Manic: I thought that manic would be a word that would appear in my article about traveling with my daughter’s middle school show choir to Hollywood last month. I was wrong. There truly weren’t any manic moments, if you can believe that. It went that smoothly!
Managed: Everything! All went so well and the trip went off perfectly. I must give credit to the amazing Ahwatukee Children’s Theatre (ACT) directors who worked with Kathy Jones from the L.E.A.D. tour group. Our ACT directors, Michele, Melissa, Bailey and Abby knew exactly what they were doing with the talented tweens from the moment we boarded the bus for our 7-hour journey to Hollywood up until the moment that the exciting trip came to a close five days a later.
And the kids were terrific! They had amazing energy and nailed each competitive performance. Behind the scenes, they were respectful, courteous and well-behaved as we went from one exciting Hollywood place to the next. It was awesome.
And the icing on the cake….our Treble Makers Show Choir took 1st place in the national competition that consisted of 67 show choirs from around the nation! I am a proud and happy show choir mom. Congrats to our kids and to the directors.
Read on to see the cool places that were on our itinerary and if you plan a trip to Hollywood, you will learn about some interesting spots that are not to be missed that we got to experience. This article is part 1 and I will have more Hollywood stops to see in part 2 of this journey that I will publish next week. Now back to day one…
Our show choir bus left Phoenix bright and early on a Sunday morning and we arrived in Hollywood seven hours later with a little bit of time to unpack and head out to the choir’s first competitive performance.
Our first Hollywood stop was Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum that sits right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the active Hollywood Blvd. The kids performed right out front and underneath the big welcoming sign that they had on display for us. 
That was very cool! And they had a big crowd cheering them on, which was a terrific Hollywood welcome for us desert folk.
After they wrapped their first set, they stood proudly posing for pictures and they deserved to be proud. 
They were fresh, focused and performed a sharp and beautiful set of dancing and singing. And they weren’t done yet. Next up was a tour of the cool wax museum and then yet another competitive performance at Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood after that. 
My girl’s idol is Meryl Streep, so she was thrilled to pose next to Meryl’s wax figure at Madame Tussauds. And her gal pal, who is crazy about JT was thrilled to find his likeness to stand with, too. 
And my favorite wax museum pics are just too much fun, don’t you think? 
And I can’t forget her improvised conversation with the great Jack Nicholson.
Yep, Madame Tussauds was loads of fun, so if you go to Hollywood, check it out and you will also see a lot of characters outside the building, too. And after all of that excitement, it was time to go perform at Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood. The kids were still going strong and gave an outstanding performance at the restaurant. 
And the audience was just terrific, clapping and cheering and commenting to each other how good this Phoenix show choir was on stage. The choir directors and us parents were very proud indeed. 
If they only knew that these kids had been up and at em and traveling since 7am that morning, they would have been even more impressed. By this time, it was close to 8pm.
And they weren’t done competing yet because the next day they would perform at Universal Studios. 
Stay tuned for that and for the rest of our Hollywood adventure in my post that will run on Monday. Make sure to look for it because I will show you a couple of Hollywood attractions that you will want to know about. In the meantime, I’m wishing our amazing Ahwatukee Treble Makers Show Choir a huge congratulations for taking the very coveted 1st place!
