San Diego Band Trip - Day 3

Monday, December 28, 2015

As I went down to the lobby this morning, I was greeted by our boys’ swim captain Aaron, who had been swimming in the outdoor pool to stay in shape during break.  Though we are in Southern California, the morning temperatures dip down in the 40’s!  We also have Nordic students conditioning early in the morning by running with Mr. Kile.  Such dedication!  Their coaches will be proud!  Well, this afternoon warmed up and turned out to be a beautifully sunny day!  We had a great tour of San Diego and La Jolla.  Each bus had a tour guide hop on and give them some history and fun facts about the cities.  We stopped up on top of Mt. Soledad and saw a beautiful view of San Diego.  We could see Mexico from up there!  We went to Coronado Island and saw the historic Hotel Del Coronado.  They have an outdoor ice skating rink!  Some of our students wanted to show the locals how it’s done but we had to keep moving.  The fun fact I learned was that the reason for the slower speed limits on Coronado Island is because Orville Redenbacher used to live there and drive around in his old fashioned cars that couldn’t go very fast!  

Balboa Park is a beautiful park with many museums, performing arts centers, a Botanical building and the 100 year old Spreckles Organ.  It was packed with people as we marched to the Plaza de Panama!  The students did remarkably well for not warming up and not having performed in that space before.  They performed for about 30 min and were super entertaining to watch.  People were singing along and dancing to the music!  Some people were astonished that this was a high school band! 

The day ended with an amazing Mexican Fiesta complete with a Mariachi band and traditional dancing performed by students from Chula Vista School for the Creative and Performing Arts.  Our students loved it! 

We continue to collect compliments throughout the tour in regards to the character and poise of our students.  We even received one in the hotel!!