Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Phish Was Phun and Other Scoop, Too!

My old friend, Ashley, and her son, Rider, came in town over the weekend.  Ash lives in Vegas now.  We were childhood friends in Plano, TX.

Lots of fun activities for visitors, as usual. 

Some beach time........


The kids treated Ashley like a circus attraction.  She has such patience.

Jack joined the neighboring family for some bocce ball.

A sea gull pooped on Blake.  It was awesome.






The car was pure chaos.

Which, as you know, is not entirely unusual for us.


Legoland!  This was Ashley and Rider's first time, which is always fun to be part of.

We discovered some new parts of the park.......here is 'Build a Car', where you race your creations.



Jack vs Rider.  It was a non-stop match.




Notice Rider's patch?  It's technically for Justin Beiber.  Ashley and I, of course, claim it's for JB, or John Bell of Widespread Panic.

Total groupies.




Love this.



We saw our future venue in Legos.


It was a day full of fun.


That evening, we walked the Oceanside Pier.

The next morning?

Bye bye, San Diego.

Hello, Los Angeles.

If you're a friend of mine on Facebook, you know that we did something pretty stupid.

OK, idiotic.

Bought tickets, planned our trip, friends came in town, hired an overnight sitter, drove to L.A. and then realized our tickets were still stuck to our family bulletin board at home.

It was a total panic moment.  Sitting at the pool......waiting for our room to be ready.......at noon the day of the show......we realized it. 

Blake drove south and a friend of ours drove north.  Met in San Clemente for the hand off.  Thank God for friends.

And, no traffic.

Ashley and I kept busy at the Highlands/Hollywood shopping center.  Lots of fun people watching.

Our hotel was on Hollywood Blvd, so we walked down to Grauman's Theater, where they were setting up for a red carpet premiere.

Pretty cool to see.


Ashley and I realized what a mess we are together, but luckily, we did not get arrested.

Thank goodness.  We came close.

We walked around this part of L.A. for a bit.  Starting to love this city.  So many quaint little parts of such an enormous place to live.


Tried to eat at the Rolling Stone restaurant, but as our luck was leading us to.......it was closed.

So, we ended up at the California Pizza Kitchen.  I peaked over and saw the Hollywood sign in view.....teeny tiny in this pic.....up on the hill.  Pretty cool.


Finally......Blake returned to the city and we prepared for the show.

I love Phish fans.  Saw this sign in someone's window.


Want a beer, Blake?


We had hoped Ashley's husband could join us, so we had 4 tickets.  Had to sell one since he could not. 

A 10 year old sold it for us.  He was there with his dad.  Ashley and I want to set him up since he's a single father with a kid at a Phish show.  Seriously awesome.

Blake says we embarrassed ourselves.  Whatever.

I also now want a bebe since I found these onesies.

Almost bought one for Marin Sloan.  Not sure if her mama would let her wear it, though.


Almost show time!


We could NOT have had crappier seats.

No big deal, really.  We never go for that kind of thing.  We're more of the 'quantity over quality' persuasion when it comes to live music.

Can't.  Get.  Enough.



Love seeing the band's set up.  Reminds me of the movie, Crazy Heart.


Awesome shirt.



Here are Ashley and me as kids.

She is the one with brown hair and I'm on the far right. 

Looks a bit like Carter, no?


And, here we are now.  A Facebook reuniting.  Love that.

Woo hoo!  Here we go!

First time to see Phish with Blake.  They were broken up for several years.  Such a shame.

But, they're back, baby!

There were balloons.

Love.


All sorts of characters come out for a Phish show.

Or Panic.

Or, really any other band Blake and I would see live.  Starting to think we might be a little on the 'weird' side?


Trey Anastasio, lead singer.  All around bad ass.

This is what I love.  A sea of happy, dancing people having the time of their lives. 

Pure bliss.

I was totally born in the wrong generation, yall.

Highlights of the show:

*Opened with Down with Disease.

*A Paul Simon cover:  50 Ways To Leave Your Lover (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) 
It was amazing.

*Wilson

*Split Open and Melt.

Good times, kids.  We walked to Hollywood Blvd for a late night drink and meal.......fun being out in the crowd at night.

Then........
Slept in. 

Checked out of the hotel.

Headed toward San Diego.

Looking for somewhere to eat.

Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles?  Famous Snoop hang out? 

Yes, please.




I don't know who came up with this combo.  It's fascinating to me, though.

I actually wimped out and ordered a salad and then treated myself to a side of mac 'n cheese.

It was fabulous.

I did help Blake a bit with his, though.

Pretty darn good, people.

I didn't see Snoop, though.  That part was disappointing.


Ashley left town this morning.  We're back to normal.

As normal as we can be, of course.

Oh, and we upgraded our backyard furniture.  I love the 'end of season' sales.  75% off!  New cushions, pillows, some additional lighting and we hung these 2 large lanterns Holly gave us.  It's lovely at night.

What else?

*I took 2 kids to buy school supplies this evening.  That was surreal. 

*Lainey will be home 2 days a week with me, so we're already planning lots of 'girl time'.  "No boys!", as Laine says.

*I am doing my absolute best to wait on seeing The Help with a good friend here.  She's out of town.  I might just sneak in, see it and then act like I had not when I go with her.  Probably couldn't pull that off, actually.

*Just a few more days of summer, peeps.  School starts next week!  We're living it up.

Hope you are, too!


11 comments:

Dee Stephens said...

Fun post! You look GREAT! I can totally tell you've lost weight. Reuniting with old friends rocks the casbah!!

Monica said...

Your life is like a constant vacation! SO.MUCH.FUN.

Kittie Flyn said...

Thanks to your wonderful photos I feel like I was on vacation with you this summer!

Those waffles are out of control. I'm drooling right now. I <3 waffles.

What a whirlwind summer! Phew!

Cassie said...

that old pic looks like Carpenter Park!

The Soladay Family said...

Wish we would've done Legoland last summer. My Carter would love it.

California living at it's finest. Do it up!

Tutus and Choo-Choos said...

Your family is always doing such fun things. Glad you are soaking up the last days of summer!

donatelli98 said...

Love you and all of your weirdness!!

Miss Sweet Tea said...

I can't keep up with you! Do you ever sleep? Seriously, you are amazing!

1. Being pooped on by a bird is not awesome! I got hit while walking and it went straight down the front of my v-neck shirt...it smelled so bad! But I guess it is pretty funny when it's happening to someone other than yourself :)

2. I still haven't been to Roscoe's! I want to go, it looks/sounds awesome!

Kelly Beatty said...

A) thanks for the shout out. Grill Baskets rule! B) LOVE your super blonde hair, California girl. C) You are telling me that they only played 4 songs? I need more details of Phish. LOVE split open and melt...I remember listening to DWD and moving Calvin's doggie legs to dance to that music...d) your I love Rider's JB shirt. fab. phun times, yo!

Kristen said...

Yup... leaving tickets at home is soooo something I would do.

And about Poop. Laughed out loud that Blake got pooped on (sorry Blake). For years in high school my nickname was Poop Arm because a bird, that I convinced to this day had just dined at Taco Bell, unloaded on my bare bicep. Fantastic.

Also love the protect your crotch shirt. Priceless.

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