Sunday, August 19 - Saturday, August 25, 2018
After pulling a near all-nighter after our win in Chihuahua, Saturday night, WR Dane Arakawa joined Coach Mike Contreras, DB Nicolas Principi and myself for the 4:30 a.m. taxi ride to the airport to start our long treks home.
The reason for our quick departure from Mexico was that Mike had to report bright and early on Monday for the start of the school year at Newbury Park H.S. where he teaches.
Dane was headed back to his family home in Hawaii via Dallas while the rest of us were going to Houston for a six hour layover before boarding a second flight to Los Angeles.
Our flights were both on time and smooth with the only highlight of the journey being the excellent Texas BBQ restaurant that we frequented during the layover.
Laurie picked us up at LAX and we were back in Ventura County in no time.
While we were enjoying eating street tacos and practicing/playing American football south of the border, Laurie and Marta Crosta, Nicolas' significant other, had spent a week bonding at Casa Contreras and along California's Gold Coast.
Once we were all reunited, we started to enjoy a week together doing touristy/vacation things in the area.
A day at the beach in Carpinteria
hard by the Pacific Ocean . . .
. . . was followed by an adult beverage
at Carpinteria's Islands Brewery
A few days later we headed to the
harbor at Santa Barbara for . . .
. . . lunch at Brophy Brothers
It was a good half way stopping point on our way to some delicious wine tasting in Los Olivos.
Nicolas' new 1940s American football
helmet that he found in a Los Olivos
Antique Store
Face masks had not yet been invented.
No, really!
On to Solvang, the central
California city founded by three
Danish families in 1911
Small World
with Robert Buckley
While the ladies were shopping (surprise, surprise) for Danish made treasures, Nicolas and I sat on a sidewalk bench watching the world go by.
Within 30 seconds, Robert Buckley ambled by.
Robert and I were school mates at St. Francis H.S. in La Cañada-Flintridge, California about three hours south of Solvang back in the 1960s!
I graduated from SFHS in 1965 while Robert was part of the class of 1967. On a side note, both of his children were students of mine at Rio Mesa H.S.
Yep, small world indeed!
On Thursday morning, a workout
in the Rio Mesa H.S. weight room
was called for
Not to worry, I ran into RMHS teachers Jeff Wrout and Mary Wayne which gave me the perfect excuse not to exercise as I caught up on what both of my former colleagues did this Summer.
AMERICAN FOOTBALL
WEEKEND
Nicolas was excited to continue to take in as much of the typical American football experience as he could while visiting the Golden State.
Thus we headed to Moorpark College
on Thursday night to watch a scrimmage
between the Moorpark College Raiders
and the California Lutheran University Kingsmen
Nicolas with Cal Lutheran
Head Coach Ben McEnroe
Nicolas with Moorpark
Offensive Coordinator Jason Sabolic
It was a BEAUTIFUL night for
American football!
Let the scrimmage begin!
The scrimmage lasted for
almost three hours
Both teams got a ton of reps and I'm sure benefited from the competition.
With Jason and Nicolas
Jason is a longtime family friend who is the son of Paul and Joanne Sabolic who we have known for about 40+ cherished years.
As always, it was lots of fun sitting with Paul and Joanne in the stands during the scrimmage retelling old tales and a few new ones as well.
Additionally, Paul is one of this blog's two die-hard groupies.
Michael D'Antuono is the other one.
Love them both!
Post-Scrimmage de-briefing at
Ventura County's premier pastrami
sandwich shop
Friday at Cal Lutheran
Both Nicolas and Marta were interested in finding out more about the process of a foreign student enrolling in an American college.
The nice people at Cal Lutheran gave them both some solid insights.
Outside of the CLU American
football complex
The Kingsmen play in the NCAA's Division III for non-athletic scholarship colleges.
By the statue honoring CLU's
1971 NAIA Championship American
football team
Friday night at Thousand Oaks H.S.
We came to watch the Newbury Park Panthers (0-0), in white, take on the Thousand Oaks Lancers (0-1) for the 50th time in their storied rivalry that started back in 1970 with an epic 48-48 tie.
Alessandro Zazzetta, on the left, is a
JV player for NPHS from Rome
Those are Alessandro's parents behind the fence and their family moved to America just a few months ago.
This is his first ever experience playing American football and Nicolas did a great job bolstering both Alessandro's and his parent's spirits and stressing the importance of persevering and focusing on learning the game in his initial campaign.
46.1 seconds until Kickoff
Marta, Nicols and Mike enjoying
the view from the sidelines
Marta and Nicolas
TOHS on Goal Line Defense
"HOLD THAT LINE!"
They didn't, Panthers with a quick 7-0 lead on a flawless opening drive of their season.
Nice Catch by the NPHS receiver
From a Ventura County Star
newspaper photo
All of us are in the background, sort of.
Laurie is on the left, parts of Marta can be seen behind the ball carrier's body, Nicolas is partially hidden by the chasing DB in green as is our Grandson Jacob in front of me with Unicorn shirted Mike on the right.
We were famous in a small way.
Jacob LOVES Nicolas
But I think that Jacob loves Marta more.
Nicolas about to make an
open field tackle on a shifty Jacob
Friday Night Lights
Final Score
Newbury Park 37 - Thousand Oaks 0
So in two days Nicolas had experienced first a taste for college football and then a high school rivalry game.
Only one thing left to experience . . .
An NFL pre-season game
Saturday YOUR Los Angeles Rams (1-1) were hosting the Houston Texans (1-1) at the Coliseum.
We were able to buy tickets on-line for $6 each which was $2 less than the cost of a ticket to Friday night's Newbury Park at Thousand Oaks game!
Go Rams GO!
The Rams cheerleaders begged us
to take a picture with them
So we did.
Gold Medal winners from the
1932 Los Angeles Olympics
The Track and Field portion of those Olympics happened at this very Coliseum spot.
Italian Gold in 1932 in Gymnastics
More Gold Medalists from Italy
from Los Angeles' 1984 Olympiad
This time it was for winning the Modern Pentathlon.
$12 for TWO street tacos?
HIGHWAY ROBBERY inside the Coliseum!
Get me back to Chihuahua NOW!
The view from our $6 seats
The crowd was small for this pre-season contest where many key Rams players had been announced in advance as non-suits.
In was too hot in the direct, scorching Summer sun at the 1:00 p.m. Kickoff, so we climbed to up to the only shade in the Coliseum.
MUCH cooler!
Many of the seats in front of us were soon filled as the giant scoreboard's shadow behind us grew.
Whose house?
RAMS HOUSE!
Marta, Nicolas and I enjoyed
the end of our American football
weekend immensely!
FINAL SCORE:
Los Angeles 21 - Houston 20
Somewhat hungry after avoiding the outrageous Coliseum food prices, we headed to an iconic East L.A. dining spot for some authentic Mexican food.
El Tepeyac on Evergreen is an absolute
MUST place to eat on any visit to L.A.
A tribute at El Tepeyac to the Eastside
The famous Manuel Special Burrito
It was both HUGE and delicious!
We only ordered one burrito and divided it four ways, one for each of us and one for a homeless man to be named later that we would be bound to meet later in Old Town Pasadena.
This burrito was filled with pork, rice, beans, guacamole with cheese and a spicy salsa atop it all.
The one we tried to consume is made for four people. They now make this same burrito in an incredible eight person size too.
We needed dessert.
The Cheesecake Factory in
Old Town Pasadena filled the bill
We ordered slices of three different cheesecakes and even shared a bite of each one with each other before turning back into starved locusts in attacking the slice we each had ordered.
YUM.
And so good for you too!
Final stop of the day . . .
The Rose Bowl in Pasadena
Home of the "Grandaddy of then All"
Thanks to the D'Antuonos both
the Sabolic and the Contreras
families are part of the
University of Washington's area
in the Rose Bowl's Court of Honor
Life continues to astound me daily.
Mostly for the good.
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