comments and pictures by Tracey Waldron and Brian Pier
Thursday, Sept 18th:
At 7:30pm, the LA event began. We all met in the lobby of the hotel and were given our welcome packs. They consisted of a red backpack, t-shirt, hat, water bottle cover, promo materials and a lanyard.
We were then taken to a lovely dinner at the restaurant Splash.
Friday, Sept 19th:
This morning we all headed for Disneyland! We had a great time riding the rides and wandering around the park.
at the Toon Town in Disneyland
Idda and Henk in a toon car
Patrick with Goofy in Toon Town
Henk in Mickey Mouse's house on Mickey's couch
We spent several hours there. After Disneyland, we went back to
the hotel to change and headed on to the dinner cruise in the Marina.
We had a lovely time chatting and enjoying the amenities the yacht had
to offer. This evening we also received the Hollywood FIVB
special volleyball packaging, limited and numbered
to 75 pcs, containing a real volleyball:
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Henk is very happy with the event special
Saturday, Sept 20th:
We met this morning in the hotel lobby before we headed off to participate in the California Coastal Cleanup Day. Each year, more than 40,000 volunteers turn out to over 400 cleanup sites statewide to conduct what has been hailed by the Guinness Book of Records as "the largest garbage collection". Before we began, we were all given our t-shirts and water in water bottle holders.
back of the beach shirt
the swatch group that participated in the beach cleanup.
Carl Lewis, Shannon Elizabeth, the olympic swimmer and
Carl's personal trainer were part of the group.
There was also Henk & his daughter, Brian, Russ,
Esther, Idda and Patrick.
There were a couple celebrities that joined us at the beach to help with the clean up: Carl Lewis (Olympic medallist/athlete), Shannon Elizabeth (Actress – American Pie) and an Olympic Swimmer:
Brian is getting an autograph from Shannon
Patrick (head of swatch the club) on his cell phone on
the beach. No rest for the wicked....
After a couple hours of cleanup, we then were taken to the Women’s volleyball.
USA team playing against the Australian team
Swatch had a fantastic VIP room set up for us. It was an air-conditioned room that led out to a patio where you could sit to watch the games. They gave us an ‘all access’ pass so that we could enter any of the VIP areas.
VIP room
The players hung out with us in between games. Here we were given a FIVB t-shirt:
men's volleyball game
Russ and Tracey display Shaquille O'Neil's shoe. Yes,
that is actual size!
The Laker Girls (cheerleaders for the LA Lakers) stop
by the Swatch exhibit at the volleyball stadium.
After watching the games, we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up to go see a bit of Hollywood. We first drove around and saw some of the homes of the stars and then we spent a bit of time in the Hollywood Swatch Store.
Tracey and husband Steve at the Hollywood Swatch store.
Idda admires some old Swatch specials on display at the
Hollywood Swatch store.
On the floor of the store are Swatch stars...
After that we walked around the area of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
Unfortunately, there was a movie premiere going on so that we couldn’t
see many of the movie stars ‘stars’. We then headed to a nightclub
called The Fall for a private party. Apparently this is the
current hotspot in LA to see and be seen. We were fed appetizers
and had an open bar and partied most the night.
Sunday, Sept 21st:
This morning we went back to watch volleyball. The games were very exciting. The final game between the Brazilian and the American team was very close. The American team ended up taking the gold home. We hung out in the VIP room and had lunch. Some of the gold, silver and bronze winners of the women’s competition were available after the game for signatures.
Tonight we had dinner at a really good seafood restaurant. We
said our goodbyes at the end. Yet another fun-filled event came to
a close. A big thanks to Patrick Jaron and team that organize these
events!!
Tracey, thanks for the nice report and pictures!
Back to Stay Tuned To Swatch.
