Phantastic Voyage

Oh Yeah.  After all these years, all it took was moving to California to have Phish come out to visit.   Three shows at the Greek Theater in Berkeley and Lindsay was kind enough to invite me to all three nights!  What a catch.

So despite the fact that nobody is looking at the camera, these were our friends and concert companions over the three-day adventure.  You faithful blog-readers out there (assuming you still exist), may recognize Paul and Addie as our good pals from Cape Town.  For these two, 10,000 miles is not too far to travel for some good times.

Now I can't claim this guy, but I was impressed by his love for Quincy.

No my camera didn't improve mid-concert.  This comes compliments of some talented photographer that showed off some fine smuggling skills by sneaking in what must have been some truly fancy optical equipment.

What an awesome and action-packed three nights.  Most people would say that three nights is surely enough to get one's fill, but not the case.  Less than 24 hours after the third Greek show ended I was boarding this beautiful prop jet on my way out to Colorado for two more nights of music in Telluride.

Unable to afford a $1,000+ ticket to fly directly into Telluride's legendary and horrifically scary mountain-top airport, I had to fly into nearby Durango and catch a ride the rest of the way.  Luckily, Steve was there to save the day. And not only did he get us to the Sunshine Campgrounds right outside of Telluride, but he treated us to a free display of his outdoorsmans skills and crafted a top flight Colorado campfire.
   

Meanwhile, Chad was camping out with all the Phishies littering Telluride High School after catching a seven hour ride from Denver.  Not to shabby of a place to pitch a tent, but Steve had hooked us all up with a place to stay for the next two nights that was a touch nicer.

We headed up the mountain via the local gondola commute to Mountain Villiage.

Steve cashed in on his local ties and hooked us up with this beautiful mountain sanctuary.

What a group and what a balcony view. 

Not too shabby .  A big thanks to our wonderful hosts and former Telluride residents, Ali and Kevin.

So as nice as it was, our mountain house wasn't where the action was.   Back down the gondola...

 ...and into downtown Telluride.

Free Karl Denson show to get things started.

Great show but soon enough it was time to call it quits with the free music.  In the words of one of my favorite redheads (who may or may not be pictured above): "why get something free when you can pay for it".  Yeah I know that doesn't normally make sense, but in this instance it was the right move. 

What a place to pre-game.  Yes Rocky is wearing a tie...but not just any tie, a limited release from one of America's top designers at Pearl Southern Couture.  If you haven't heard about it before, check it out.  Girl's got talent.

And yes that is a feather in Steve's hat.  In short, he lost a bet, but became a legend.

And finally the music...not a bad week in the life.

Crawl to Walk

This weekend, I held down the fort in SF while Jared continued his tour-de-Phish in Colorado and continued onto Dallas for his 10th high school reunion.  Although I am sure that I would have enjoyed the awkward moments that Jared certainly encountered reuniting with the Class of 2000, I had important work to do: drink and dress up in a ridiculous outfit- all for a great cause.  Last Halloween weekend, a friend from high school, Kendell Hall (pictured above, right), was in a terrible car accident that left her paralyzed from the chest down.  Since that time, she has made an amazing and incredibly inspirational recovery that has allowed her to regain full arm movement and progress toward walking again!  Her determination and hard work has led to features on CNN news and Anderson Cooper.  Learn more about Kendell and contribute to her recovery fund at www.help-a-fwend.com .

 

To help cover the costs of Kendell's rehab program, her family organized a pub crawl, "Crawl to Walk" in SF this weekend.  The pub crawl was jazzercise/workout themed as a tribute to her intense daily physical therapy sessions.  High school friends Whitney Ashley and Nicole Zaccanelli traveled up from LA for the weekend, happy to embarrass themselves and practice drinking endurance in support of Kendell. 

I am not sure how much we raised from our cut of the bar tabs, but from the amount of silliness going on, I would guess it was pretty substantial.  So here's a big cheers to Kendell, the Hall family, and to the purple stretchy pants that are now a part of my wardrobe!

The Finer Things in Life

A recent excursion to the De Young fine arts museum allowed me to showcase the impressive cultural offerings of our new city and the importance that fine arts play in our lives here.  

OK, I can't continue any longer with this charade.... it was free day at the museum and I thought it would be more fun to view the impressive collections with others that were sure to be as equally clueless as I.  In actuality, with our artistic knowledge combined (my "mastery" of Latin America + Addie's obsession with colonial America + 2 kids with cultural parents + Michael's eclectic college coursework), we could follow along fairly well.

The actual structure of the de Young is equally impressive as its collections and we braved the crowds to check out the viewing tower, which overlooks Golden Gate park and part of city.  If I had to describe the structure, I might say that it is, "Constructed of warm, natural materials including copper, stone, wood and glass, the new de Young blends with and complements its natural surroundings. Ribbons of windows erase the boundary between the museum interior and the lush natural environment outside, and four public entrances segue naturally from the park’s pathways, welcoming visitors from all directions."  What is really crazy is that the museum's website describes it in exactly the same way!

Never ones to rush the finer things in life, we took the opportunity to stroll the rose gardens after leaving the museum and were moderately impressed with the array of varietals and some of the clever hybrids the gardeners had engineered.

After a tranquil day viewing lovely specimens of natural and human creation, we looked forward in anticipation to the beer, fast food, and jam band music fueled weekend that was to come.

Southern Visitors

Look who's here!

Two of our favorite zany characters from Cape Town, Paul and Addie, are visiting the Bay Area on "business."  Between lectures at Ivy League schools and making human DNA a less mysterious world, Paul has managed to squeeze in no fewer than five Phish shows out here on the West coast.  Good thing Jared requested a week off from work for musical reasons.  In the meantime, Addie and I will be filling our time with Cape Town non-profit gossip, comparing SA and CA wines, and losing at Pictionary.  Stay tuned for post-concert pictures and adventures....

Primero Aniversario

That's right, one year ago, your favorite traveling Texan team officially tied the knot. And what a year it has been... we have lived in 3 cities, crossed the equator 6 times, visited one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, eaten about a hundred tacos (including one with cow brains yesterday on our actual anniversary.... don't ask.) and shared memories with new and old friends alike.  Thanks for helping make it such a great year and here's to many, many more!

Cuttin Loose in Fog City

Well fortunately the 'Ol City by the Bay treated our second visitor to some beautiful summer weather, a supposed rarity in these parts.  Kelly Galvin, who in an alternate universe is also known as America Galvin jumped on a plane to join her sister and new brother-in-law for some California shenanigans.  We took her out and treated her to the works.  Some of the classic city sites, including:

Neighborhood graffiti in the Mission

Some weekday tight-wearing hipsters kickin it in Dolores Park

After seeing the sites we decided to get involved in the action.

Boozin out with friends

Point Break Live (a live performance of the Keanu Reeves classic where on this particular night the audience voted a Korean born attendee to play Johnny Utah and pure awesomeness ensued...)

Finally, we thought that Kelly may be interested in meeting a man and taking a chance on love.

1st try was a complete flop.  Turns out this stud from the Annual Peru Street Festival wasn't her type.

Well where man boobs failed, a strapping man of the law succeeded.  Faithful readers, meet Kelly's new dreamboat.  The one, the only, Mr. Paul Blart.

What a weekend.  And the romantic in me was reassured that true love is always possible and sometimes when you least expect it.  On this weekend, Cupid's arrow treated one special Kindergarten teacher to the Mall Cop of her dreams.

Frisky Fourth

4th of July weekend: A celebration of America's birthday and... our first visitors!  Conor and Natalie, who usually only travel for the 35+ weddings that they have attended this year, made the trip out west to see what all of the hubbub is about. 

Between the 20-30 bars that we absolutely had to to take them to, a Jazz festival, a disastrous road trip to the beach, and many a dance party, we managed to show them a good time.

We were even able to arrange for Conor to try his namesake burger: the McCarthy burger (verdict: a little saucy, much like its namesake).

Despite Jared's personal form of torture via Huey Lewis and the News on repeat, I think there is a chance that they just might visit us again.

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.

Lone Star State of Mind

Despite having spent the better part of my life in Texas, it is still possible forget about some of the little eccentricities that can really make our homeland unlike anywhere else in the world.

Like when you expect corporate familiarity from the local Compass Bank branch and you find yourself in the interior of a Mexican adobe and the bank manager in a three piece suit and bollo tie.

 

Or when you are in a situation that allows you to discover that once a catfish gets a taste of beer, he will be your friend for the duration of the evening.

We might be the biggest and the best, but its really the litte things that make Texas a such a special place.

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!

Happy Birthday to.... ME!

That's right, another one down in the books.  The good news is that I have also entered into my 5 months of dominance over Jared when it comes to age.   Although the day didn't start too amazingly (unless you really love laundry and Target), we had no problem rounding out the day with some serious birthday activities.  First on the agenda: decadent desserts during the middle of the day.  Destination: Tartine, one of the most highly rated bakeries in town.  We settled on the chocolate bread pudding with fresh strawberries and a chocolate walnut cookie.  Both were both amazingly good, but things really hit 11 when we mixed the two together.   For the record, Tartine is totally hype-worthy. 

Later, we picked up some pink champagne, St. Germain, and just a bit of absinthe to really kick things off.   A sunny afternoon in the park, segued into pre-dinner champagne, into a lovely little Latin meal at Charanga and the night was off to a great start.  Mix in a few new compadres, half a dozen local Mission bars, one pants leg covered in paint, and things got downright celebratory.

Thanks to all of the friends and family for the well-wishes and know that if you are ever trying to find a place to show yourself a good birthday time, we can add LGD29 to our San Francisco resume.

Austin-tatious weekend

Our favorite Texas town sure put on her prettiest dress this Memorial Day weekend, leaving us aching for more fun in the sun.  Maybe because the weather has been so crappy in SF lately, but wow- Austin is awesome.  It also helped that 90% of the people that we know happened to be in town for the weekend, whether for wedding festivities (congrats Mike & Brandi!), the notorious annual "White Party" on Pierce's boat, or just a good ole Texas time. 

Let's just say that between bottomless mimosas at Taverna, boating on the lake, an awesomely fun wedding, and lots and lots of Miller lite, the weekend was a success. 

Say what you like about Texas, but no one's gonna say that town doesn't know how to have a good time....