Polo Party

Recently, we decided to immerse ourselves in a English sporting event not commonly seen in the US: a polo match. We had many questions about this sport having never seen it in action (How many horses are there? Is is full contact? Is there a goalie horse?) and were incredibly excited about checking out the polo spectators' attire (well, one of us was). Wanting to make sure and blend in, we took the event incredibly seriously...

Testing the gear

Striking a pose avec le champagne

At the Crown & Corgi, where many a Pimms was consumed

Classing it up in front of the marquee

As expected, we left the match feeling as though our cultural immersion was complete and we obviously needed to plan a family polo match ASAP.  As soon as we all learned how to ride a horse while playing polo, that is.  Possibly a new Thanksgiving tradition?

Viva los Mavs!

The Champs

The Happiest Fans in Houston

Punxsutawney Phil Knows Best

Hangin' tight, flexin' our flow, and chillin' out max with visitors galore here in sunny SF.  That's right--sunny SF.  Frequent blog readers will know how I feel about San Francisco weather (supershittycalifradulent). Nevertheless, I have to say that I am definitely seeing the upside of not having seasons- no summer, but hey, no winter!  As the rest of the country wallowed in snow and ice for the past week, we have had some of the sunniest weather we have seen in the city thus far.  Punxsutawney Phil must know what he is doing because it has been rather spring-like here in Fog City.

Not one to waste a sunny day, I dragged our weekend visitors Christie and Adam outside as often as possible.  Planning our day?  Let's discuss in the park.  Where should we watch the Superbowl?  Let's think about it in the park. Tired? Hey, I have a blanket we can bring to the park...

Sunday, we ensured that that the entire day would be spent outside by purchasing a brand spanking new hillbilly golf set (yes, we understand that this makes our set very drugstore cowboy, but honestly, I didn't quite have the wherewithal to saw and measure PVC pipes on that particular Sunday morning) and a few tasty libations.  As we took up a disproportionate amount of space and explained our foreign sport to other park goers, we realized that life isn't so bad here in SF. 

So if you are currently buried in snow, dreary weather, and/or the winter blues- book a trip out west because you know that we always keep it classy here in San Francisco...

Just don't call us Betty...

For many, the ramping up in intensity of the football season should lead to a corresponding step up when it comes to gameday snacks, peaking with the Superbowl Sunday food fest.  Considering that Jared and Jordan enjoyed a feast of $1 oysters and lamb belly sandwiches last weekend during the NFL quarterfinals at Hog and Rocks, our oft blogged about non-sports bar sports bar, we had quite a challenge ahead of ourselves for Sunday's semi-final games.

Nevertheless, the stars were aligned as we had the rare combination of non-achy heads on a Sunday morning with our new DINK status (acronym for: "Dual Income No Kids," and frequently heard in budgetary conversations of late: "who cares, its no big deal, we are totally DINKing it now").   After heading over to the most awesome beer store, Healthy Spirits, and stocking up on the finest, we decided to blow it out of the water with some phenomenal duck nachos.

Enter Jared's home-made salsa and an impromptu guac: 

Sprinkle in some cojita cheese, black beans refried in-house, an utterly delicious roast duck breast and... VOILA!:

Crack open a crisp and refreshing cerveza accompaniment:

And you get some very happy football fans....

9th Annual DAT

Once again, competitors arrived from near and far to compete in the annual Day-After-Thanksgiving foosball and ping-pong tournaments. Representatives from Korea, California, New York, Italy, and Texas battled it out in an epic struggle for greatness.  Only those with the greatest table-sport abilities and resistance to the often crippling effects of spending too much time around the keg emerged victorious.

Despite the heckling of onlookers from the "walnut gallery," a previously unknown 16 yr-old ringer won the ping-pong tournament in a last round defeat of the perpetually-confident Michael Galvin.  Discouraged by the pattern of globally ranked  underage tennis players taking the title, minimum drinking requirements might be instated in years to come to ensure a level playing field for all competitors.

 

Inside, an unsurprising series of events took place as the "randomly" selected team of Tara & Dad Galvin worked their way to the top of the ranks and to eventual victory.  Neither Jared nor my team made it into the final rounds, but we definitely made a respectable showing and transferred our efforts to socializing and tending to the needs of the keg.

All in all, the 9th Annual DAT party was an unquestioned success!

A Giant Celebration

Not surprisingly, we seem to be some of the only people in town feeling the sting of the Rangers' loss.  Its almost like people don't even care about Texas sports around here...

Foreseeing the possible madness on Monday night, Jared convinced me of the merits of watching the game at our favorite neighborhood gourmet ham and oyster bar Hog & Rocks, a surprisingly good place to watch sports.  Packed to the brim with Giants fans, even our lone Ranger fan (pun intended) from game 4 was nowhere to be seen.   After the post-win madness of Journey songs, tequila shots, and high fives all around, we headed to the streets to see how the everyday fan was taking the news.  This video pretty much sums up the feeling of things on the streets: http://missionlocal.org/2010/11/revelry-at-16th-and-valencia/. Luckily, we missed the later incidents of mattress burning and winner-induced looting.

But the fun didn't stop there.  Today, a victory parade with over 100,000 people in attendance was held in downtown San Francisco. 

Everyone in the city seems to be wearing orange and there is a marked increase in the number of games of catch going on in the park. It is pretty hard to not be impressed with the level of excitement, but given the amazing amount of heartbreak these fans have endured over the years and the fact that they won with a panda, a fearful beard, and the kid from Dazed and Confused at the helm, it is not very surprising.  So, the bottom line is that if the Rangers had to get beaten, at least it was by a team that truly savoured the victory with a full-fledged citywide throwdown.

Tex-Mex Patriots

And the madness goes on… we continue to brave the 9 hour time difference for World Cup games with many an early wake up call, lots of secretive cubicle game-viewing, and a heavy dose of jealousy toward our friends still in South Africa. Saturday morning, Jared worked on solidifying some new friendships through exaggerated patriotism and lots of beer chugging the Mad Dog in the Fog sports bar. Apparently ranked among the top 10 World Cup bars in the world, the Mad Dog was the perfect place to watch the final American match of 2010.

Meanwhile, I recalled my temporary Mexican citizenship by keeping the faith alive despite the imminent Mexican elimination by the Argentine powerhouse and their fancy-footed star, Lionel Messi. Over the next two weeks, the quest for greatness for 8 lucky teams continues, as does the quest for the perfect bar side breakfast and beer pairing for two dedicated fans.

For the Love of the Game

As recent transplants from the land of vuvuzleas, aka World Cup host country South Africa, we have been getting super-pumped for the start of the tournament.  Unfortunately, we might have moved to the most inconvenient time zone possible for game watching- most games start at either 4:30 or 7:00 am.  Never ones to let a little thing like "time" slow us down, we jumped into the madness full force on Saturday morning. 


Jared did some serious research and picked out the perfect watch site for the 7:00 am game- El Farolito, a die hard Latin futbol club a few streets away.  Although we rose and shone in time to catch the early game, the patrons of El Farolito were not as ambitious- CLOSED.  Luckily, we found a nice little Nicaraguan restaurant to watch the game and try our very first Tona, the national beer of Nicaragua (which we hear always tastes better pre-8am). 

Having an inkling that the US- England game might be a bit popular, especially at the accessible hour of 11:30 am, we headed straight over to our favorite sports bar, the Phoenix.  We arrived a comfortable 2.5 hours early, feeling like we had a good chance to score a prime seat.  No go. All seats were already taken, save a single bar stool which we used to stake our claim on a small square of space.  Little did we know, this chair would prove instrumental in resisting the tide of people that flowed into the bar over the next few hours. Saying that the bar was "standing room only" is a gross understatement.  The amount of space we had was more akin to a moderately crowded bus in India.

If you haven't noticed by now, I have been filling this post with pictures stolen from the internet and friends in SA, rather than personal photos, which we were unfortunately not able to obtain.  We did get one photo that might not result in me being served a copyright lawsuit and sums up our 5 hours at the Phoenix perfectly: our bill.

Unable to stomach the bill and entirely too impatient to wait the 45 min it would have taken to close it at the bar after the game, we decided to collect it the next day.  The thoughtful bartenders filled in the tip for us, a conservative 19.4%.  Now those of you with jobs, families, and/or drinking problems might not think this tab is too out of this world, but let me remind you that it was just the two of us for the most of the time and no food is included on that tab. 

One week down, four more to go!
U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

Not as Hard to Find in Real Life

Welcome to the 99th annual Bay to Breakers 12k race/festival/costume party. A few weeks back we teamed up with some of our new friends to form a massive gang of everybody's favorite candy striped characters: Waldo and Wenda.

Turns out we weren't the only ones with this genius idea. Flocks of Waldos flowed through the city streets that Sunday and tied  with bananas and jazzercise chicks as the most popular costume. Fortunately the perrenial favorite for most common costume, the old naked dude, was limited by chilly weather.  All in all it was an amazing introduction to the zany culture of our new city.  And just to validate that this is actually a race I figured I would highlight the winner.  No suprises here, but it was won by a Kenyan. Congrats to Sammy Kitwara who ran roughly 7.45 miles in 34 mins (pictured somewhere below).  Not sure how many Five Hour Energys that guy drank, but that is insanely fast!

 

Anyways to close, I'd like to show you some of the more colorful participants and hopefully inspire all you loyal readers to block off your calendar in order to join us next May for the 100th edition of this grand tradition.

 

Peanuts & Crackerjacks

Peanuts & Crackerjacks- those aren't quirky nicknames we have made for ourselves in our friendless state. And no, it's not a cut-out folks, Jared was really at scenic AT&T park on Saturday to enjoying America's favorite past time.  Although we didn't get to see the one home run of the game that went over the fence and into the water, it was still a pretty nice little Saturday activity.

Competitive Eating

Since arriving in Cape Town, one of our favorite weekend activities has been to head to the Neighborgoods Market at the Old Biscuit Mill on Saturdays for brunch.  Overflowing with delicious prepared foods, baked goods, meats, cheeses, and sauces, the market offers almost anything you can imagine would be delicious to eat.  A mistake that we make time and time again is to show up to the market hungry. Sometimes ravenously so. Sometimes this hunger is exaggerated by an accompanying headache, a reminder of Friday night's activities out on the town. Needless to say this is not the ideal state to show up in at a jam packed market with literally thousands of food options and very little seating.  For some (i.e. me), these choices can become quite overwhelming.  I will often wander around for 20 min, usually to return with either enough food to feed an army because I was unable to decide or just a beer, having been repeatedly defeated by the more ambitious diners.  Both Jared and our friend Liz, on the other hand, always head straight for the stand selling the rump steak sandwich, a messy but delicious meal that has them raving until the next fix.  Despite having eliminated the "what to get today" problem that plagues me so terribly, fighting for a spot in line and a place to sit can certainly get the competitive streak in those two going.  Despite the momentary rage at the person slowly lingering over their savoury crepe or Thai breakfast stirfry, no one leaves hungry and everyone leaves happy.

Cowboys in Cape Town

Despite the elimintation of the Cowboys from the playoffs and the end of football season, we continue to cheer on our home team in style.  Included in a late-arriving Christmas package from my mom, the Cowboys decal probably was meant for the fridge, but we have found it a handy way to distinguish our white VW Polo from the scores of other white Polos in they city.  Although main reason for keeping the decal is practical, it has also served as evidence to other city residents of our foriegn strangeness...

World Cup Madness

Well, there are a number of things that I could blame my total ignorance of the huge event to take place here in Cape Town this week: a) I was out of the country for the last 2 weeks b) Americans don't understand soccer (football) hype anyway or c) I am just dense.

Either way, Cape Town is gearing up for the 2010 World Cup in a serious way (and no, we won't be here so you can't stay with me).  Today is the final draw which determines which teams play one another.  It is taking place here in town and right now, it is all people are talking about.  Not to mention that we have just a few celebrities in town, including:

Ms. South Africa, Charlize Theron

as well as the celebrity royal couple themselves, Posh + Becks:

oh, and let me just say that this last one was a personal sighting from bootcamp on Wed morning:

Thats right girls, it is Percy Montgomery the all-time record holder for caps (?) and points for the Springboks (SA's national rugby team).  Ok, full disclosure: I had no idea who he was and it took me a bit of googling to get his name right (Preston Winston? Monty Preston? Percy Wimberley?).  But I saw him, and he is here.

So tonight is the big night and although we did not make the guest list for the exclusive parties, I am sure that Posh and Becks will just be strolling around town later tonight and I will be able to see if he really is as tiny as they say and if her boobs really do make her pencil thin body float as the media states.  Wish me luck!

New Zealand Flashback (Part 1)

So since this is our blog we get to make our own rules here.  We have decided that to take a quick trip back in time and update our faithful blog reader(s) about how our quest through New Zealand went down.  In honor of the original inspiration behind this trip, we’ll make this a mythical three-part epic with a new chapter dropping every time we feel like typing up a new section.  Without further ado…part 1:

So after the ruckusness (yes it’s a word) of our wedding , we needed to get out of town for a little bit of R&R.   New Zealand was the choice and wow that flight took forever.  We left Austin around 6:00 p.m. on a Monday and then landed in Auckland 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday.  We may have skipped a day in there somewhere, but that’s neither here nor there.  Anyways, pictures are better than words so lets kick off a montage:

So this is the Auckland skyline.  Amongst this lineup the Sky City Tower is the obvious standout, with the whole needle-thing going on.  The last night of the trip we actually stayed at the hotel there and gambled away our last New Zealand dollars betting on when bungee jumpers would leap off of the sky deck.

Gnarly Factoid: Only 4 Million people live in New Zealand and 1.2 Million of those live in Auckland

Yeah so this is me big timing some other tourists aboard our Whale & Dolphin Safari.  So if you are starting to ask “what is the deal with these two and whale watching?” well I don’t have an answer for you.  Maybe the big fellas are subconsciously drawing Lindsay to them in order to thank her for her non-mammalian diet.  Anyways, this righteous pic is of the legendary Blue Whale….turns out this was only the 2^nd one the safari guide had seen in 17 years so, needless to say, we felt pretty awesome afterwards.

So this was embarrassing:  I paid a bouncer $100 to get Lindsay and I into Auckland’s exclusive 5 Below Bar and to get upgraded into pimptastic Russian parkas with Isotoner ski mitts, but after going to the bar and getting us drinks, I returned to find Lindsay copping a feel of this naked ice dude. Turns out he was a pretty cool guy though so no big deal.

It may not look it, but this was probably the most intense moment of our time in the land of extreme sports.  We are in the Hertz parking garage about to hit the New Zealand highway in our brand new bizarro-world Ford Focus.  Unfortunately for Lindsay, she lost the pre-drive paper-rock-scissors match and got 1^st shift.  Overall, our time in Auckland was a good time, but New Zealand isn't about city life.  In order to get this trip started, we needed to step it up a bit.

Okay, so first stop on our North Island road trip was Rotorua, the land of hot springs and weird Kiwi thrill rides.  Luckily, these hot spring all reek of sulfuric gas (a la rotten eggs) and this big boy was right outside of our hotel room. Nice romantic choice of hotel room, huh?

Alright, bizarre adrenaline rush #1… street luge racing.  That dude in the blue helmet was about to get run off the road by my nasty Mario Kart skills.  As for Lindsay, she is actually about to slap some kid that started mouthing off about being a more radical racer than her.   She refrained from the physical beat down, but made sure he ate asphalt before it was all over.  Bottom line, Texas owned the mountain that day my friends.

Bizarre adrenaline rush #2 = Zorbing!  Pretty simple process.  They drive you up the hill, put you in a huge plastic ball and then fill it with warm water (good cause it was like 50 degrees outside).  A quick nudge and you are spinning around inside while the ball is bouncing and rolling down the hill.  Tops out at less than a minute, but it was totally worth it.

So after issuing beatdowns on the street luge and getting all twisted in the Zorb, we were feeling a lot more confident about getting back on the road in our Focus.  How could you not with such a fly ride.

So its no Africa, but New Zealand has its fair share of wildlife.  On our way from Rotorua to Waitomo we were lucky enough to witness these rare black & white hill-grazing bovines and then later caught a glimpse of the world famous shepherd and mega-sheep dog combo.  That sure was a groovy little drive.

Aww yeah.  Welcome to Waitomo my friends.  Population 215 and home to the world famous glowworm caves (actually world famous this time, unlike the shepherd & mega sheep dog thing from earlier).  So seeing as the whole reason we were here was to get extreme with an underground cave adventure, we had to stay in equally wild accomodations.    The Waitanic and the Hobbit Motel definitely fit the bill.

So yes we look really tough with this sweet gear on, but man was it clutch.  Our outfits consist of a wool base-layer fleece, an arctic-rated thermal wetsuit with a an additional over-layer jacket, thermal booties, gnarly red helmets, and some killer boots.  For two hours we abseiled, ziplined, tubed, swam, trekked, and climbed through this massive underground cave system all under the luminescence of the glow worms.  It was by far the most physically grueling and ridiculously freezing cold thing we did on the trip.  It was awesome.

So other than the caves, there wasn’t much to do in Waitomo, so we shortly set off on the road again towards Wellington.  When you are making good time, the last thing you need is a delay, but its kind of tough to get mad when its caused by a hundred or so sheep that happened to sneak out onto the highway.  Plus we got to help the dogs get them off the road with some skilled driving and horn honking.  We eventually made up the lost time and completed our relaxing and scenic journey through New Zealand’s North Island.

Stay tuned for Part 2....