Florida 27th-2nd

My high school marching band took our annual every three year trip to Florida this past week.

We left at about 6pm on Wednesday the 27th and drove straight through until we got to our hotel in Tampa at about 5pm on Thursday. We had band practice that night from 7 until 9. We were so tired.

Friday morning we had marching practice on the field (which was right across the street from our hotel) from 9 to 12. After that we packed and headed to Clearwater Beach. It was beautiful and couldnt have been nicer. We spent most of the day there and had a buffet dinner at The Hilton. Where I might add was where The Penn State Marching Blue Band was staying. After that fun day we went back to our hotel where we had a pizza party.

Saturday was the day of our contests. We had morning practice and then the hard part came. Our jazz band competed and eventually took 2nd overall. Our marching band competed around 8pm with the percussion staying on the field for our competition. Percussion took 3rd and our marching show took 3rd Grand Champion out of all the bands that were there.

The awards ceremony was Sunday night (new years eve) at Busch Gardens. My girlfriend and I got a wicked front row ride on SheiKra. And a ride on each Kumba and Montu. We left a little after 12 and of course after everyone recieved their new years kiss.

Monday we had mass band practice with every other band there for our halftime performance at the Outback Bowl. We went to the game and watched Penn State stomp the Vols. Go Lions! And then did our halftime thing and left for Orlando. We got to Orlando around 5 and just ate, swam, and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Tuesday was to be our fun day. We were to go to The Magic Kingdom to spend the day and march through the park. Of course it rained on our parade. But we had fun overall and I rode my 79th coaster. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It was fun but I didnt know about the three lift hills. I could not get my 80th coaster due to Space Mountain being closed most of the day. Thanks Disney.

Over all I had a wonderful trip and would not mind doing it again.

I am part of the Marion Harding Marching Presidents out of Marion, Ohio. If you would like to see photos you can go to my local newspapers website and check them out. http://www.marionstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/misc?URL=/misc/register_zago.pbs&Category=zago&Destination=http%3A//marionstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery%3FAvis%3DBE%26Dato%3D20070102%26Kategori%3DNEWS%26Lopenr%3D102001%26Ref%3DPH

http://www.marionstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/misc?URL=/misc/register_zago.pbs&Category=zago&Destination=http%3A//marionstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery%3FAvis%3DBE%26Dato%3D20061227%26Kategori%3DPHOTOGALLERIES%26Lopenr%3D1227001%26Ref%3DPH

What hotel did you stay at? I go to USF so I am pretty familiar with Tampa. The Outback Bowl was fun...too bad Tennessee lost. Busch Gardens is the definition of perfection ;)

When we were in Tampa we stayed at the Doubletree Hotel Tampa Westshore Airport.

*** Edited 1/4/2007 6:09:38 PM UTC by ttdmfwtm***

That's a nice hotel. Did the receptionist give you cookies? You get free cookies there. Which coaster at BGA did you like best? My personal favorite is Kumba, with Sheikra close behind.

It was pretty nice. We trashed our room though. We got cookies at the pizza parties we had. I had been to Busch Gardens Tampa last year so it wasn't my first time. But SheiKra was and still is one of my favorite coasters.