What I Did On My Summer Vacation, Part Deux

So when Pretty Girl and I got back from Indianapolis we did laundry. Boring? Noooo, we did laundry cuz we were going to SAN DIEGO!!!!!! Woo Hoo! Let the real vacation begin!

Pretty Girl didn't mind the drive very much - cuz she slept through most of it! My favorite part was the boarder stops and being asked if we were citizens. I wanted to say "What business is it of yours!" but we decided Boarder Patrol Agents probably didn't have the same sense of humor we do.

Anyway, we stayed at Ocean Beach in a hotel across the street from the beach. The hotel room was small but adequate, we had a fridge for my wine so I was happy.



















The first morning we walked out on the Ocean Beach Pier. It pretty much smells like urine. I think the homeless use it for their bathroom at night.



















Then we layed out at the beach even though it was overcast. Hey, it wasn't 112 degrees, which is what was happening at home! We chuckled at the surfers. Get a load of the size of the waves.



















We then went and picked up Stephen and went to eat at a Mexican Restaurant in Pacific Beach.



















This was my favorite sign in Ocean Beach.



















This sea gull was really pissing me off cuz he kept staring at me. I think he thought he recognized me from somewhere.



















Sometimes I think I'm a good photographer.



















We went to Belmont Park to ride the roller coaster cuz we do every time we go and we ate a corn dog cuz if we bought one we got one free. You don't have to ask me twice!



















We then walked down the beach walk to find the place we stayed 5 years ago. We found it.



















Meanwhile, back at Ocean Beach, this kid was so cool. We couldn't wait to see him surf. He had all the gear and the attitude.



















Till he went into the ocean ...



















Here is Pretty Girl sipping a margarita.



















Then some random guy off the street came up to her and handed her a note, his phone number, and asked her to call. I'm not sure what the outcome of that was. (Just kiddin' Doug)



















But, alas, all good things must come to an end. We had an uneventful trip home even though I wanted to mess with the Boarder Patrol.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

I know, I know. I'm a piece of crap. I haven't posted in an eon. Lazy I guess. Anyway, here it is...

I flew to Indianapolis to watch Pretty Girl perform in the DCI World Finals at Lucas Oil Stadium. I went with some very good friends and had a blast with my Roomie watching the most interesting late night television on TLC (I can't believe the reality stuff on there!). We stayed on Arizona time even though we were in a time zone that was 3 hours later.



















Here is the stadium. It was pretty impressive but they could use some lessons on crowd control.



















We stayed across the street from the stadium and the downtown area started a block north of us. There was a mall and many, many other shops and restaurants (and drinks!).



















It was fun sitting on the patio of Alcatraz Brewing Company cuz we saw a lot of members hanging out downtown. Two of these people have lived at my house at one time or another.



















The downtown area had several horse and buggies to move people around. Kinda like Central Park.



















Teal Sound was warming up in Monument Park (I think that was the name of it).



















This was some sort of daycare outing. If you look real close you can see that all the little munkins were tied together.



















Indianapolis is also the capital.
























The city also has this cool fountain/museum.
























It's also where the Mounted Police water their horses. These horses were huge!



















The city is also home to White River State Park. It's a very cool park where the zoo is, a museum that has art on the outside as well as the inside and waterways where you can rent paddle boats. It also had this park bench with this odd green bug that I made my Roomie sit on. You can tell she didn't really want to.



















There were a lot of related festivities going on in the park including Purdue University's Drum.



















At World Finals members are allowed to perform individual and ensemble performances for medals. Pretty Girl and Kate performed in the category of Dance Ensemble. They won the gold medal for a perfect score, which, apparently, has never been done before. I couldn't be there so I had to take the pic from her Facebook page, hence the size.









After the Medal Ceremony is the Age Out Ceremony. That's when all the members of all the corps go down on the field to wish everyone well as this was their last year to be in drum corps. There is also a tradition that they "leave something on the field", a symbol of no regrets. Pretty Girl left her false eyelashes. Anyone who knows Pretty Girl knows this was the perfect thing to leave behind.



















So the corps did better than last year, which is good.



















Whew! That was a long post and that was only half of my summer vacation. The second half I'll save for another time.

UFO?

No, the International Space Station. Pretty Teacher and I watched it orbit across the sky tonight. It was very cool!

Apparently I have no life!

So, yesterday Pretty Teacher and I bought the live webcast of the DCI Atlanta show. That's eight hours of our lives that we will never get back. We decided to cut the boredom and give our input of each corps because who wouldn't want our opinion? Now we will make you relive it. If you don't care about drum corps, stop reading now and get on with your life.

Alliance – Exhibition. Pretty Teacher (PT) said meh, I thought they were boring, I left to do laundry.
Atlanta Corps Vets – Another exhibition. They were really old and had bad music. PT kinda like em for still getting out there but I felt they were wasting my time.
Cascades – Decent drill, pretty good music, fun to watch, some timing issues, got a little boring
Jersey Surf – I like that they got loud, PT thought they got blatty, meh music, lots of drill but not always clean.
Pioneer – PT thought they were boring but had a pretty ballad.
Pacific Crest – Pretty good start, cool drill, made a star, clean too, we like them.
Mandarins – PT thought it was well done but boring , I got bored and looked up rankings.
Madison Scouts – We don't like the all male thing but they are good, fast,clean, cool drill, good music and sound, good guard.
Spirit – First impression – dumb, well executed but bad music, guard on and off, Scouts are better.
Crossmen – Good, cool drill, like the music, Scouts are better.
Colts – Decent
The Academy – I said flags were dirty in first half, PT said guard looks good in white, great ending, like the changes, stronger sound, first corps that made me say awesome.
Troopers – Too cutsey and boring
Glassmen – Did well bu,t eh
Blue Knights – Did well but eh too.
Blue Stars – Stupid boxes (props), did well but, eh.
Phantom Regiment – Too cheesy but they play music well.
Boston Crusaders – The show felt long but we liked music.
Bluecoats – Good drill.
Carolina Crown – PT thought some of the drill and music was good, but some too cheesy. I loved them! Good ballad.
Santa Clara Vanguard – PT didn't like music, she thought the Blast music is over used.
Holy Name Cadets – Freaking awesome drill, guard is great.
The Cavaliers – Very good but all male and you know how we feel about that!
Blue Devils – I thought on a ascale from one to ten they are visually a 30, PT though they were great, Cadets had best drill but Blue Devils had best show.

So there you have it, time you'll never get back!

Random Ramblings

I think I am just too hot to care about posting but these things did come to mind:

To Congress: Don't you think there are better things to be concerned about than focusing on whether or not someone should be able to take a concealed weapon across state lines? (Hint: Education!!)

To the citizens of California: How can you put up with a governor that allows the state to go bankrupt and to hand out vouchers for tax refunds that the bank won't honor?

The Obama Doubters: Let's not forget that President Obama was handed this country's problems. It took Bush 8 years to drag us down this far. Don't you think the President deserves more that 6 months to dig us out?

The the American people who are afraid of Obama's health care program: Remember, this is for you! The President and Congress already have excellent health care.

Ok, I'm done, I feel better. Thanks for listening.

True?

I heard that in California it's illegal to drive wearing flip flops.

Albuquerque

Went to Albuquerque last week for work. Weather was great, in the 80s.

















The downtown area is very old and cool looking...












































We walked along Historic Route 66...






















The main street in the downtown area is Central Avenue. Here is the bar we thought about going to but when we got close and gandered the people on the patio we thought better of it. Not only is it a "Library" but it's also a meat market.

















We did find libations though...












































This one horse town shuts down at 8 p.m.! Where's a girl to get a drink? We went back to Maloney's. I had the "big" beer the second night!

The next morning we woke up to a restaurant on fire...

















I had nothing to do with it!