The Granddaddy of Them All

Hello friends and family, and welcome to the Spring semester!

Yea... spring... right...

I hope you all had a fantastic break and that you'll tell me a little about it in the comments section below! Over break, I had the unbelievable opportunity to go to the Rose Bowl and to march in the Parade of Roses with the Penn State Blue Band!

Look Ma, I'm on TV!

This was a 5 day long event for us and I'm here to give you the play-by-play analysis

DAY 1: December 30th

On this glorious day the Blue Band reunited for a rehearsal at Holuba Hall on campus. We had a fabulous pasta dinner and then proceeded to practice for almost 3 hours. After rehearsal, everybody went home and pretended to sleep, or decided to just pull an all-nighter considering our report time to the Blue Band Building the next morning was at 5 am.

DAY 2: New Year's Eve 2016 (aka the literal longest day of my life)

5 am EST: Report to the Blue Band Building
                  This photo of Alex accurately depicts how we all felt about being up so early:

After a short organizational meeting, we loaded onto buses and departed for the Harrisburg airport. The band was divided into two groups because it took 2 flights to get us all to California, with me being on Flight A.

9 am EST: Flight A departs for LAX
                  Mind you, it was about a 6 hour flight that we were getting ourselves into. I experienced                     airplane food for the first time, which came back to haunt me later.

12 pm PST: Arrival to LAX, number of hours awake: 10
                    We disembarked from the plane STRAIGHT ONTO THE TARMAC. I'VE NEVER                             FELT SO PRESIDENTIAL. Flight B eventually landed as well, we loaded onto                                   buses and were quickly transported to Pasadena City College where we performed at                           Bandfest in the middle of some sweet California rain.

Approximately 8 pm PST: NEW YEARS EVE, number of hours awake: 18
                    We arrived at our hotel and and were allowed free time until our curfew at 12:30. We                           celebrated a double whammy of a New Years by cheering with the rest of the East Coast                     at 9 pm and once again at midnight!

Approximately 12:20 pm PST: Bed Finally, number of hours awake: 22
                    Sleep never felt so good.

DAY 3: New Year's Day!

The only things on the agenda for this day were a performance at the Penn State Pep Rally at LA Live followed by a rehearsal at a community College in Glendale. Super exciting stuff! (Not even joking, the pep rally was electric, I just don't have any pictures ): )

DAY 4: GAMEDAY!!!!!!!!!

My day kicked off with a 5 am report time to depart for our loading site in the Parade of Roses. I can't tell you what time we stepped off into the parade, but I can tell you that it was unlike anything I've ever experienced in my entire life. It was 5.5 miles long, and took almost 3 hours to complete. There is no way to adequately describe how much awe I felt during it, so I'll turn to pictures!

After completing the parade we were bused to the Rose Bowl Stadium which actually seemed much smaller than Beaver, but was still just as awe inspiring. The Blue Band performed our typical pregame show and the National Anthem to a stupid amount of pyrotechnics (that we were not aware were happening) along with a B2 flyover! Also, fun fact: the pilot of the B2 went to Penn State before joining the Air Force!

A quick aside before some more pictures, B2's are unsettling as hell, you literally can not hear them until they are right over top of you and even then the only thing you hear is a whomp as the air depressurizes around them. We spent a fair amount of time geeking out over them.

Nothing like front row seats

Aw yea, fireworks!

As you all know, the game was incredibly exciting with a heartbreaking loss by a field goal to USC, but in case anyone was wondering, despite there being more USC fans in attendance, Penn Staters are undeniably better, louder, and more loyal.

In the end, despite being up for nearly 24 hours on two separate days for this trip, it is without a doubt the most amazing experience I've had in my entire life. For this reason, I give it 100 Granddaddies out of 10. And who knows, maybe we'll be back next year!

Photos Courtesy of
Onward State 
Annemarie Mountz