Where in the World Are the HolyCoast Kids?

They're in Calgary, Canada where the Mission Viejo High School Marching Band will be appearing at the Calgary Stampede. The girl is the featured flute soloist in their field show which will be performed in the Saddledome during an international competition on Tuesday. She graduated in 2007, but there are a number of alumni on this trip since not all the high school kids could go. She made basically the same trip in 2004 following her freshman year.

Here she is in rehearsal on their first full day in Canada (thanks to Richard Saunders who is uploading hundreds of photos from the trip):
This morning the kids marched in the Stampede Parade - 5 miles through downtown Calgary. The band doesn't usually do parades (with the exception of an annual walk down Main Street at Disneyland), so this is always an interesting and somewhat arduous experience for them.

The boy plays baritone and this was his first parade experience:If you're interested in following along on the trip, Richard is keeping up a website full of news and photos which you can find here.

While my daughter was performing in Italy last March her mom and I were visiting several Italian-themed hotels in Las Vegas. We're heading for Vegas again tomorrow, but to my knowledge there are no Canadian-themed hotels in Vegas for us to visit and feel like we're part of the trip. I guess we'll just have to say "eh?" and "aboot" to make us feel like we're in Canada.

Then again, there is the Hooters Hotel and Casino. They have owls in Canada, don't they?