These are the boys in our chaperone group - Group 1: Ryan K, Brennan, Treston, Ian, Christia
n, Ryan A, Cory, Nick, Keola, Scotty, Mano. One more boy, Brandon, who boards from California, was dropped off later. After the boxed sandwich lunch, they went off to their first practice in the hotel parking lot. Check-in for the group was pretty chaotic - all the luggage was stored in the hotel courtyard and rooms were not ready. Luckily we went ahead and got the keys for our boys' three rooms and their rooms were ready. Darrell got the boys excused from practice (the director was only excusing the girls since they take longer to get ready) and checked into their room. They had only a half hour to get ready before we needed to leave the hotel for Hollywood to watch "Wicked" at Pantages Theater http://www.wickedthemusical.com/. 
We got to the theater so late because of the rooms not being ready for the entire group by the normal check-in time, getting all 400 or so people on their assigned buses for the first time, as well as mixups with the show tickets (first of several times on the trip that the coordinators had problems getting tickets to the people who ordered them - they actually told us they were oversold on tickets and not everyone would be able to go; they also told me that they never got my check even though I signed up right away because it was so important to me to go; after I sent another check, they apparently found my first check and wound up cashing both...gotta remind them about my refund!). We were told that we needed to be in our seats by 7:45 pm or be locked out in the lobby until the first act was over, and we got there at 7:15, so even though the boys were so hungry, we made them go straight into the theater. It was also freezing outside and there weren't any places to eat in the immediate area, so we thought it was just safer to go straight inside. The kids ate candy, but luckily were just excited about the show and didn't complain (much). WOW! "Wicked" was soooo awesome! Pantages was beautiful inside, the set was amazing and the music and performances fantastic! I wish I could see it again! Ryan and I have been listening to the soundtrack this week, love the music!
We were delayed going back to the hotel after the show because we had the wrong count of people for the bus and we thought we needed to look for more people. We finally got back to the hotel at almost midnight and the kids were starving! Luckily we got to meet the Pringles, the parents of one of our boys who live in California, and they went to McDonald's to get cheeseburgers and fries for the boys. At least they didn't have to go to bed hungry. After getting our boys checked in for the night (we had to make them sign in every night, promising that they would not leave the room once they checked in with us), we had the first of many after-lights-out chaperone meetings. Our first day was exhausting and long, but getting to see "Wicked" made up for it.
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