Darin, Joe, Justin and Chris came to town this past weekend for the Chiefs game at San Diego. We met at “Encounter,” the extra-rad bar at LAX that is the future.
As it turns out, the future has:
- Lots of strange shapes on the ceiling
- Lava Lamps
- $8 martinis
- Immaculate bathrooms (it’s true!)
- No silver jump suits
Honestly, each of these things surprised me and made me happy. From there, we picked up our rental SUV and headed out to the Manhattan Beach Brewing company. On the way there, Justin, Darin and Chris learned about the City of Manhattan Beach’s take on jaywalking.
Isn’t it cute how they’re all smiling and happy? The MBBC must have had some pretty good beers!
The next day we went on a whirlwind tour of Los Angeles. Our first stop was Griffith Park where we took in the famed Hollywood sign.
Justin and Darin spent some time teaching The Kid how to throw and catch a football. They spent a considerable amount of time accusing me of being a neglectful parent, as to date The Kid doesn’t consider football (or anything other than Basketball for that matter) to be a real sport. Seems to me that they did a pretty fair job of reeducating him.
From there we hit the Chinese Theater. There were celebrity and famous movie character impersonators everywhere, and of course the hand prints are always fun to see. Amusingly, Chris got interviewed by a fortune teller for Entertainment Tonight.
Apparently the only thing she got right was the fact that Chris is a good speller. No information on when or if the segment will air.
We wanted to head over to the Tar Pits next, but got side tracked when I forgot that you can’t turn left on Franklin from Highland. Seizing the opportunity, we stopped in at the Hollywood Bowl to take a quick peek around.
The Kid decided that he wanted to traverse the length and depth of the bowl, so we sent him on his way to climb all the way up to the top while we lounged around the box seats. Justin kept yelling that he was going to catch up to The Kid and win the race. This kept him motivated and running the entire time.
After our little side trip, we made it over to the tar pits, where we wandered about, rolled down hills and got tar all over ourselves. It was quite amusing.
It was getting on time to get ready for dinner, so we headed back, but not before a quick ride through Beverly Hills. There’s some fine people watching to be done there. The guy in the green hat in particular caught our eye.
He had on a “Property of G-Unit” shirt, velour track pants and a bunch of bling. It was quite impressive. He noticed me taking his picture and gave us a big thumbs’ up. I don’t know if he thought that we thought he was a celebrity or if he knew that he looked the ham and was playing along. Either way, he gets props in my book for rocking out.
We took in dinner at Musso and Frank’s, one of my favorite restaurants in all of Los Angeles. Pork Chops were enjoyed pretty well all the way around, and I discovered that I’m the only member of the group who enjoys olives.
After dinner, we hit a few bars, ending up finally at Boardner’s.
We stayed there until pretty close to close, playing the jukebox rather mercilessly. There was no Foreigner, but we managed to do things up right with some Motley Crue, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and Marvin Gaye. Justin administered perhaps the finest Jukebox Parting Shot ever when he followed my “Crazy” by Patsy Cline with the same song performed by Willie Nelson. I was in awe of his jukebox skills.
The next day, we woke up at a quarter before early to head down to San Diego (no mean feat after getting home at 2:30). It was a very quick drive, giving us plenty of time to set up and grill.
We hung out drinking coors and eating hot dogs and brats for a few hours, generally relaxing and enjoying the San Diego sun. There were a lot of Chiefs fans there. Apparently San Diego is a pretty popular place for people to catch away games. I can see why; I’d totally go to San Diego for a game in the fall or winter before I’d go to Wisconsin or Minnesota.
Towards the beginning of the game, the lot began to fill up. When a woman in a Volvo parked next to us, she accidentally ran over our food.
Eventually, we made it in to the game, took our seats and dug in to a classic confrontation between two NFL giants.
Well, that wasn’t exactly the case. The Chiefs played horribly, losing 28-20. Still, it was nice to be outside and see the game in person.
On the way home, we stopped at one of Justin’s old haunts from when he lived in Carlsbad.
Harbor Fish South provided us with excellent (and huge) fish tacos and a damn fine plate of fish and chips. Plus, it was right on the beach so we were able to hang out there for a while.
All in all, a fine weekend. It was great to see those guys again — believe it or not, the last time I saw Chris was at our high school graduation. Next year I think we’ll have to go up to San Francisco and watch Darin do the swim from Alcatraz.
Full photo sets from the trip:
Chiefs @ Charters – Friday
Chiefs @ Chargers – Saturday Afternoon
Chiefs @ Chargers – Saturday Night
Chiefs @ Chargers – The Game!
