Monday Monday 7.17.2008

Hi Everyone,

There is a lot going on right now, so I won't be brief! First, I'd like to say that I can't honestly remember the last time I sent out a "Monday Monday" on a Monday, but I figure it adds a little spice to all your lives by not knowing when the email will come.

Second, Maggie and I are gearing up for our yearly attempt at raising funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). As you may or may not know, Maggie's niece has Juvenile Diabetes – a currently incurable disease that can only be treated with an anally controlled diet and closely monitored blood-sugar levels. On top of that, Maddie has to wear an insulin pump around her waist 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We all know how hard it is to diet and pass up birthday cake and soda for carrots and water, but imagine how hard it is to make these sacrifices in your pre-teen years and all the time. By helping to raise funds for JDRF, we are sponsoring an organization that has been aggressively funding diabetes research for almost 40 years. If you're interested in sponsoring us for the walk, I'm including the link below. On the website, you can find a picture of Maddie and her mother, information about JDRF and Juvenile Diabetes, and methods for helping us in our cause. The Moving for Maddie team has raised $55,000 over the past three years!


http://walk.jdrf.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=extranet.personalpage&confirmid=87022800


Third, what a great weekend! I crossed off two more baseball stadiums, two more Hard Rock Cafes, and I finally made it to the west coast.

I took Southwest Flight Number 353 from Baltimore Washington International Airport at 6:50AM last Thursday. The flight would take me straight to Las Vegas passing directly over the Grand Canyon, which by the way doesn't look all too grand from 35 thousand feet. As exciting as Las Vegas would have been, playing the slots or hitting the tables just didn't make my itinerary. Instead, I jumped on Southwest Flight Number 2217. This plane ride took me to my final destination: San Diego.

I arrived somewhere around 10:30 A.M., but I didn't expect Maggie to arrive until about 9:30PM. Luckily for me (since Maggie made the rental car reservation), the Courtyard Marriot San Diego/Liberty Station had a free shuttle service, and they were thrilled at the prospect of picking me up. Arriving a little early for check-in, I had a couple of choices. I could check-in right then and have what room was available, or since I am a Platinum Member of Marriot Rewards, I could wait while they cleaned an upgraded room with a fantastic waterfront view. Since I had nothing but time, the wait made no burden on me. The receptionist (I believe her name is Andrea) gladly took my bags while I went for a walk. Little did I know that my little walk could consume my entire afternoon.

The remarkable thing about San Diego is that the ocean sort of winds itself into the city giving it this quasi-elongated coast line. Walking out the back exit of the hotel, I locked my eyes on planes flying overhead, a waterway leading to the ocean, and in the distance I could make out all the tall buildings required for a major U.S. city. Now a "long walk on the beach" this wasn't, but in a very literal sense it was a long "walk in the park". I walked from my hotel along the inlets of the San Diego coastline, passed Spanish Landing, passed the Cancer Memorial, passed the U.S. Coast Guard, and all the way into downtown San Diego. The entire walk there and back took me about three hours. If not for the long awaited scents of salt water filling my nostrils or for the well kept parks and sidewalks, I might have stopped after an hour. Between grabbing some dinner, hitting up the pool, and taking this walk. . . .I was ready for bed.

Our weekend really kicked off on Friday morning. We hopped out of bed in time to make the 8AM opening of the "World Class San Diego Zoo." Of course that small achievement was helped along by the fact that 8AM Pacific Time is actually 11AM Eastern Time. Although the Giant Panda Bears and Koala Bears seem to be the fan favorites, my favorite exhibit had to be the Polar Bears. For some reason, the bears were especially active when we saw them at about 9AM. Imagine two huge, white animals wrestling around in the snow and ice, but doing it so gracefully that neither could be hurt. Compound that by the fact that I was standing all of about 3 feet away from them as they stood on their back two legs. . .and you might understand my amazement. Thank God for the thick glass between the bears and the spectators.

Fortunately for us, Maggie's cousin Will has connections in the San Diego area that he was able to exploit for us. What that means is that we attended both a Padres game and a Dodgers game for free (and our seats were amazing on both nights). We met up with Will's friend at a bar called the Pacific Shore Club, where Will's friend is actually a partner. We had a couple of drinks on the house before leaving for that "long walk on the beach" – since it was right there. . .Actually we took the abbreviated walk on the beach, so we could hit up the Hard Rock Café La Jolla before heading back to downtown San Diego for the Padres Game. Luckily, we got to La Jolla just in time as the Hard Rock Café's there is scheduled to close sometime next year.

I'll always remember the San Diego Padres game for the awesome promotion going on while we were there. For the entire month of July, Hot Dogs and soda were being sold for $1 at Petco Park. I had a sudden break down in my diet as I consumed 3 hot dogs and gulped down 2 sodas. . .and $5 bucks later, I had never been to so cheap a baseball game: free game, $1 hot dogs, and $1 soda. Nevermind the fact that our baseball stadium bible declared the Petco Park hot dog as the absolute worse in the majors - who cares they sold them for $1. Another high point for the evening's festivities was the fact that we finally saw the home team win as the Padres shut out the Braves 4-0.

At this point, it is Thursday Morning and I'm trying to polish off this week's note, so pardon me if I suddenly become brief about my activities; I'm sure you're ready to stop reading anyway. After the Padres game, Maggie and I ventured through the Gaslamp Quarter where we found Hard Rock Café San Diego. We had a drink and an appetizer and added yet another Hard Rock Café to the list.


We spent Saturday morning in Old Town San Diego, which is pretty much a historical district where the State of California has tried to make time stop. This section of San Diego is full of open air markets, old time shops, historic buildings, and Mexican restaurants and culture. We shopped, we ate, and we left. Major purchase for the time spent in Old Town was a bouquet of 15 colorful wooden roses - $10. I wonder if I'm off the hook until these flowers die?

That evening we drove North to Los Angeles, which is about 120 miles away. Our sole destination was Dodger's Stadium to take in another night of baseball, beer, hot dogs, and fun. Getting back on track with our normal performance, the curse did return as the home town Dodgers did in fact lose to the Florida Marlins, but not until after 11 innings of baseball. In my view, we just got a little bit of free baseball (not that we paid for the first nine innings). I guess the major highlight of this game was our seats. According to our Baseball Stadium bible, the field level seats are not only hard to come by, but they are damn near impossible to come by. In fact, the book made us think that the seats would be filled with suits and ties. We got seats on the field level in Section 10 row N, which for reference places us somewhere between home plate and the Away Team's dugout and 9 rows back. In all likelihood, we will never get seats like this again. The bible said the Dodger Dog falls right in the middle of the pack, but again I thought they tasted alright.

At the risk of letting this drone on forever, all I will say about Sunday is that we spent it at Sea World. This upcoming weekend's activities include seeing Billy Joel play the last concert at Shea Stadium on Friday night and seeing the Yankees take on the Athletics on Saturday afternoon. Hopefully I'll send out a Monday Monday on Monday next week.

Stay Tuned for More Action! Hope everyone is doing well