A Great Weekend with the USC Trojan Marching Band!

I probably just finished one of the most exciting weekends of my life!  Through the USC Marching Band, I went to California Adventure, saw Earth, Wind, and Fire perform live, performed for Yamaha’s 125th anniversary, saw my favorite basketball player up close, performed on the court of the Staples Center, and saw a great Lakers game!  How can anyone turn down being in band?

On Friday, I traveled with the USC Marching Band to California Adventure in Anaheim, CA to perform for Yamaha’s 125th Anniversary Concert.  Other performers at the concert included Elton John, Earth, WInd, and Fire, and Sarah McLaughlin (pretty good company!).  We got there early in the morning and did a sound check.  It went well, but the whole time I was looking forward to getting out into the park!  Because it was sprinkling most of the day, the lines were relatively short and we were able to do all the good rides in the park within a couple hours.  The best part was that I have been interested in going into the new Cars Land, but when I have come in the past, it is always so packed that it is not worth going into.  However, on Friday, it wasn’t very busy, and we went on Radiator Springs Racers, which was really fun.  I was amazed with the design and the experience of the ride.

I really enjoy California Adventure and my favorite ride is Soarin’ over California, by far!  I also love the Toy Story Midway Mania ride, and I am getting to be a pretty good shot…  After we finished the rides, we went and checked out an exhibit they had discussing the development of the new Fantasy Faire, which is being built where the old Carnation Plaza used to be.  Even though I really appreciated the historical significance of Carnation Plaza, the new project looks interesting and really harkens back to the ideas of Walt Disney’s princesses.  Can you tell that I am obsessed with Disneyland yet?

That night, we performed right after Earth, Wind, and Fire at the concert.  It was amazing, because we got to watch them perform “September” live, which was insane.  We had a good performance, and it was fun to be a small part of a huge concert.  Even though we didn’t stick around for Elton John’s performance, I heard that it was pretty amazing.  Overall, it was a really great day.

On Sunday, I got invited to play with the Laker Band at the game vs, the Oklahoma City Thunder.  The L.A. Laker Band is made up of Trojan Marching Band alumni who perform at every Laker home game, and when one of their guys can’t make it, they ask older members of the marching band to come and perform.  Even though I have been asked to come play with them in the past, this time was extra special, because… we played the Star Spangled Banner on the court!!!!!!  I felt like I was almost going to pass out walking out onto the court and seeing my longtime idol, Kobe Bryant, and the rest of the amazing basketball players up close and personal.  I have been a Lakers fan as long as I can remember and being able to come down onto the court of the Staples Center to perform for the thousands of people in the stadium was something that I will never forget.  The performance went really well.  Afterwards, I got to witness a great Laker victory against the Thunder.  It felt really good, especially after we lost to them in the Western Conference Semifinals last year.

Overall, it was a great weekend, and I owe it all to being a member of the Trojan Marching Band.  Fight On!