Bandfest and West Side Story

Today we traveled to Pasadena City College stadium to watch 7 of the 20 marching units in the Rose Parade perform their field shows. We saw high school bands from Wyoming, Alabama, and 2 from Georgia along with the TCU and West Carolina Univ. bands. What an outstanding event! These high school bands are so creative, high energy and wonderfully sounding. We hated to leave! Other performances were to go on later in the afternoon and we missed ones from yesterday.

We then traveled to Hollywood to attend the production of "West Side Story". Since we had some time to kill before the show, we walked the walk of stars along Hollywood Blvd. As long as you are looking down at the stars you don't see the very seedy side of what should be a glamorous area. So many sex stores, costumes and liquor establishments. Not what I expected! On the other hand the Pantages Theatre was fabulous. They had restored the interior a few years ago to its original 50's Art Deco decor. And the musical was really good! The female performer who played the part of Maria was also the voice of Jasmine in Disney's Aladdin.

Pasadena CA

We took off early on Tuesday to drive to Pasadena CA. It was an uneventful drive, thankfully, other than dealing with LA traffic. John discovered that if you just pick a lane, look straight ahead and don't worry about other cars passing you on both sides, that we will get where we want to go stress free! Now, you and I know that fact but this is something new for John. He didn't realize that it is okay for people to pass him!

The Escapee's RV club that we will be with for our Rose Parade experience are an early bunch. Early cocktail hour (4 PM), early dinner (5:30 PM) and early to bed (we were back in the RV by 7 PM). We also found out that the New Years Eve party will be based on the eastern time zone -- 3 hours early!!!! Not a bad idea since we have to be on the bus at 6 AM New Year's Day to attend the parade. Also, when they say to be on the bus by 2:45, everybody except us were there at 2:30!

Today we got to see some of the floats being decorated with flowers and organic substances such as seed, moss, lichen, corn husks, leaves, rice etc. This is quite an engineering feat as well as labor intensive. There were scores of volunteers for each float.

This afternoon we went to Equifest -- a horse show of performers who will be in the parade. Now John and I are not real horse fans but this was a lot of fun and very interesting. There were circus performers, Calvary soldiers, Mexican caballeros, Cowgirls Chics and many more.

An AZ Xmas

John's Mom's home was well decorated for Xmas and so is the park where she lives. Lots of lights outlining RV's and covering the cacti. Christmas Day was spent video chatting with our kids and grandkids or talking on the phone with other family. The afternoon was very warm and sunny so John and I spent a couple of hours by the pool and then bike riding.

Today we drove up to Cave Creek where we will spend some time in February. We wanted to check out the county park camping and recreation area and then see if we could find any good places to eat. ( you must think that is all we can think about!) We also scoped out some golf courses. John is biking while I'm here blogging and paying bills but it is nice to have the windows open!

Good Bye NO

We got really lucky and were seated at the food preparation bar at NOLA (Emeril's restaurant). We had a very good meal, a nice visit with the folks sitting next to us, and it was fun watching the chefs at work.

As we walked around the Quarter after dinner we came across a bar showing a movie. They were at intermission and showing the old clips from drive-in movies (where they tell you to go to the concession stand for popcorn etc.) on the wall of the building outside. We decided to stop for a drink and to watch "Home Alone" inside. Shortly after the movie came back on John and I made a simultaneous discovery -- this was a GAY bar!!!! John saw the bartender kiss another on the cheek and I watched two male customers tenderly feed each other a bite of food. We quickly finished our drinks and departed! I laughed all the way back to the RV! How do we get ourselves into these situations?!!

Tuesday morning we left NO around 8 AM and headed for San Antonio where we were met by some friends for dinner and breakfast the next day. We parked in the Walmart parking lot for the night. Wed and Thurs. we drove towards Phoenix. It took us all day on Wed. to get the rest of the way across Texas. That's 22 hours to drive across that state. Thursday night we stayed in the Lost Dutchman State Park. Luckily we got in early enough to take an invigorating hike thru the desert before supper.

It was only a 1 hour drive to John's Mom's RV resort where we will stay until after Christmas. It is so nice to be with family on this special day!

Pam's New Orleans Christmas

Sunday was sunny and warmer than Sat. but still on the cool side. A friend's son and his girlfriend came by about noon to get his packages from home. We then made a beeline to the Jagerhaus. They have really good German food. We then wandered around the French Quarter for a couple of hours until the Christmas Concert at the St. Louis Cathedral. The choirs and orchestra perfomed a J.S. Bach contata, then a collection of songs accompanied by a harp. The last number was a moving number performed on the pipe organ. Oh yeah, pretty much the whole concert was in German, go figure.

When we left the church, we joined 8000 people in Jackson Square with candles and sang Christmas carols. I loved every minute and John was very good to go along with me.

Today we hopped on the trolley and rode out to the Garden District and had lunch at this little corner bar/restaurant called Parasols. John said his Po'Boy was better than Johnnie's. After lunch we walked around the old mansions. One of them is the home of novelist Anne Rice who writes vampire novels. We rode the trolley back to the Quarter so we could prepare to leave in the morning. Tonight we have reservations at NOLA Restaurant. This is an Emeril dining experience.

More NOLA

Dinner at GW Finns was pretty good although we've have had better. It is still a great place to eat and we would recommend it. We had a really good Muffalatta at Franks in the Quarter for lunch. Boy they are filling but good -- lots of olives and olive oil!

Saturday morning dawned cloudy, cold and rainy. But we don't let that slow us down. We walked down Canal St. to the River Walk which is really a long covered shopping mall. Since we were going in the wrong direction from Cafe du Monde, we stopped at their mall shop and got beignets and coffee. Being fortified, we set out in the rain to walk toward the Warehouse District and then along Magazine St. towards the Garden District. We found a neat area to window shop and then had lunch at Jackson's. John's hamburger was a full 1/2 lb and slathered with hollandaise sauce and caramelized onions. It was, literally, finger-licking good!

The sun came out as we walked back along Charles St. We decided that we had had enough seafood so we chose to go to Mr. B's Bistro and shared a rack of lamb that was REALLY good. It had this sweet wine reduction sauce that complimented the lamb to a 'T'. Saturday night on Bourbon Street was hopping but we had walked to much, we turned in early.

New Orleans

We left Sedalia on Wednesday morning and it was still pretty cold (in the 20's). We spent the night on a Walmart parking lot in Jacksonville MS and arrived at the French Quarter in time to set up the RV and then have a Johnnie's Po-Boy for lunch -- best ever! The weather in NOLA was in the mid-70's so we washed the RV before heading back into town to find a place for supper. We ended up at K-Paul's Kitchen after having a martini at our favorite corner bar/restaurant Napoleons.

Today dawned cloudy and never got over 60°. In fact it rained part of the afternoon. Tomorrow will start at 45° and not get any warmer! But it is still better than MO (that will be our motto this winter! LOL) We explored several historic houses and museums and I was disappointed that none of them were decorated for Christmas. In fact, not much of the French Quarter has decorations -- a few lights and garlands, a smattering of trees and wreaths and that's about it! We are having supper tonight at G.W. Finns -- one of our favorite places.

Two Days to New Adventure

It's 9° outside, snow on the ground, and the wind chill is -8°. What are we doing here? Good news for us we are leaving Wednesday on our next RV Adventure. Off to New Orleans to warm up and eat some of that good Nawlins' food. Then we haul it all the way to Phoenix to spend Christmas with my Mother. Next up is the Rose Parade in Anaheim. Keep up with us because we plan to blog this entire trip which is scheduled to end around April 1, 2011.