Thoughts on an interesting Vacation

Published on: 9/23/2011

Before I jump back into prep sports, I wanted to share some of my vacation thoughts with you.

For those of you who know me, I have a son (Marty) in Burbank, who is a film editor (Shield, Wipeout, Fear Factor), so my wife Kathy and I took a week to go see him, his fiance Ann and our future in laws - Cheryl and John. Marty and Ann are getting married next Memorial Day, so we went out to see the facility, do taste testing for cake and food (I passed both tests) and pick out flowers (I passed on the second visit after dying through the first one).  Looking at flowers for me would be like me talking fantasy football to my in-laws, son and wife - they would stare at me with their eyes glazed over.

We flew out Wednesday and Thursday and Friday were spent visiting with Cheryl and John. I discovered Cheryl is smart, frugal and a lot of fun. John is also a class act, except he says as many words in a day as I do in a sentence.

I watched ESPN and surfed the net alot - I loved it. When I spoke with my son a few days before I left, he told me he didn't have ESPN, but he put it in for me after I started sobbing on the phone.

Saturday morning I went and watched Marty play fastpitch softball - his team was in the playoffs. Marty, a two-time MVP at Brookfield East, had four hits, a sacrifice bunt and six RBIs in a thrilling 26-23 win. He had good coaching growing up :)  It was very cool - they asked me to keep score - and it brought back some great memories. I really miss coaching.

Kathy, Marty and I went to see the movie 'Warrior' Saturday night. I enjoy watching movies with Marty, because he has a more critical view because he is in the business.

Then on Sunday - a day that I watch football from noon until 11:30 pm - I went into withdrawal.

We got up at 4:30 am and went to Malibu Beach for the annual charity Triathlon - which Ann was running in for charity. She raised $8,000 to battle cancer this year after raising about $13,000 last year. Getting busy for the wedding has cut into her time.

We took the last shuttle bus at 7 am down to the beach. With two artificial hips, I find walking on grass the worst thing in the world for me - until I tried walking on sand. Getting down to the beach was also interesting because I saw people whose bodies made me look like the norse-god Thor. They were rather large to be polite. However, they were in much better shape than I am, since I got tired watching them squeeze into their wetsuits.

I did see some celebs - Rainn Wilson (Dwight) of the Office walked by us on the beach. Then later we were sitting in the grandstand by the celebrity bike area and saw Eric Christian Olsen of the NCSI-LA TV show and Josh Hopkins (Grayson) of Cougar Town.

I did check out the Packer-Carolina game on my smart-phone, but it was broken because at one time it had the Pack losing 13-0.

We then ate lunch afterwards - Ann, who is recovering from a bad back - ran four minutes slower than last year. Considering I wouldn't do as well with a boat, a bike and a car, my admiration for her and the other participants grew. It is something I would never do. My triathlon is usually watching TV, going to the bathroom, the fridge and back to the chair.

I was then able to go back and catch the San Diego/New England game and the beginning of the Philadelphia-Atlanta game.

But then it was off to the Hollywood Bowl - Ann got tickets ($122 a head) through her job. We sat in private open-air cubicles and listened to the music (Moulin Rouge theme). It was soothing as it put me to sleep. I woke up and checked out the game (I was playing Mike Vick in my fantasy league) and was thrilled when I saw he had left the game with a concussion - guaranteeing me a win.

I then settled in and watched some french lady sing sing songs that I didn't understand. She must have been hungry because she kept rubbing her belly.

Finally the Can-Can dancers came out and put on quite a performance and really woke me up. They had a guy with them - nice job, one guy traveling with 20 beautiful women - and when he leaped in the air and slammed into the floor in the splits the audience screamed, with most of the shouts coming from the men.

Then on Monday and Tuesday we did all the wedding things and on Wednesday we were ready to go home. I don't know who was more excited - Marty and Ann, who would get their bed and their privacy back - or the parents.

That's it folks. I hope some of you found it as interesting as I did. It was not my normal vacation.

Back to sports next week.