Matt’s Super Fun Summer Vacation - Part 1

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Hello everyone, I hope for those of you who are down in the southern hemisphere that things aren’t too cold yet. I’ve just got back from my summer holiday and will cover the goings on in my next 2 blogs (they wont be too far apart). But since im a bit of a slacker at updating this blog ill bring you up to speed as to what happened before I left in “Matt’s Super Fun Summer Vacation - Part 1”

It must be about 6 weeks or so ago now, but Jesse scored some tickets to one of our local baseball teams home games. Id been asking Jesse for a while if she wanted to go, but she wasn’t all that keen as the local team is terrible. But her work got an allocation of tickets to each game, and when some free tickets came up we went to a Friday night game along with 2 of her friends from work and their partners. The turn out to the game was pretty small, but I made sure there was lots of cheering going on. My “Let’s go cracker cats” cheer was loud, and when a Calgary player with the first name Darrell came up, I started the drawn out “Daaaaarrellllllll” chant (there’s a Simpson’s reference in there somewhere). Ah that was fun. By the end of the game there was a bunch of drunks in the upper stands chanting Darrell at every Calgary player, despite the fact that they were not all called Darrell. And to top the night off after the game an official gave me a game ball because I was from NZ. So the next day I went and got a glove, and a bat. The glove has got a bit of use playing catch and wearing to games, but I still have to break the bat in at the batting cage sometime.

If my memory serves me right, the next weekend was not only a long weekend, but also my birthday. Jesse had organized a party at the lake and some of our friends came out, as well as some of Jesse’s cousins. We had a “Bocce” Tournament. Its kind of a cross between lawn bowls and Platonk. The balls are big like lawn bowls, but you throw them towards the jack. Scoring is like lawn bowls. We played extreme Bocce utilizing the “play it where it lies” rule to the letter of the law. Under cars, having the jack in a bush, having the jack in a paddling pool only makes the game more interesting. I made it to the second round of the elimination tournament, but no further. I had a great party.

Edmonton also held part of the Fifa U-20 Soccer world cup. Jesse was running an Info booth there for the duration of the tournament. Surprisingly New Zealand had qualified for the tournament, and I went to the New Zealand vs Mexico game. There were about 60 New Zealand supporters at least 10,000 Mexico supporters. And that is no exaggeration. I got dressed up with face paint and a flag and enjoyed the game. Mexico were up 2-0 before NZ got a consolation goal with about 1 minute left. Still soccer’s not the most exciting sport to watch.

Now I’m sure a lot of you have been concerned about Tui the gnomes injuries and his extensive recovery. But I’m pleased to let you all know that he is up and about and has full use of both his legs. He had both his legs glued back on; I then filled him with space invader foam, and put modeling clay in the gaps for his prosthetic toes and the repairs to his crate. He’s put on a bit of weight, but not as fragile.

Ok, that about brings me up to date. Now on to my holiday. Our alarms went off particularly early, 4.30am to be exact, and we got ready and taxied to the airport. Last time I went through customs I got the ‘special treatment’ but his time, even thought I put a gnome filled with an unknown substance through the x-ray machine, Jesse who was in front of me, and the girl behind me got the random searches. We flew in to San Francisco airport, and picked up a rental car. Luckily the whole process was hassle free. Monterey where the motorcycle racing is, Is about 2-1/2 hours south of San Francisco. We only got lost once when I decided to turn off at a random off ramp to try and find somewhere to get food. Still if I hadn’t gotten lost we would have missed seeing all the industrial parks near San Jose, where I can confirm there are no fast food places.

Monterey is a small coastal town. There a race track, Pebble beach golf course is close by, and its got an aquarium and a small shopping area. We got in mid afternoon and checked out the local fisherman’s wharf (which had souvenir shops where we got some sweet bumper stickers and 11 seafood restaurants) before heading out to set up our tent at the race track. When we got to our campsite which was over the hill from the race track we were surprised to see how full it was already. The camping area for tents was pretty full, with any spots left situated on steep grade, so we found a spot amongst the huge RV’s a little further down the road. Our spot was reasonably flat and had green grass as opposed to the dry grass and dirt of the other site. Im sure Jesse was a little shocked at this point. She meets some strange people with her job, but had never been around so many rednecks and nascar type fans. A lot of the people in RV’s bought bikes along as well to ride around on. Our neighbor had 3. He liked to go out and start one up (next to our tent) let it warm up, rev it a few times then turn it off; alternating between all 3 at hourly intervals. Some RV’s had flagpoles next to them, not that we saw any confederate flags mind you, but some cheqered flags, and of course lots of American ones. The camp was relatively quiet the first night as the nearby party bus hadn’t started up yet. This was a bunch of college guys who had an RV with some big stereo speakers blazing songs all the time. They even had a microphone hooked up so they could dedicate songs to people, and on the last day they got a trampoline from somewhere. Another guy set up a leather lazy boy couch under an awning with satellite tv hook up. It’s a little different to camping back home.

Friday morning rolls round, and Jesse and I make our way on the shuttle bus to the track. We watch the morning sessions and see the moto gp bikes do their first practice. They are ear deafeningly loud. And they are fast. Since it was only a practice day we got some seats in the stands, and took a walk around the track side. After lunch we went in to Monterey and nearby Carmel. We went to the beach at Carmel and I went for a swim. The water was surprisingly cold though. I didn’t last in it too long. We then drove too the Pebble Beach golf club, and took some photos there.

The next morning we finished seeing the sights in Monterey; walking down Cannery Row which is an old cannery area turned into shops and restaurants, and took a tour of the town. After that it was back out to the track, and I took in an afternoon of bike racing. Sunday was the main race day and I left early to get a good spot. Jesse came up and joined me in the afternoon. There weren’t too many spots at this track where you get a great view, but where we were meant we could see at least a 3rd of it. Id been to racing in Australia, but this was different again. They had a huge trade area set up trying to sell me new bikes, riding gear and anything remotely bike related. Camping was good and a lot more civilized than when I was in Australia where some drunk guys decided to torch a toilet block one night. The only incident here was when a few guys started racing dirt bikes around a car park. They got busted by the cops and given a $500 fine. At least the drunks encouraging him took a collection for him.

So after 3 nights in a tent Jesse and I checked into a 1 star motel in Monterey called the Discovery Inn. Why a 1 star you ask. Well I was kind of intrigued as to what makes a motel 1 star, and it was the only place with a reasonable rate as rooms went up 200% over race weekend.

First thing we did was shower, then get some dinner, before coming back to veg on the double bed and watch some TV; we were exhausted. Who new you could still get tv’s with wood veneer on the side. The room had no over head lights and only half the lamps worked. You had to watch for bumps in the floor when walking around, and as we found out between 1am and 5am there isn’t any sound proofing in a 1 star room. Our neighbor to the right was making some phone calls and watching Spanish TV from 1am onwards, and a we are pretty sure the couple 2 rooms down didn’t use their bed for sleeping. But the thing about 1 star rooms are the memories and the stories that come from it.

That’s where im going to leave this for today. Ill conclude my adventure in “Matt’s Super Fun Summer Vacation - Part 2” some time soon.

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Photos

My Birthday
Heres everyone from my birthday party sitting on a log

Soccer
I decided id get a little dressed up for the soccer match.

Bocce Ball
Me getting serious in the first annual Birthday Bocce Tournament

My New Ducati
Well not quite. Next summer. Its a perfect fit

A Giant Gecko
Help! im about to be crushed by a giant Gecko

Tui at Laguna Seca
Tui joined us for race day at the Moto GP Race

At the beach
Me and Jesse at Carmel Beach. The water was cold.

Our 1 Star Motel
Heres Jesse outside our sweet 1 star motel

Comments

[Emily]

You holiday sounds great! I'm sure Mr Knome loved the vacation and the partying in the 1 Star Motel!!!

[Karina]

Tui?
Ok Matthew where did you get Tui? Has he been with you on your whole trip? This is my first time checking out your site so Tui is new to me!