First Flight & Graduation

April 11 - 16, 2013
San Diego, CA

This week I was in San Diego with J3 for Jessie’s graduation from physical therapy school. I can’t believe how fast times flies. It feels like just yesterday I travelled down to SD with Jessie for her interviews for admission. Now she is a doctor!

The travel down on Thursday was exciting because it was JT’s first time on a plane. He was a ridiculously good boy. If I ever posted pictures of faces, this would be the time to do it as JT’s plane photo shoot was insanely adorable. He definitely takes after his aunty and grandpa in terms of loving to fly. At one point on the flight I thought I heard him starting to whine. It turns out it was the dog in the carryon below Jason’s seat.

Friday was graduation day for Jessie. It was a beautiful sunny San Diego day. It would also turn out to be the only sunny day of the trip. Jessie seemed to greatly enjoy her graduation. It was fun to meet a bunch of the people we’ve heard about for the last three years. After the ceremony J3, Jessie, Christy, Mercy and I went back to Jessie’s apartment for a pizza dinner.

On Saturday we went to the beach for a picnic lunch. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t conducive to much activity. Jason decided to boogie but even in a thick wetsuit he only lasted for a half hour. I went for a walk. It almost turned into a half-jog in an attempt to stay warm, while in jeans, a sweatshirt and jacket. The highlight of the beach visit was learning of Joycie’s irrational fear of kites. Watching her squirm, squeal and run from the guy flying the kite next to us was hilarious. For dinner we went to a delicious Mexican restaurant where JT continued to be the best child ever. He slept through the entire meal. Including a stretch where a mariachi band was playing directly by his head.



J3 and I spent Sunday with our cousins Sarah, Eric and Hunter. We hung out at their house watching the Masters, eating yummy Sarah prepared food and chatting. I’m fairly certain it had been more than a year since I had seen any of them, which is way too long. Needless to say this was the first time that they had met JT. He was on his best behavior. I’m pretty sure Sarah wanted to keep him, which makes sense since we all feel that way.

Monday morning all of the girls and JT went to breakfast with Jessie’s friend Carlie at a restaurant called Swami’s. It was sort of like an order at the counter Glenwood on steroids. The food was delicious, fairly priced and had super generous portions. I’m shocked I’ve never been there as it less than a 5 minute drive from Sarah and Eric’s house. I’ll definitely eat there again the next time I am in Encinitas. The rest of Monday was spent shopping before returning to Jessie’s for soup and sammies for dinner.

Our flight Tuesday departed at 3PM. There were six of us traveling with a lot of bags and two rental cars to return so we thought it would be prudent to leave at 12:15PM. Clearly I didn’t accomplish anything in the morning other than getting up, packing up and departing. The flights home were on time and non-noteworthy, which is exactly what you want when traveling with a little one. My return to the airport was also of note as a special guy met me there with Voodoo Donuts. The donuts were delicious and seeing the guy for the first time in six weeks was pretty good too ;~)

All in JT’s first trip to celebrate Aunty Jess was a success. The weather was a big disappointment but the time with family was great. The next trip on the books is to see the East Coast family at the end of May.

Until then,
Katy

Basketball, Boys, Bowling & Broken Legs

March 28 - April 1, 2013
Indianapolis, IN

This week Mom and I made our way to Indianapolis to watch the Ducks take on the Louisville Cardinals. We knew the Ducks would likely lose but once the March Madness bug bites me, I see it through. We flew out Thursday morning and made it to our downtown hotel by 4pm. We decided to explore downtown a little bit and ended up in some city center mall. We grabbed some lunch and then did a little shopping. I wanted to watch the games in the evening, so Mom and I ate dinner at the Indianapolis Colts Grille. Evidently this is the only restaurant controlled by a team in one of the big four leagues. There were tons of TVs and the food was pretty good, so Mom and I left satisfied. After a quick trip to Walmart to grab groceries for the weekend we settled in at the hotel.

Friday was game day for the Ducks. In the morning Mom and I checked out the Garfield Garden Conservatory. The garden was way smaller than I had anticipated but we still had fun looking around. After the garden we hit up the Ducks prefunk at the team hotel. We munched on some UO provided snacks, listened to the band and then watched as the team loaded its bus. Shortly thereafter we hopped in a cab and made our way to the game.



We arrived to Lucas Oil Stadium a bit early so I could look around. I had been to the facility on a tour a few years back and not a ton had changed. I enjoyed seeing it again, however, and I think Mom did too. The Ducks gave Louisville a run for its money. Each time Louisville made a run to push the game out of reach, the Ducks clawed back. In the end we lost 77-69 but I could not have been prouder of the effort. Dana and the rest of the Ducks have me ridiculously excited about the future of the team.



In game two we got to watch two of the most decorated coaches in college basketball history go head-to-head. Tom Izzo vs Mike Krysheski. Michigan State vs Duke. The game wasn’t the greatest game ever played but it was entertaining. Watching the dynamics between the two coaches made up for any letdowns in between the lines. In the end Coach K’s Dukies came out on top, 71-61, and moved on to play Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals in the Midwestern Regional Final.

Flying into Eugene last minute during the second weekend of spring break is pretty much impossible. To that end Mom and I decided to stay for the second game even though the Ducks were not in it. This meant we had all day Saturday to fill with activities.

We slept in a bit on Saturday morning. Once we finally got on our way our first stop was the Benjamin Harrison House. Mom and I took a fantastic tour of the 23rd presidents home. The tour lasted over an hour and our guide was full of information. The current exhibit in the house was “Raising the Hem,” which was a collection of dresses worn by former First Ladies. Needless to say Mom thoroughly enjoyed this display.



Our next stop was a trip to a suburban mall. Mom has been on a mission for months to find JT a hat she had seen in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog that was on backorder. She wanted to give JT the hat for Easter and prior to his trip to San Diego. We had some good salads for lunch at a random food court spot. We then found the PBK and fortunately it had two hats left. We purchased one for JT. We browsed a few more stores and then made our way back to the city for our evening activity, The Men’s NCAA National Swimming & Diving Championships.



I was pumped to attend a legit swimming and diving meet for the first time. It didn’t hurt that it was a men’s only competition. I used to think that picking a college with a good football team was important. I think I might advise my daughters to pick one with a good swimming team.





While purchasing the tickets I stopped to take a photo for a little girl with Nathan Adrian. For those of you who are unfamiliar with him, I’d google it. Not only is he tall and ridiculously good looking. He’s also nice. I thoroughly enjoyed my 30 second conversation with him. The meet was great too. We saw many close races and the diving competition was awesome. Below is a video of one of the best dives of the night.

Sunday morning Mom and I ate a leisurely breakfast. As you all know this was Easter Sunday, so our options for entertainment around town were limited. I had read that the Professional Bowling Association (PBA) had a tournament in town. Mom was mocking me that I wanted to spend Easter Sunday at a bowling alley but I did. She eventually conceded and we made our way to the Tournament of Champions at Woodland Bowl.

The parking lot at the bowling alley was packed. There were four large ESPN 18 wheelers taking up many of the spaces along with what had to be more than 100 cars. The finals were to be broadcast live on ESPN. When we walked into the alley there was a little table with two old people, a cash drawer and a bunch of colored bracelets. I told them I’d like to watch the bowling. The man said he wasn’t sure if there were seats available but he would go look. As we were waiting a man in bowling shirt walked by and the old lady said to me “THAAAAT’S PETE WEBER.” I said “I don’t know who that is.” She looked at me like I had just killed her dog. I then explained that I didn’t know much about professional bowling but I thought it would be fun to see a competition. The old man returned shortly thereafter and notified us that a few $15 seats were available. He said they weren’t very good but they were something. I didn’t want to spend a ton, so the $15 seats were great in my book. Mom and I bought a couple drinks and made our way to the staged lanes.



I decided that before the show went live, I wanted to grab a program. I left Mom in the seats and made my way around the bleachers and piping. As I rounded the corner toward the merchandise table I walked by Terrell Owens. I was like, “Uhm, okay, T.O. is here.” I proceeded to purchase my program. On my way back to the seats I decided to go to the bathroom one more time. When I exited the bathroom I saw a group of people walking up to T.O. The person leading the way toward him was none other than Billie Jean King. I never expected to witness on Easter Sunday, in a bowling alley, the meeting of Billie Jean King and T.O. But I did. And it went like this:

T.O. approaches BJK and says: “Hi. I’m Terrell Owens.”
BJK: “I know you who are.”
T.O. and BJK shake hands.



All in the bowling experience was awesome. We didn’t get to stay to the end because we wanted to leave in time to make it to the start of basketball. This means we didn’t get to see Pete Weber, who I now know is the grandpa of bowling at 50 years-old, defeat Jason Belmonte, a two-handed (yes, two-handed) Australian bowler in the finals.

The Duke vs Louisville regional championship game will be remembered forever, for all the wrong reasons. The game itself was decently competitive for 28 minutes. However, the most noteworthy moment occurred in the first half when Louisville’s Kevin Ware broke his leg in spectacular fashion. I was tracking the ball, so I didn’t see the break in real time. However, it was immediately obvious that something crazy had happened in the arena because players started falling over crying. In all my years around sports I’ve never seen players react like that to an injury. We weren’t given much insight as to what was happening in the arena. No replays were shown. We all just watched patiently, mostly in silence, as the paramedics responded and loaded Kevin on to a stretcher. The pace of the game didn’t really recover prior to halftime. Louisville eventually found its inspiration in the second half and won the game going away, 85-63. One of the nicest moments of the night was when Chane Behanan wore Ware’s jersey during the end of game celebration. He eventually removed the jersey and the team paraded it around during the trophy presentation.





Monday morning Mom and were off to the airport to make our way back home. We successfully made it on time from Indy to Chicago to Portland. We’re now waiting in the United Club for our Eugene flight that has been delayed on hour. All in Mom and I had a super fun, albeit random, Easter weekend. I’m looking forward to being home for 10 full days before taking off to San Diego for Jessie’s graduation with J3.

Until then,

Katy