Here is the full report on my vacation. I do have to warn you that it gets a little bit long winded, but it does after all cover three days. I will split the post up into some pages and there are plenty of pictures for those who don’t like to read. So click on the “Read More” link and join me for a recount of rugby, beer, nachos, snow and very long drives.
Saturday morning I woke up well rested – even though the bed borders on hard – around 7:30. Kerry and I meet with Liz, Mark and Candice and headed downstairs for breakfast, then finally to the field which is only a few minutes drive away.
We found some of our other friends a the park and sat with them at about mid field, which would have been great seats except that there was a very large boom camera right in front of us. It was generally ok for just watching the game, but I was anxious to take pictures so after not to long I spotted an empty section at the end of the field and set out to find some better locations to for pictures. I’m really glad I did too, because often after I leave a game that I took pictures of, I realize I never left my seat, and every picture is from the same angle. Lame.
I wandered about for the first 7 or so games, found myself getting told I couldn’t be in a few places and in the end had pictures from 4 different spots, as well as some general pictures of the people, events and things around the game. The 7th game was USA vs. South Africa and although I wanted to take a ton of pictures of that game, not a whole lot happed even though it was a close game the entire time. In the end USA lost to South Africa by 1 and I headed back to meet up with Kerry with my head down.
It was a beautiful day and the USA-SA game ended a little before noon so a group of us headed over to the fan zone where they had tents setup with things to see, buy and eat. The South Africans in the group (all but myself and one other) headed straight to the meat pies for lunch. The pies were from Mojo Pies and actually pretty good. Kerry and Candice complained about there not being any place that sells pies in our area, even though I pointed out Z-Pies a few times (sigh…).
We headed back to watch the rest of the games, I didn’t do much wandering after that since I think some people were getting the wrong impression that I didn’t want to sit with them. USA and South Africa both played two more games before the day was over. USA won both games over Australia and Canada. South African also won their other two games for the day as well. After all the games Kerry and I took Mark & Liz back to the hotel and we joined up with the rest of our group to get some drinks and pizza at a small bar near the stadium. Kerry and I headed in for the night around 9pm. We were both absolutely beat and I only had enough energy to post up some of the better pictures from the day and go to bed.
Sunday morning was much the same, we made it to the park first this time, and after getting the same seats from the day before we went to get some merchandise. I had purchased a USA shirt on Saturday and was sporting it, but I lacked a hat. Saturday I just wore a springbok hat, but that simply wouldn’t do with the USA shirt. So $20 later I had a USA Sevens hat.
Sunday was all bracket play, based on how the teams had done on Saturday. Below bracket for the Cup as it started on Sunday morning.
The weather Sunday wasn’t as good as the day before. The sky was overcast and there was a good enough chance of rain that the boom camera had a plastic bag protecting it. Luckily the weather held with nothing more than a gloomy overcast and a bone chilling breeze. We ended up moving over a few sections to get away from the large boom camera, so I had a better angle for pictures, and wasn’t as enthusiastic about moving around in the cold. I also tried to pay more attention to the rules of the game and how things played out but I didn’t keep much track of scores or anything like that for any games except the cup semifinals.
The only way that South Africa and USA were going to meet again was for the Cup final so I was kind of hoping that would happen. It would make for a really exciting day. Both teams made it past the first semi-finals round without much trouble. The second round South Africa was up first, against England and while at the end of the first half it looked like they would have the game, they made a few mistakes in their play and gave the game to England. We met a nice English guy who sat in front of us who was kind enough to gloat.
USA vs Argentina was up next and at this point all the South Africans I was with switched to USA mode. Argentina came out first if I remember right but USA had them by a few points near the end of the game. But with only about a minute to go, Argentina scored a try and wasted all but the last few seconds of the game with their conversion kick and return kick. Their return kick went out of bounds with a second or so left on the clock, but the sideline official didn’t get his flag up until after the horn sounded, so the main official nearly immediately ended the game. It wasn’t how I wanted to see the USA team go out, to what I consider a bad call. The USA team never got a chance for one last try that they deserved.
In the end Argentina went on to win the Cup and everybody celebrated with them. We didn’t linger long at the stadium and decided we wanted something to eat. So Kerry, Candice, Liz, Mark and I headed out to a California Pizza Kitchen in La Jolla. Each of us ordered our own pizza and we were all hungry enough that not a single slice remained on the table when we left.
It was again not all that late by the time we got to the hotel, but its amazing how tired you can get after sitting out all day cheering for your favorite teams. I sat down and started to compose this post, but an unfortunate combination of beer, nachos, and pizza made for a disgruntled stomach and I had to lay down, eventually I fell asleep with no more than a few paragraphs written.
Monday we slept in a bit, and quickly packed everything up, grabbed a bite to eat from the hotel (for me just a cup of coffee and a dry bagel) and headed for home. We had to make a quick pit stop for Kerry’s car, the night before the oil dummy light flashed at us, and it turned out that the car needed 4 whole quarts of oil, which isn’t good. We had also found out in the morning that the Grapevine was closed due to snow and ice.
For anybody who doesn’t know California’s interstate and highway system. I5 is the major north south road through California and the grapevine is a mountain pass at the southwest end of the Tehachapi Mountains linking Southern to Central California that rises to 4.100+ feet and during the winter it occasionally gets snowfall. Unfortunately, the pass is so long, and so many lanes that road crews often cannot keep up with it, and the pass has to be closed.
That meant very bad news for us headed home. The best feasible route around that pass means going all the way out to Highway 101, which roughly follows the coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco. We took 101 up to San Luis Obispo and then cut back over to I5. It was a 2 hour detour that made our long drive from San Diego, into a VERY long drive. Particularly because there was heavy traffic on 101 nearly the entire trip.
We were able to break the trip up a little bit with a stop at The African Hut (a South African foods importer) and the Springbok bar in Long Beach for lunch. Kerry and I alternated driving a few times which always makes long drives go easier, but next time I think we will just fly. We got home around midnight and Kerry was in bed before I parked the car, I wasn’t long in following her.
In all, it was a great trip, and I look forward to trips like it in the future, but perhaps next time we’ll try to plan a little further in advance and get a hotel in downtown San Diego, within walking distance of the Stadium, and fly instead of drive.
I’d also like to point out that I crossed the 10,000 picture line with my D50 during this trip. I took nearly 500 pictures during the trip, and it may be a bit before I get through processing a majority of them so look for posts in the future with some photo highlights.
