My paws smack with deft, swift and deadly accuracy.  I steathily sneak where no bear has gone before.  I soar through the air like a sharp blade of steel.  It’s like I’m a bear ninja.

Pokin found this site, On Camera Audiences, which lets you get tickets to see shows as an audience member for free, and today, I’m waiting in line to watch other ninjas at work – American Ninjas in the American Ninja Warrior finale.

We tried to do this last year too, but got in too late, so this time we weren’t taking chances.  It wasn’t even dark yet and here we were in line with a bunch of other people.

Bit by by, we inched towards the front line.  Check out this banner!  It could be me competing!

After about an hour of waiting, they finally let us in.  They gave us some souvenir wristbands and a security band. Even though you can get tickets in shifts, when you’re in you’re in, and they don’t keep track of who’s still supposed to be there.  So if you end up getting tickets, try not to get the last shift of the day as you might not get in.

Our group was there for the last section of stage 1.  Cool!  We get to see the contestants finish!

And so we sat.

And waited.

And sat.

And realized that being stage 4 meant that you really didn’t get to see a lot of action.

Oh!  Today is filming day for team Ninja Warrior?

Make that really not a lot of action, given that there were only four teams.

Three hours later, well after it got fully dark, we tiredly filtered out of the stadium, having only seen the stunt guys test run the course plus a couple of the actual contestants that made it this far.

I bet I would have wowed the crowd if it were ME doing the course.

Maybe another year.

At least I can say I got to see other ninjas at work.

And hey! Maybe I ended up on TV!