Winter Travels
Starting the beginning of December, I've been traveling a lot. Which is a huge change after barely getting out of Blacksburg month after month. It all started with the ACC Championship. We'd knew we'd be going as soon as we beat UVA the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This left us for a week to prepare. Ah, except in anticipation for the possibility of going to the Championship, we had already started the planning process. This did make us nervous for jinxing our chances, a lot of wood was knocked on!
The Marching Virginians flew three planes down to Tampa, Fl for the game. Stayed all day Saturday for the game, then flew three planes back to Roanoke, Va. It was a great game. Our team seemed to actually show up for the first time all season.
Flying back from Tampa, I knew I'd be returning in just a week and a half. My family went on a cruise for Christmas. December 18th, we left out of Tampa. One cruise terminal down from where the Marching Virginians had played in a fan fest not to long before.
Facebook albums from the ACC Championship: Album 1 Album 2 Album 3. (easiest way to show you, due to the fact that I take a million pictures!)
The cruise was awesome. We went down to Key West and then over to Cozumel. Key West we shopped around the town. Got Christmas presents for family and friends. One shop we went into had wine that was not made from grapes. Just wine that was made from oranges, bananas, strawberries, etc. It was really cool. I got Brittany some wine that was made from oranges that was fermented with chocolate! My mom said it tasted like those chocolate oranges that you bang on a table and it will open up into orange slices. (Those are way cool, are they still around?) The next day we were in Cozumel. We took a little boat over to a private island called Passion Island. It was an awesome place! When we got there we ate some fantastic mexican food. I hate mexican food, but this stuff was amazingly good! Then we swam in the ocean, soaked in the sun (what little sun there was due to the clouds), and played water balloon toss. It was a lot of fun. It was really sad when it was time to go. The next day was the day at sea, and I pretty much slept most of the time. That cruise I was really hungry and tired. But it was a cruise, and you can do whatever you want to do! I had a really good time!
Again, here are the albums from the cruise: Album 1 Album 2 Album 3 Album 4.
The day after we got back from driving up from Tampa, we leave our house again to go to my grandparent's house for Christmas. That was fun. I helped make food, which I never really do (other than cookies). For Christmas, our family got a family present which was a WIi with a bunch of games, including the Wii Fit. That was really cool. Also the next morning, I went with my grandma and my mom to Macy's and my grandma got me new boots and some nice clothes. I love my boots! They were such a great deal I was able to get them in brown and black. Also, my grandma gave me a VT quilt she had made! It's gorgeous.
Two days after getting back from Northern Virginia, it was time to go back to Florida for the Orange Bowl. We took 8 buses from Virginia down to Miami. Stopping in Savannah for a night going down and coming back. It is so awesome actually winning a BCS bowl! It also made the ride back a lot better. I did get to see Kevin while I was down there too! I was in a 20 piece pep band that went over to his hotel, and I saw him there. Then he came over to my hotel for New Year's Eve to ring in the new year. I also saw him at the game! He got to fly down and back. No long, smelly bus ride for him. Don't get me started on our bus driver either. I've always known bus drivers to be nice and cheery. Not this dude. Exact opposite! Just lovely. So, my Marching Virginian career is over. Well, sort of. I have a couple more gigs, and Bandquet, but game-wise it is over. Some people are extremely sadden by that, but I am ready to be finished with marching. I'm just getting too old for it! Ha!
Orange Bowl Albums: Album 1 Album 2 Album 3.
So that was it for my travels. I summed it up for the readers own good. Otherwise this would go on for years. Feel free to ask questions about it though!
~Taylor~