing all of the seat changing."  He laughed and assigned my bag to the niece's name and told me to bring it down the jetway during boarding.  So I began to leave it with him because I'm super good at paying attention.  He repeated his instructions and I laughed, taking my luggage with me and saying, "You JUST said that!"  He was super pleasant and I was very happy with the great attitude and customer service.  

As we boarded the plane, a guy wearing a shirt with the Blue Knights logo gave me a thumbs up for my SCV shirt, saying he marched with them in 1992. Nice!  Later, I asked V if he had seen her Blue Knights shirt, but he was looking down at his phone when she passed him.  While we waited for the plane o taxi the runway, two ladies behind my talked about their kids being in drum corps.  One mom had a kid in Pacific Crest and I refrained from talking to them because they were really involved in their band mom-ness.  Also, I was just enjoying being with the niblings.

Off to Indy for the Nibs' first time to Finals!

In-flight movie for me: "The Devil Wears Prada 2".  Snacks:  We had 4 choices.  I chose Cheez-Its the first time, and Biscoff cookies the next.  I couldn't get the wifi on my phone to work even though it said I was connected, so I journaled and listened to The Hit List on YouTube music.  We landed a little bit early, which really didn't matter because we had to wait for someone to get the jetway open for us to go out.  One of the drum corps moms said to me, "That's the best drum corps shirt I've ever seen."  Aw, thanks!  And Thank You, SCV!

We all asked for the same snacks.

We saw this cool sculpture at baggage claim.  It is made of metal, and we thought it was really cool, especially when we saw the miniatures on it.

Stretching my legs

Miniature people with luggage

More miniatures

V trying to get comfortable in a metal chair

We took an Uber to our hotel, and I was thankful that despite the weird communications I was or was not receiving, our hotel room reservations were still intact.  We made a reservation for dinner at The Eagle's Nest when we got to our rooms.  The niblings are in one room, and they are next door to us, so if they have a wild party, we'll be able to hear them and join.  

I had brought a casual dress just in case we went to a nice place, so I changed into it and we went to the top floor of our hotel to dine.  The restaurant rotates, so we got to see downtown Indianapolis from our view.  The food was yummy, too!  They even received an award for the most romantic restaurant in Indianapolis.  

The niece with a Strawberry Lemonade and
Bro with his Peach Paper Plane drink

Our Hibiscus Cosmos were really yummy!

Capitol Building

Lucas Oil Stadium

Afterward, Brady wanted to explore, so I went downstairs to the lobby with them and outside, then they went for a walk and I went upstairs to finish unpacking and blog. 

Peek a Boo!

They got a Taro Smoothie for me from TBaar.  Thank you, V!  We spent the rest of the evening watching "Footloose" and "The Breakfast Club" before going to sleep.

Next up:  DCI Prelims

Bowing for Biscuits

 SWCJ Trip 2025

Nara and Kyoto

Monday, April 14, 2025

I went to the free hotel breakfast buffet.  They didn't take my ticket but asked me how many seats I needed.  I was shown a few tables for 4 and I sat down at one.  The family was taking longer than I expected, so I put my ticket down on the table and walked to the buffet to take a look.  When I returned, someone not in my family was sitting down at my table.  I guess they didn't tell him the table was taken.  Or he didn't pay attention to my ticket.  He kindly moved to another before V arrived.  We took turns getting our food before Bro and Miss O finally arrived.  Breakfast was delicious!  I had some Japanese breakfast -- ride, fish with a yummy sauce and vegetables, and tamago (scrambled egg).  I also had American breakfast -- pancake, pastry, and hash brown, and smoked salmon.  I also had matcha tea, which was from a latte machine. 

Breakfast

Everything was oishi (delicious).  Well, except for the spice that I tried from a cute tin that had no label.  It was very spicy, which I didn't expect because it looked kinda like ground black pepper.

We weren't really planning anything until Brady, at his dorm room in San Diego, sent a message to Miss O about a park where we could feed deer.  V was in.  I was in.  The Millenium Falcos were in (I shall now refer to them as MFs, but don't take that the wrong way.  They are lovely people).  And thus we came up with a time to meet the MFs at the subway station.  We went back to our rooms to get our stuff and met in the lobby.  We took pictures beside the rickshaw (I felt like I was too big to get inside.  I'm self-conscious these days, especially when I'm with all of these skinny folks).

At Gojo Station, we waited for a while, I think because we thought their hotel was equidistant from ours to the station.  All was well, though, and we met up with them on the side with no elevator where I had started my harrowing journey up the steps with my luggage the day before.  

Just a cute sign holder

On the train, we could see a lot of the countryside, including the Sakura trees.  We were there a bit late in the season, but a least this day, the weather cooperated, and the flowers were not droopy, and they were beautiful.  As we stopped at different stations, we could see that the platforms all had vending machines with drinks, and I wished they had those at the metro stations back home.

We got off at Kintetsu Station, and I got my first gachapon of the trip.  I got a meerkat with a fishing pole!  I was hoping for a hippo, but I like meerkats, too, so I was happy.  

Me and my teeny tiny meerkat

I think this was a store that wasn't open yet

Once outside the station, it was a bit of an uphill trek to the park, and the deer were abundant!  There were several stands where they sold packs of biscuits to feed them, and the deer followed all of the people with biscuits.  V bought some and gave a couple to me to feed some deer.  They were so cute the way they bowed their heads to ask for biscuits!  Some of them were a little aggressive, and one butted V as she walked away because she was empty-handed, having given away her last one.  It was hilarious.

Bowing for Biscuits

We found vending machines, and on the side of the machine was an ad for iced green tea, featuring Shohei Ohtani.  Bro told me that there was corn soup in one of them, which Bestie Mich had told me about.   So I bought one and it was cold, which I saved for later.  I also wanted iced tea, so I got Shohei's brand to take a picture with him.

Posing with Shohei

We found the public restroom, which wasn't great but at least it had Western-style toilets, and they weren't terrible.  This was one of the places without towels or hand dryers, which was a perfect example of why most Japanese people carry small towels with them.  I knew of this custom and yet, there I was without a towel.  When I exited the restroom, I saw that Miss O and Miss A were on their way to buy django at a little stand.  They kindly shared with us, and it was tasty!  I t was grilled mochi on a stick with a little bit of char.  YUM.

On the way to the temple, we passed the museum.  Outside, there were sculptures of big hands, and I practically yelled at V to get her attention because she needed photos with them.  Turns out that they were full-sized replicas of Buddha's hands, which we would see later.

The right hand of the Grand Buddha is called a Semui-in.
This hand means "taking people's fear".
The left hand of the Grand Buddha is called a Yogan-in.
This hand means "granting people's wish".

We saw a creek and Miss O and Miss A were trying to get a perfect picture of a deer, but it kept showing its but to them instead of its face.  Rude.  But then when we got in line to enter the temple grounds, there were 3 of them looking at us, and I named them Huey, Dewey, and Louie.  

Corner outside ticket booth entry

It's a turtle dragon!  Maybe?

Huey, Dewey, and Louie

We paid for our tickets and entered the temple grounds of Todai-J. Daibutsen (Great Buddha Hall).  We needed to descend a few big stone steps to get to the grounds and walk around.

My ticket

Miss O's Signature Pose

I asked V to take a photo of me washing my hands with the sacred water.  You could also drink from it, but I refrained from doing so, although it looked quite refreshing and it was nice and cold.  

There were several steps to climb to get to the entrance of the hall.  A lot of people stopped outside the entrance, and I thought it was because they really wanted the incense to cover them.  But it was actually because it was the best place to get a full shot of the Great Buddha.  Buddha is HUGIGANT!  Like HUMONGOUS HUGIGANT!  It's almost 50 feet high and weighs 500 tons.  

Great Buddha

Great Buddha different view

There were some other statues there, as well as a model of the temple grounds.  V, Miss O, and I made personalized coins like the ones you used to be able to make at Disneyland, but more solid.

Buddha to the Great Buddha's right

Warrior Statue

Model of the temple grounds

Model of Great Buddha Temple

You can see Great Buddha inside!

Buddha to the Great Buddha's left

I saw that people were in line for something and went to the front of the line to see what was going on.  People were trying to thread their bodies through a hole in a pillar.  I looked for V because I needed help doing the coin thing, then showed her the line.  She just kept wondering why they were doing that. I kinda wanted her to try it because I knew she would fit, but I also forgot that she had shoulder issues, and that would have really messed her up, because people were contorting themselves to get through.  We later learned that the thole was the size of one of the nostrils of the Grand Buddha, and "Anyone who can pass through it will have a long and prosperous life and is guaranteed to find enlightenment."  (Thanks, Google!)

As we were leaving the temple, we took some stalker photos of the rest of the group before meeting up with them for actual group photos.  Miss O and I lagged behind to get a couple of trinkets from the souvenir stand.  I found a way to get around the whole stone step thing back to the main pathway, and then bought a couple more little things.  I just couldn't get over the cute deer and their biscuits!  

We were hungry and some of us had spied a crepe place down the road, so we made our way there.  Well, this place was absolutely charming!  Some of us ordered tea, for which each of us received a big tray with a pot, cup, strainer, cream, and a time so we knew when it was done steeping.  The crepes were delicious, as well as the tea, and I loved the cute heart-shaped cups.  

We then had nice full bellies and therefore enough energy to go to the shopping center near the train station.  We bought some cute stuff like a wood-carved hippo.  We saw a vending machine with macarons!  I refrained from getting them, but I was very tempted.  We saw a photo place where you could rent kimonos like this deer.

How did they get the kimono on the deer?

Mmmm....macarons

Kawaii Nara Deer

V needed to take photos with giant beer taps, which just started today at the train station.  Mom MF and Miss A shopped for Kit Kats.  I got a cute drawstring bag that was Nara-themed out of a gachapon machine and was really excited that it was the design I wanted.  

We walked back to the train station to get back to our respective hotels to rest a little and freshen up.  Then we met up with the MFs in the same building as the Pokémon Center to get dinner at a bar.  I tried to order in Japanese, but I either mispronounced or said the wrong word, so the server needed to clarify.  there was some unlabeled seasoning that I was too scared to try because of what happened in the morning.  

My order was chicken on a stick with some mild dipping sauce, and it was tasty.  We marveled at the very realistic-looking food in the display case before heading upstairs to the Pokémon Center.

Pikachu with Parasol

Top of Pikachu's Parasol

I'm not a Pokémon collector, but I had recently seen one that I liked.  So I asked Miss O to help me find Rapidash, which is a unicorn with pretty colors in its mane, and is an evolution of Ponyta.  Have I confused you, or do you speak Pokémon?  V and I got cute Pokémon Center pressed pennies of Pikachu, too.  

We had walked in a little bit of rain before dinner, and it had mostly dissipated by the time we walked back.  I watched a Japanese game show where in the celebrities (I think) tried to list stuff in the category they were given, kind of like $100K Pyramid back home.  Then I watched other TV until I fell asleep.  

Next up:  KYOTO