Exploring Arizona

Today was our first free day of the week. With nothing besides a quick two hour rehearsal to relearn our pregame and halftime show routines, we've had to come up with some fun things to do in Arizona.

Saturday, December 29th 2007, 7:29 pm

By: News 9


Dec. 30, 2007

By Andrew Brown, Pride of Oklahoma Blogger

Today was our first free day of the week. With nothing besides a quick two hour rehearsal to relearn our pregame and halftime show routines, we've had to come up with some fun things to do in Arizona. And I think we've done a good job with that!

This morning, a few of my friends and I decided to hike up Camelback Mountain which is about a mile away from the hotel we were staying at. We woke up around 8 and set out for our adventure. It was a hard hike, but we had a lot of fun getting to the top. And what a feeling of accomplishment! Standing on top of that mountain was a calming moment that helped me to focus back on things outside of the stress and requirements of the trip. We had a great bonding time with about 2 hours up the mountain and 1 hour back down. It was definitely an experience I will remember for a long time.

We only had about 30 minutes after we got back to eat a quick lunch and get on the buses. Our rehearsal ended up being a difficult one today. It felt a lot longer than most of our rehearsals, but I have a feeling that was largely due to our lack of concentration unfortunately. We were able to get a lot done still though, and we all still feel very good that our performance on Wednesday will be top class!

I'm now off to enjoy dinner at PF Chang's and a movie (I think maybe Juno?) with some friends. Everyone's looking forward to the New Year's Eve Block Party tomorrow night where we'll have a quick performance and have a great night ringing in the New Year with our best friends. Can't wait!


Dec. 29, 2007

By Andrew Brown, Pride of Oklahoma Blogger

We're finally here!!! After traveling through four states for 24 hours, I've finally made it to Scottsdale, Ariz. with the rest of the Pride of Oklahoma marching band!

Being a junior member in the band makes this trip somewhat bittersweet for me. While having already been to the bowl makes the trip lack the "sparkle" of a new place, it is still very exciting to return to a place as fun as here. Being considered a "veteran" of the area makes the experience fun, too. We can return to some of our favorite restaurants and hot spots and find some new favorites as well.

After checking into our hotels and getting cozy in our new homes for the week, the band had to hit the road again to go to Horizon High School for our first rehearsal of the trip. We may have been expecting a warm Arizona day, but we were met with a chilly night of practice. 45 degrees was a tough enemy to keep at bay as we tried to work our chops back into shape after a month off since our last game. But we got through it working hard on our halftime and pep gig musical repertoire.

Afterwards, I'm confident that our performance for the bowl game will be our best yet of the year and the perfect ending to a successful year for our organization. We went to Wal-Mart after our practice to load up on sustenance for the week between rehearsals and performances.

All in all, our first day in Arizona has gotten the entire band excited for the performances we prepare so hard for and the great times we have preparing for them!

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