Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Canadian Invasion of Ventura County


Christie and Jason, my housemates in Catania, arrived in Camarillo Sunday night as the latest stop in their multinational world tour! Of course the fair city of Camarillo rolled out the red carpet for our friends.

First Camarillo city highlight, Casa Contreras

After hosting the Washington friends Valentine's Day party the night before, Casa Contreras was able to make the smooth transition to hosting our Edmonton globetrotting amici.

Although we had not seen each other since leaving Catania in mid-July, we all just picked up where we left off except Jason was no longer sporting his man purse.

As our evening went along, I realized how much I missed being around these two young people. They really are like a part of our family! It was so much fun to hang out with them again for a few hours.

The love couple at Camarillo Cronies

In Sicily, Jason and Christie heard me talk many times about our favorite locals hangout in Camarillo, Cronies Sports Grille. Naturally we went there Sunday night to eat, drink and watch the Chicago Bears beat the Philadelphia Eagles 24-20 on the Sunday night game.

GOOD TIMES INDEED!

Look who was hanging out at Cronies with us...

None other than former World Champion Junior Middleweight Champion Fernando Vargas who grew up in nearby Oxnard and now lives in Camarillo.

As luck would have it, Jason is a BIG boxing fan and the Champ was one of his favorites. At least that was our story to get this picture taken and we are sticking to it!!!

Actually, Jason admitted that he once saw the movie "The Champ" with Ricky Schroeder and cried at the end. Close enough...

Group Photo at Cronies

We have a regular at Cronies who we have nicknamed "Slappy". When he walked in to Cronies he thought Jason and Christie were David and Posh Beckham. Hence his nickname.

As luck would have it, if you can blow up this picture, there are a few items of interest on the wall behind us.

The red bordered picture on the top left is of our godson Scott Fujita when he played for the Kansas City Chiefs. To the right of that picture is one of Scott's mom and dad, Helen and Rod, with Scott, Laurie and me at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio when the Chiefs played the Green Bay Packers in the Hall of Fame game about six years ago.

Framed behind us is a black Rio Mesa H.S. football game jersey. Rio Mesa is where I coach during the Elephants' off-season.

The picture on the top right is of a baseball player in a Seattle Mariners uniform. As you may recall, Jason grew up in the Seattle suburb of Puyallup as a Mariner fan. The player in the picture was a star relief pitcher for the Mariner in the 1990's who was instrumental in their drive for a World Series berth, graduated from Rio Mesa H.S. in 1989 and, as it turns out, was one of Jason's favorite sports heroes in Seattle as he grew up.

The name of this legendary Mariner pitcher...BOBBY AYALA!!!

BAM and AMAZING all in one!

Our adventures together will continue this weekend when the four of us drive down to Tucson, Arizona to see if Jason's 3-1 Arizona Wildcats can come up with some sort of a game plan to defeat my 0-4 Washington Huskies Saturday night. It should be nothing short of amazing!

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