Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Impromptu drive down the coast ends up in horse track gambling fiasco

Actually, it was nothing like that, honestly officer. Seriously, this last Sunday we drove down the coast to Del Mar to visit with Greg and Megan. We had a beautiful scenic drive down the 101 through some real small towns. After getting to the Shockro's house we walked from their house over to the Del Mar Track. They live in a very cool area, two short blocks to the ocean and maybe a quarter mile from the horse track.

It was the day of the Pacific Classic. The track was packed with men in white suits and women with big hats. Totally reminiscent of Nashville's Steeplechase.

Chelle and Megan putting on their best "LA Face" for the camera.

I didn't wear a white suit, but I did wear a funny hat.

The Del Mar track is beautiful. You can see the some big body of water just over the tops of the building. I had been to Alamitos Track before, but this is much better. Apparently Bing Crosby was instrumental in this thing's success.



The horses lined up for us to take a look, so we could be better prepared to bet on who was going to run faster. Chelle and I prefer to pick our winners on much stricter guidelines. We go by the name of the horse and the color of the jocky's outfit. If we like both, we have a winner!

We always have a great time with the Shockro clan. We are certainly more blessed than we deserve to be.
Police Activity

I don't know how I missed posting this. We had such a great time, maybe it was because I didn't take my camera and forgot that I had these photos in one of my Blackberry. That's the trouble with working for a phone company and having more cellphone/PDAs than shoes.... then again, that's also my favorite part of the job.

Anyway, back on June 23rd. Our friends Aaron and Olyvia picked Chelle and I up and we went to Dodger Stadium to see the Foo Fighters and The Police in concert.

Here we are in the concession line. Beers are $52 and wine in a plastic cup is $57 (not really, but it's something close to that.)

I used to have the pleasure of working with Aaron at Sprint Nextel. Even though we no longer agree on the best cellphone transmission protocal, we can still be friends. Wow, we really are quite mature aren't we. For the record, AT&T Mobility's HSDPA is far better than Sprint's Ev-DO. I put that in there just to get Arron's goat. Actually, I'm not sure if he has a goat, I think he just has sheep.

As you can see we had front row seats ;-)

I wished I had seen the Police in their heyday, or at least later in the tour. They were a bit loose and they sounded like a band of three individuals trying to remember their parts. I heard they really got their groove back later in the tour. It was still great to see them, I've been a fan since I was in 6th grade.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Double Date

Friday night my buddy Sean and I treated our lady friends to a little romance. We started off at Bay Shore Boat Rentals at the Alomitas Harbor. We rented a Duffy Electric Boat and cruised around our old neighborhood, Naples Island.




The weather was beautiful and sun was just begining to set during our hour long cruise.




Chelle and I have been friends with Sean for some time, but this was our first time meeting Karin. We've already told Sean that we like her better than him and we will remain her friend if they stop seeing each other. Of course we were kidding, or were we? Let's hope we don't have to find out.



We packed a couple bottles of wine along with our finest plastic.




Captain Crowe at the helm. I learned everything I know from Captain Butch.

Link

After the boating, we dined at Tantalum. I didn't take any photos there, so you'll have to imagine how cool it is (or hit the link).
Later we ended our night at Morry's wine shop and Nico's backroom back on Naples Island.