California is basically awesome. I can say that now. Where we are staying in Santa Ana is in a gorgeous neighborhood, a short half hour drive from Los Angeles. Our first morning here we wanted to explore, so we just decided to drive. We ended up in Newport Beach. It was foggy when we got there and the surf was decent. The sun was barely out and it could definitely have been a setting for a movie. We walked the pier and played in the water a bit and then walked past several houses near there. After a short detour back to the car to eat a bagel and peanut butter, we decided to explore some more. At this point, the sun was clearing and it was beautiful outside. We drove a little ways down the beach and pulled over near a jetty that looked pretty and we wanted to take a picture of. (<--- preposition, I know... whatever. I don't care.) The surf here was HUGE and definitely scared me about trying to surf in the Pacific. The surfers here at this jetty were getting beat by the waves, their bodies thrown into the air, and body and board tumbling through the clear waters. They spoke their own language, different from East Coast surfers. They were all the same color brown, tanned evenly. Their wetsuits were the only way you could find them in the water.
We found out later, that this particular jetty had huge waves as opposed to the much smaller normal waves that other people surf.
We stayed at Newport Beach a good part of the day and when we finally left, we were hesitant to go. We ate dinner out that night with Cathy and Greg and their daughter Kira who is a little older than Ciara and I. We walked through a mall in which their were stores that Ciara and I can not even afford to look into... this mall trip lasted a short amount of time. Kira drove us home and we slept.
Full day one in California = pretty awesome.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
"Shut up and put your money where your mouth is, that's what you get for waking up in VEGAS..."
Here's the thing... We have been ridiculously busy to write or video edit. Trust me when I say we have lots to write about though.
As of now we are in California. I'm pretty sure anyone who reads this blog anyway already knew that.
Ok, so I think we left off on Vegas. We got to Vegas late Wednesday night and were exhausted from driving all day long. So we basically went straight to bed.
Thursday morning, we woke up and hung out by the pool. Allie (my cousin) came over and we all hung out at the house for awhile. I did some homework and we basically were just lazy all day. We planned to go down to Freemont Street. Freemont is this two block party basically. It is both sides of the street running amongst all the casinos and bars throughout those two blocks. There is an overhead cover that is made of tv lights that play a two block long show every half hour. The entire thing is outdoors, but since the tv is covering it seems like it is indoors. We took a picture with the million dollars at Binions station. Then when we went to go pick up our pictures (they were free) they were gone. We were afraid someone creepy took them, but alas, they just never made it to the computer. We walked around and watched the show. We basically just had a good time. We got free drinks at the casinos and dollar margaritas from somewhere else. We met a couple people in some gambling place and they were cool, but I think they thought we were crazy. Although they did want to hang out later, but that never happened.
We ended the night and returned home.
Friday night we had planned to go to Santa Fe station, where there was an 80's night (If you are ever in Vegas I encourage you to go to this. It is awesome. ) There was supposed to be a band that played called the Spazmatics and they were this awesome 80's band that dressed like Revenge of the Nerds and acted like it too. 80's night was awesome, but short lived. We met a few cool people there and we all decided to go to Stoney's, which is also located in the same casino but was a country bar. It was pretty standard, except they had a mechanical bull you could ride. Ciara and I really wanted to ride the bull, but the guy worked off tips and he said the better you treated him, the better he treated you. Most people were tipping like $10-$15 a ride, so we opted not to do it. We hung out with our new friends that night though. They were excellent dancers which made me happy, because I love the dance floor and I even enjoy it more when I have people dancing with me that know how to dance. This was the case and I was happy. I learned a couple of country line dances (super easy to pick up) and I learned how to two-step, which was fun. They also played hip hop and rock music too, which we also danced too. I think we danced for like a solid four or five hours. It was awesome.
Saturday, Ciara and I hung by the pool for awhile after sleeping in. We didn't have any particular plans for this night, except to walk the strip. Allie took us down to the strip and we watched the fountains at the Bellagio. That was pretty cool and really pretty. Yay for fifteen minutes of fun. We walked the strip, but then Allie wanted to go home, so we all ended up at T.D's (which is a sports bar and grill near her parents house) we stayed there for a bit, and all drank water. It was awesome. I told them they should add chocolate chip cookies to the menu, that they would make more money if they did. We ended back up at my aunt and uncle's and my cousin went home. Ciara and I went back out to the strip and met up with our friend from 80's night and Stoney's the previous night. He had been at a zombie prom party and was dressed accordingly, so it was awesome to watch him scare innocent drunken bystanders. We went to the Venetian so our zombie friend could show us the river in which you could take a gondola ride. We ended up staying there all night. Some really nice group of people took us under their wing and gave Ciara $100 to gamble with. She walked away with $40. Still pretty good. When we were ready to leave, we walked outside and it was light out and we were super surprised to see that. We departed, slept a good part of the morning and woke up around noon to get ready to head to my aunt's sister's house for lunch. It was really delicious. Mmmmmm.
The rest of Sunday we basically stayed inside, minus going to BINGO and then eating a dollar hotdog and watching football. Good life.
Monday followed suit. BINGO at night with dollar hotdog and football. We were going to head out to do something, but just didn't know what to do.
Tuesday we slept in late, ate breakfast and slowly packed our car to head to our final destination of... CALIFORNIA! We left much later than planned (around 5:30) and headed out. By the time we passes Vegas traffic, stopped to play a little, got Subway and gas and left left left, it was 7:30.
WE MADE IT TO CALIFORNIA!!!
We arrived in Santa Ana around 11 or so, and easily went to sleep that night. Cathy and Greg are WONDERFUL hosts and made us feel so welcome.
As of now we are in California. I'm pretty sure anyone who reads this blog anyway already knew that.
Ok, so I think we left off on Vegas. We got to Vegas late Wednesday night and were exhausted from driving all day long. So we basically went straight to bed.
Thursday morning, we woke up and hung out by the pool. Allie (my cousin) came over and we all hung out at the house for awhile. I did some homework and we basically were just lazy all day. We planned to go down to Freemont Street. Freemont is this two block party basically. It is both sides of the street running amongst all the casinos and bars throughout those two blocks. There is an overhead cover that is made of tv lights that play a two block long show every half hour. The entire thing is outdoors, but since the tv is covering it seems like it is indoors. We took a picture with the million dollars at Binions station. Then when we went to go pick up our pictures (they were free) they were gone. We were afraid someone creepy took them, but alas, they just never made it to the computer. We walked around and watched the show. We basically just had a good time. We got free drinks at the casinos and dollar margaritas from somewhere else. We met a couple people in some gambling place and they were cool, but I think they thought we were crazy. Although they did want to hang out later, but that never happened.
We ended the night and returned home.
Friday night we had planned to go to Santa Fe station, where there was an 80's night (If you are ever in Vegas I encourage you to go to this. It is awesome. ) There was supposed to be a band that played called the Spazmatics and they were this awesome 80's band that dressed like Revenge of the Nerds and acted like it too. 80's night was awesome, but short lived. We met a few cool people there and we all decided to go to Stoney's, which is also located in the same casino but was a country bar. It was pretty standard, except they had a mechanical bull you could ride. Ciara and I really wanted to ride the bull, but the guy worked off tips and he said the better you treated him, the better he treated you. Most people were tipping like $10-$15 a ride, so we opted not to do it. We hung out with our new friends that night though. They were excellent dancers which made me happy, because I love the dance floor and I even enjoy it more when I have people dancing with me that know how to dance. This was the case and I was happy. I learned a couple of country line dances (super easy to pick up) and I learned how to two-step, which was fun. They also played hip hop and rock music too, which we also danced too. I think we danced for like a solid four or five hours. It was awesome.
Saturday, Ciara and I hung by the pool for awhile after sleeping in. We didn't have any particular plans for this night, except to walk the strip. Allie took us down to the strip and we watched the fountains at the Bellagio. That was pretty cool and really pretty. Yay for fifteen minutes of fun. We walked the strip, but then Allie wanted to go home, so we all ended up at T.D's (which is a sports bar and grill near her parents house) we stayed there for a bit, and all drank water. It was awesome. I told them they should add chocolate chip cookies to the menu, that they would make more money if they did. We ended back up at my aunt and uncle's and my cousin went home. Ciara and I went back out to the strip and met up with our friend from 80's night and Stoney's the previous night. He had been at a zombie prom party and was dressed accordingly, so it was awesome to watch him scare innocent drunken bystanders. We went to the Venetian so our zombie friend could show us the river in which you could take a gondola ride. We ended up staying there all night. Some really nice group of people took us under their wing and gave Ciara $100 to gamble with. She walked away with $40. Still pretty good. When we were ready to leave, we walked outside and it was light out and we were super surprised to see that. We departed, slept a good part of the morning and woke up around noon to get ready to head to my aunt's sister's house for lunch. It was really delicious. Mmmmmm.
The rest of Sunday we basically stayed inside, minus going to BINGO and then eating a dollar hotdog and watching football. Good life.
Monday followed suit. BINGO at night with dollar hotdog and football. We were going to head out to do something, but just didn't know what to do.
Tuesday we slept in late, ate breakfast and slowly packed our car to head to our final destination of... CALIFORNIA! We left much later than planned (around 5:30) and headed out. By the time we passes Vegas traffic, stopped to play a little, got Subway and gas and left left left, it was 7:30.
WE MADE IT TO CALIFORNIA!!!
We arrived in Santa Ana around 11 or so, and easily went to sleep that night. Cathy and Greg are WONDERFUL hosts and made us feel so welcome.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Nashville Video
Hooray! Who's excited!? Everyone should be! Why? ... cause its the Nashville Video!!!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Last days of Colorado...
So I sit here at the computer our 2nd to last night in Las Vegas. I am trying desperately to get motivated to write. I was exhausted after the night we had last night (more to come later) and Ciara and I were trying to figure out what we could do that would be fun tonight. We were both really sleepy. I was downloading music on my bed and closed my eyes for a brief few seconds while listening to the wonderful voice of John Mayer. For a tiny smidge of a second, I was back in my apartment in Orlando, the windows open, wonderfully fall scented candles lit, lights off and John Mayer playing. I was laying on the couch in our solarium and breathing in the sweet humid air. You never realize how much you miss home until you're gone. I would literally kill to be on the beach right now. When I left Clearwater for Orlando four years ago, I missed home so much. Everytime since, I get this elated feeling when I cross back over the Courtney Campbell bridge knowing I'm almost home. The windows are always down and the music always up. Most people that moved from Clearwater have said the same thing. You feel at home once you hit the bridge.
Well that bridge is almost 3,000 miles away now and I can't smell the humid air, the salt in the air, the coast. The air here is dry and harder to run in. It's not that I don't enjoy it here, because I do, and it's not that I'm not looking forward to California, because I couldn't be more excited; it's just that for now, it's not home...
That small, quick, half dream, half wish of my place back in Orlando made me so homesick. Not homesick for home neccessarily, but homesick for my own place again, my things that have a place, my scented candles, my windows, my humid air.
Oh John Mayer, look at how you confuse me...
Either way, I was in a coffee shop mood. I finally found one online that was close-ish and open with the possibility of live music, but I went to get Ciara and she was asleep. Bummer.
Either way, I should fill you in on the rest of Colorado.
Friday we went to Boulder. Boulder is this artsy little joint smoking town where I am convinced everyone was a hippy. It was interesting. I loved to people watch there because it was such a unique brand of people. We stopped at the Apple store first to visit Aaron, a guy I knew from high school theatre who had just relocated to Boulder like a week and a half before. He was working, but we wanted to say hey. After a quick discussion about hanging out after he got off work, Ciara and I decided to explore. We went down Pearl Street where you can do lots of fun things and the hippies run rampant. It was ecclectic and awesome and we had a blast. When Aaron got off work, he met up with us and we went to this place called Boulder Baked. (Yes it qualifies for both meanings... like I said, Hippy capital of the world I'm sure.) We got delicious cookies, and brownie sundaes. They were AWESOME! Then Aaron showed us around his apartment and we left to go meet up with Ciara's aunt, uncle and cousins at Buffalo Wild Wings. Apparantly out west, they call it B-Dub. (BW...) We stayed the night with Ciara's Aunt Jill and played a board game with her cousins. It was a good time. Aunt Jill stayed up to talk with us until four am. She is awesome.
The next day we stayed around the house at Ciara's dad's and maybe did something else. I don't remember. It's been like two weeks.
At one point, on Sunday we went to Pueblo, Colorado. We met up with her family friends there and we all went surfing behind a boat. The water was freezing and we had permanent goosebumps... but it was a lot of fun.
After that we had another tire blow out. It was the same one as before, they had not changed the valve stem though, so it broke. After Joey (Ciara's family friend from here on out will be called her brother) and his friend helped us out we were on our way to Salida, Colorado. It was SUCH a cute town with almost nothing in it. We had fun though, went to this cute little coffee shop and walked near this creek. It's smack in the middle of nowhere, but adorable. After that we went to go get the tire fixed and then we were on our way to Grandma's. We played in the hot tub there that night and baked delicious chocolate chip cookies the next day.
After one night with grandma we headed back to her dad's and packed up most everything. He made a great dinner and we hung out with Joey that night. He came over to watch a movie and we layed a fajillion blankets outside and watched it. We woke up the next morning early and headed out to Vegas.
YAY for Vegas!
BOO for miserable long drive...
The next day we stayed around the house at Ciara's dad's and maybe did something else. I don't remember. It's been like two weeks.
At one point, on Sunday we went to Pueblo, Colorado. We met up with her family friends there and we all went surfing behind a boat. The water was freezing and we had permanent goosebumps... but it was a lot of fun.
After that we had another tire blow out. It was the same one as before, they had not changed the valve stem though, so it broke. After Joey (Ciara's family friend from here on out will be called her brother) and his friend helped us out we were on our way to Salida, Colorado. It was SUCH a cute town with almost nothing in it. We had fun though, went to this cute little coffee shop and walked near this creek. It's smack in the middle of nowhere, but adorable. After that we went to go get the tire fixed and then we were on our way to Grandma's. We played in the hot tub there that night and baked delicious chocolate chip cookies the next day.
After one night with grandma we headed back to her dad's and packed up most everything. He made a great dinner and we hung out with Joey that night. He came over to watch a movie and we layed a fajillion blankets outside and watched it. We woke up the next morning early and headed out to Vegas.
YAY for Vegas!
BOO for miserable long drive...
Friday, September 18, 2009
Mountain running, baseball, car tag, vodka. A week of interesting...
Ok, so more about Colorado.
Monday we were in a ridiculously giddy mood because the night before was so awwesome.
But Monday morning we got ready to head to Evergreen to visit some of Ciara's really really really close family friends which may as well have been family. They have two boys who are 18 and 16 and Ciara sees as little brothers. We got there later than planned but hung out at their house for awhile. We had dinner with the whole family and Joey's (18) girlfriend. After dinner we all went to Joey's room and had a homework party on four different computers. Matty (16) is still in high school so he played the Wii or something I think. Anyway after homewoek, all five of us watched the movie Accepted. I had seen it before, but it is still a pretty humorous movie. We stayed in Matty's room that night. The next morning Matty was in school and Joey was home for awhile, so the three of us ate breakfast and then Ciara and I headed out. It was still pretty early. We made it back to her dad's by about 11am and decided to lay out by the pool for awhile. Ciara was editing video number two and we had a good time by the pool. Although the lady checking us in the door (where you have to sign in to use the clubhouse facilities) yelled at us for only being in a bathing suit. "You can't just come in here in bikinis!" It was kind of humorous. After we layed out for awhile, we went back to the house and got some lunch and then both decided to go on a run. We were both gone an exceptionally long time and I loved exploring around by myself. I ran through the neighborhoods (holy hills!) and then I found this great trail where I saw some elk? maybe and then there was this little tunnel that was the path but it was under the two lane street so for about twenty feet it was covered. I stopped there and had a serious dance party all by myself. For a good twenty minutes. After my run I came home and Ciara was already back and showered, so I jumped in the shower and then we hung at home for awhile and went to the mall a little later. Ciara got a bunch of new t shirts and then we made it back in time for dinner. I think we stayed in that night.
On Wednesday we had planned to go to Boulder (and hang out with Aaron!) but we got a late start and it was kind of gross outside, so I headed up to the clubhouse to work on some homework for a couple hours and then later that night we went to a Rockies baseball game. It was fun, (minus the huge loud guy behind us). So there was this huge, loud guy behind us, and when I say loud I don't mean screaming, "hey batterbatterbatter" or "Go get em!" or even,
"@#$!" but he was just plain obnoxious. I think his friends were there because he gave them free tickets. He sang every single song you can imagine, all of them off key and super loud into our ears. Ciara sent me a text about him (you can't just talk when he's RIGHT there) that said, "Guy behind us equals intense" and it was so true. If you know me or Ciara or both of us at all, there is not much that weirds us out or makes us go, "Geesh. That guy...." This guy took the cake in all his annoying ways. Anyway, the Rockies won in the 9th inning and it was a good game. We walked around downtown for awhile and then met up with Joey, his girlfriend Christie and like five of their other friends at a Sonic to get ice cream.
All of Joey's friends were super too much to handle. That is until everyone left except Joey and Brandon. Then they were hilarious. I think his friends were fine one on one. We played Car Tag that night. (For those of you who don't know, it is an awesome game! If you want to know how to play, let me know and I will tell you) So we played Car Tag at Mills Mall until a security guard kicked the boys out. It was late so we went home.
Thursday we had planned to go to Boulder and were getting ready to go when Ciara's dad told us he was taking off work so we could go play in the mountains. We did. We spent the next couple of hours driving through the mountains and a little hiking and taking pictures. We picnic'd at the top and headed back to go to another one of Ciara's family friend's houses for dinner. We got back home and dressed and headed to the Swaimes for dinner. Don and Lisa made wonderful tacos and we sat outside and talked for awhile. Ciara and I were then headed to a Russian party downtown at this place called The Church. There was no cover and free drinks until ten. Back in Orlando if Ciara and I went out we didn't even leave until like 10. This was new to us. But we went in, and the party was hosted by Stoli vodka and so we got our free drinks (a few of them) and hung out for awhile. Met some people and gave them fake numbers and left by midnight.
***We parked right by JONAS BROS. FURS**** <---- um awesome!
I'll finish Friday-Tuesday at another time. Vegas is beckoning.
Monday we were in a ridiculously giddy mood because the night before was so awwesome.
But Monday morning we got ready to head to Evergreen to visit some of Ciara's really really really close family friends which may as well have been family. They have two boys who are 18 and 16 and Ciara sees as little brothers. We got there later than planned but hung out at their house for awhile. We had dinner with the whole family and Joey's (18) girlfriend. After dinner we all went to Joey's room and had a homework party on four different computers. Matty (16) is still in high school so he played the Wii or something I think. Anyway after homewoek, all five of us watched the movie Accepted. I had seen it before, but it is still a pretty humorous movie. We stayed in Matty's room that night. The next morning Matty was in school and Joey was home for awhile, so the three of us ate breakfast and then Ciara and I headed out. It was still pretty early. We made it back to her dad's by about 11am and decided to lay out by the pool for awhile. Ciara was editing video number two and we had a good time by the pool. Although the lady checking us in the door (where you have to sign in to use the clubhouse facilities) yelled at us for only being in a bathing suit. "You can't just come in here in bikinis!" It was kind of humorous. After we layed out for awhile, we went back to the house and got some lunch and then both decided to go on a run. We were both gone an exceptionally long time and I loved exploring around by myself. I ran through the neighborhoods (holy hills!) and then I found this great trail where I saw some elk? maybe and then there was this little tunnel that was the path but it was under the two lane street so for about twenty feet it was covered. I stopped there and had a serious dance party all by myself. For a good twenty minutes. After my run I came home and Ciara was already back and showered, so I jumped in the shower and then we hung at home for awhile and went to the mall a little later. Ciara got a bunch of new t shirts and then we made it back in time for dinner. I think we stayed in that night.
On Wednesday we had planned to go to Boulder (and hang out with Aaron!) but we got a late start and it was kind of gross outside, so I headed up to the clubhouse to work on some homework for a couple hours and then later that night we went to a Rockies baseball game. It was fun, (minus the huge loud guy behind us). So there was this huge, loud guy behind us, and when I say loud I don't mean screaming, "hey batterbatterbatter" or "Go get em!" or even,
"@#$!" but he was just plain obnoxious. I think his friends were there because he gave them free tickets. He sang every single song you can imagine, all of them off key and super loud into our ears. Ciara sent me a text about him (you can't just talk when he's RIGHT there) that said, "Guy behind us equals intense" and it was so true. If you know me or Ciara or both of us at all, there is not much that weirds us out or makes us go, "Geesh. That guy...." This guy took the cake in all his annoying ways. Anyway, the Rockies won in the 9th inning and it was a good game. We walked around downtown for awhile and then met up with Joey, his girlfriend Christie and like five of their other friends at a Sonic to get ice cream.
All of Joey's friends were super too much to handle. That is until everyone left except Joey and Brandon. Then they were hilarious. I think his friends were fine one on one. We played Car Tag that night. (For those of you who don't know, it is an awesome game! If you want to know how to play, let me know and I will tell you) So we played Car Tag at Mills Mall until a security guard kicked the boys out. It was late so we went home.
Thursday we had planned to go to Boulder and were getting ready to go when Ciara's dad told us he was taking off work so we could go play in the mountains. We did. We spent the next couple of hours driving through the mountains and a little hiking and taking pictures. We picnic'd at the top and headed back to go to another one of Ciara's family friend's houses for dinner. We got back home and dressed and headed to the Swaimes for dinner. Don and Lisa made wonderful tacos and we sat outside and talked for awhile. Ciara and I were then headed to a Russian party downtown at this place called The Church. There was no cover and free drinks until ten. Back in Orlando if Ciara and I went out we didn't even leave until like 10. This was new to us. But we went in, and the party was hosted by Stoli vodka and so we got our free drinks (a few of them) and hung out for awhile. Met some people and gave them fake numbers and left by midnight.
***We parked right by JONAS BROS. FURS**** <---- um awesome!
I'll finish Friday-Tuesday at another time. Vegas is beckoning.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Who are those guys? Oh yes, talented, interesting people.
Ok, so Colorado. Finally. Sunday night in Colorado after we ate dinner and relaxed for a bit, we decided to head to downtown Denver and see what was up. Ciara and I both had on jeans, black shirts and striped sweaters. (Seems like unneccessary information, but I needed to add it for later)
So we get into the car and start driving and then decide to go to the Blink 182 concert. We felt we had to, since we had been following them half of our roadtrip at this point. In Kansas City, Missouri we stopped at a McDonalds to get coffee to drive half the night and this totally stoned kid in line behind us, Jeremy, was talking to us about how he won free Blink 182 tickets from Doritos or something. He was from Oklahoma and invited us to party with him there which we politely declined and said that Blink had played in Kansas City that night (while we were corn maze running and eating dinner). The next day driving through Kansas, we were behind the Blink 182 equipment truck for awhile. (we took pics) and when we got to Denver, they were playing there. We felt it neccessary to join them.
So we used Cali to find Fiddler's Green in Denver and make it there are park for free. We each put $20 in our pockets and grab our ID's. The plan was to try and get two lawn seats for $20 total, but would go up to $20 each. After trying to haggle with some gentlemen who weren't budging on their scalper's price, we decided to walk around the venue. We walked through the tour bus area and around the back. When we got to the back the venue was to our left and a five level parking garage to our right. We were walking down the side street between the two. We see some people at the top level watching the concert, so we figure that we could see from there. We run up the stairs and find out that in fact, we can see the entire stage and big screens for the concert. We watch Weezer play for a little while and then decide to go get our cameras and come back.
So we scurry down the stairs and head back to the car to grab our cameras and Flip (Felipe) the flip cam. We make it to the car and realize that we both have to pee really freakin badly. So we look everywhere we can to see if there a bathroom readily available other than inside the venue, where we can not go because we don't have tickets. We settle on a hill facing away from the venue and into a retention pond. That's right suckas. We peed on a hill. You can be jealous.
We make it back up to the parking garage and took our spots near the stairs. The stairs were right in the middle of the garage. To our left was the ramp and to our right were the stairs, and much further another attached parking gargage and a set of stairs in the back right corner. There were a lot of people up there now, maybe about 25 or so and some high schoolers started to light their joints. It was the time between sets, so no one was playing. About ten minutes later, two older security guards came up the ramp and shooed everyone down a flight of stairs and were guarding the stairs to the left near the ramp. Everyone obliged, but the problem was you couldn't see anything from the 4th floor. We tried to be sneaky and hide behind a car on the 4th floor, but the guards didn't care and we realized it was because you couldn't see anything. So Ciara and I decided we needed to get away from all those people and figure out how to get back up to the 5th floor.
Now here's the thing, we like Blink 182, but we wouldn't go out of our way to see them in concert. Probably ever. But this was different, we needed to see them because we had been following them since Missouri and it just seemed right that we do just that. So, we went up the back staircase and left our striped sweaters (which would give us away) in a pile with my shoes (which were noisy) We crawled out the back staircase watching the security guards the whole time and crawled along the wall dividing the two attached garages. We leaped around the corner and sunk against the wall there to wait for our next move. We had to cross two drive through areas dividing the two garages, you know, with the arm that goes up once you pay or whatever. There was a space in between them just big enough for two girls. If we sat on each other pretty much. So the first one was easy because the wall of the other parking garage covered the view of us. We sat in the small space in between and watched the security guards until their back was to us and then Ciara crawled over. I waited until they weren't looking again and ran over. We crawl against the wall in the 2nd parking garage now and finally make it to the window area that has bars on it but you can still see out of it. We look up and, alas, you can not see the stage.
We were very disappointed but we were determined to see Blink. Even if for five seconds. So as were waiting with our backs against the wall, curled into the fetal position, Ciara peeks around to see if the security guards are gone. Five seconds pass and she is gone. I wait a couple seconds to see if she will poke around and tell me she made it safe. After about 20 seconds go by, I peek over the side of the garage and see her halfway across the parking lot back to the staircase in the middle. I check real quick. No security. She is hiding behind an 18 wide wall thing that sticks out and is marvelous for hiding behind. duh. So I run to her. And fall on her. And we are both crammed into this little niche in the parking garage. Then we take turns running to the next one and FINALLY find our little space crammed against the side of the stairs where the guards can't see us. It was intense. We couldn't clap or yell, but DANGIT we saw Blink 182!
On their last song, we decided to head out and go wait by the tour buses like total creepers. Or like teenage girls. Whichever. We realize the security guards are gone and we retrieve our sweaters and shoes. Anyway as we are walking along the sidewalk, we see that the gate is wide open and there is no more security, so we walk right into the venue. We move our way down the lawn and hang out like we belong there amongst a cloud of smoke smelling strongly of pot. We got to watch the last four or five songs of the encore from the venue FOR FREE!!!
Afterwards, we meet up with one of Ciara's family friends, Matty, and hang with him until he finds his ride. Then we decide to go over to the tour buses.
We walk past a group of people standing around and continue to walk up the tour bus row. We assume the bands are all inside their buses already, but we wanted to see anyway, thinking we could catch a glimpse and have a good story or something.
As we walk back (after we realize all the curtains are drawn and no one is coming out anymore) we come across the group of people standing over to the side talking. Ciara and I decide to walk over and see if they are someone from the concert or something. We are standing there, two guys facing us and a small mob of people watching. Everyone is talking and totally chill. Then the two guys start to sign autographs and take pictures and Ciara and I flip out a little. So I rummage through my purse and find a deposit slip and a business card from my bank. I hand her the business card and we have them sign our papers. We tell them we don't have tickets because we snuck in, and they applaud us. Isaac and Matt are their names and they are quite possibly the nicest random strangers I have ever met. We get to talking with them and tell them we are on a road trip and everything. They like our story. I think. At least they seemed to enjoy it and it didn't seem like fake enthusiasm.
After awhile we walk away and call everyone we know who is still awake to try and figure out who is on tour with Blink so we can figure out who we just talked to. We come to the conclusion that it is either Motion City Soundtrack or Taking Back Sunday. Either one is awesome. We wait for traffic to die out and siton a curb. Some guy walks up to us, about our age, and tells us that we're going to get yelled at. We ask why, if he's in charge, and what for, and he tells us we just will. He accuses us of being sixteen in which we correct him and hes nicer after that. We tell him we were hanging with "those guys" pointing at Isaac and Matt. He's like, "Oh, you were hanging with Taking Back Sunday" Ciara and I pinch each other. He then tells us his name is Justin and he does the promotions for Chester French, which was one of the opening bands. We go to that tour bus and Adam, the lead singer from Taking Back Sunday is there hanging around talking. After awhile, we decide to leave the tour bus because it's lame and Adam left. We walk past Isaac and Matt again, now knowing they are from Taking Back Sunday and stop to ask them why they are still hanging outside. Another Matt comes over and has a megaphone. They went and got ice cream from their special "band only" area and stayed around their bus. All of us talked for a little while. One of the Matt's, the first one, had a broken foot from "rocking out too hard" and explained the entire process to us. They were so cool and super friendly and chill. The Matt with the megaphone was HILARIOUS. He starts whispering in the megaphone and goes, "The definition of irony is whispering into a megaphone." And we basically died laughing. We stayed there until about ten minutes before they were ready to leave for Salt Lake City, Utah and then we left. And were stoked the whole way home.
So we get into the car and start driving and then decide to go to the Blink 182 concert. We felt we had to, since we had been following them half of our roadtrip at this point. In Kansas City, Missouri we stopped at a McDonalds to get coffee to drive half the night and this totally stoned kid in line behind us, Jeremy, was talking to us about how he won free Blink 182 tickets from Doritos or something. He was from Oklahoma and invited us to party with him there which we politely declined and said that Blink had played in Kansas City that night (while we were corn maze running and eating dinner). The next day driving through Kansas, we were behind the Blink 182 equipment truck for awhile. (we took pics) and when we got to Denver, they were playing there. We felt it neccessary to join them.
So we used Cali to find Fiddler's Green in Denver and make it there are park for free. We each put $20 in our pockets and grab our ID's. The plan was to try and get two lawn seats for $20 total, but would go up to $20 each. After trying to haggle with some gentlemen who weren't budging on their scalper's price, we decided to walk around the venue. We walked through the tour bus area and around the back. When we got to the back the venue was to our left and a five level parking garage to our right. We were walking down the side street between the two. We see some people at the top level watching the concert, so we figure that we could see from there. We run up the stairs and find out that in fact, we can see the entire stage and big screens for the concert. We watch Weezer play for a little while and then decide to go get our cameras and come back.
So we scurry down the stairs and head back to the car to grab our cameras and Flip (Felipe) the flip cam. We make it to the car and realize that we both have to pee really freakin badly. So we look everywhere we can to see if there a bathroom readily available other than inside the venue, where we can not go because we don't have tickets. We settle on a hill facing away from the venue and into a retention pond. That's right suckas. We peed on a hill. You can be jealous.
We make it back up to the parking garage and took our spots near the stairs. The stairs were right in the middle of the garage. To our left was the ramp and to our right were the stairs, and much further another attached parking gargage and a set of stairs in the back right corner. There were a lot of people up there now, maybe about 25 or so and some high schoolers started to light their joints. It was the time between sets, so no one was playing. About ten minutes later, two older security guards came up the ramp and shooed everyone down a flight of stairs and were guarding the stairs to the left near the ramp. Everyone obliged, but the problem was you couldn't see anything from the 4th floor. We tried to be sneaky and hide behind a car on the 4th floor, but the guards didn't care and we realized it was because you couldn't see anything. So Ciara and I decided we needed to get away from all those people and figure out how to get back up to the 5th floor.
Now here's the thing, we like Blink 182, but we wouldn't go out of our way to see them in concert. Probably ever. But this was different, we needed to see them because we had been following them since Missouri and it just seemed right that we do just that. So, we went up the back staircase and left our striped sweaters (which would give us away) in a pile with my shoes (which were noisy) We crawled out the back staircase watching the security guards the whole time and crawled along the wall dividing the two attached garages. We leaped around the corner and sunk against the wall there to wait for our next move. We had to cross two drive through areas dividing the two garages, you know, with the arm that goes up once you pay or whatever. There was a space in between them just big enough for two girls. If we sat on each other pretty much. So the first one was easy because the wall of the other parking garage covered the view of us. We sat in the small space in between and watched the security guards until their back was to us and then Ciara crawled over. I waited until they weren't looking again and ran over. We crawl against the wall in the 2nd parking garage now and finally make it to the window area that has bars on it but you can still see out of it. We look up and, alas, you can not see the stage.
We were very disappointed but we were determined to see Blink. Even if for five seconds. So as were waiting with our backs against the wall, curled into the fetal position, Ciara peeks around to see if the security guards are gone. Five seconds pass and she is gone. I wait a couple seconds to see if she will poke around and tell me she made it safe. After about 20 seconds go by, I peek over the side of the garage and see her halfway across the parking lot back to the staircase in the middle. I check real quick. No security. She is hiding behind an 18 wide wall thing that sticks out and is marvelous for hiding behind. duh. So I run to her. And fall on her. And we are both crammed into this little niche in the parking garage. Then we take turns running to the next one and FINALLY find our little space crammed against the side of the stairs where the guards can't see us. It was intense. We couldn't clap or yell, but DANGIT we saw Blink 182!
On their last song, we decided to head out and go wait by the tour buses like total creepers. Or like teenage girls. Whichever. We realize the security guards are gone and we retrieve our sweaters and shoes. Anyway as we are walking along the sidewalk, we see that the gate is wide open and there is no more security, so we walk right into the venue. We move our way down the lawn and hang out like we belong there amongst a cloud of smoke smelling strongly of pot. We got to watch the last four or five songs of the encore from the venue FOR FREE!!!
Afterwards, we meet up with one of Ciara's family friends, Matty, and hang with him until he finds his ride. Then we decide to go over to the tour buses.
We walk past a group of people standing around and continue to walk up the tour bus row. We assume the bands are all inside their buses already, but we wanted to see anyway, thinking we could catch a glimpse and have a good story or something.
As we walk back (after we realize all the curtains are drawn and no one is coming out anymore) we come across the group of people standing over to the side talking. Ciara and I decide to walk over and see if they are someone from the concert or something. We are standing there, two guys facing us and a small mob of people watching. Everyone is talking and totally chill. Then the two guys start to sign autographs and take pictures and Ciara and I flip out a little. So I rummage through my purse and find a deposit slip and a business card from my bank. I hand her the business card and we have them sign our papers. We tell them we don't have tickets because we snuck in, and they applaud us. Isaac and Matt are their names and they are quite possibly the nicest random strangers I have ever met. We get to talking with them and tell them we are on a road trip and everything. They like our story. I think. At least they seemed to enjoy it and it didn't seem like fake enthusiasm.
After awhile we walk away and call everyone we know who is still awake to try and figure out who is on tour with Blink so we can figure out who we just talked to. We come to the conclusion that it is either Motion City Soundtrack or Taking Back Sunday. Either one is awesome. We wait for traffic to die out and siton a curb. Some guy walks up to us, about our age, and tells us that we're going to get yelled at. We ask why, if he's in charge, and what for, and he tells us we just will. He accuses us of being sixteen in which we correct him and hes nicer after that. We tell him we were hanging with "those guys" pointing at Isaac and Matt. He's like, "Oh, you were hanging with Taking Back Sunday" Ciara and I pinch each other. He then tells us his name is Justin and he does the promotions for Chester French, which was one of the opening bands. We go to that tour bus and Adam, the lead singer from Taking Back Sunday is there hanging around talking. After awhile, we decide to leave the tour bus because it's lame and Adam left. We walk past Isaac and Matt again, now knowing they are from Taking Back Sunday and stop to ask them why they are still hanging outside. Another Matt comes over and has a megaphone. They went and got ice cream from their special "band only" area and stayed around their bus. All of us talked for a little while. One of the Matt's, the first one, had a broken foot from "rocking out too hard" and explained the entire process to us. They were so cool and super friendly and chill. The Matt with the megaphone was HILARIOUS. He starts whispering in the megaphone and goes, "The definition of irony is whispering into a megaphone." And we basically died laughing. We stayed there until about ten minutes before they were ready to leave for Salt Lake City, Utah and then we left. And were stoked the whole way home.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
One Stubborn Video... finally complete
We just made it to Vegas... Jenny will update later. But for now, the video on our trip from Atlanta to Nashville is finally complete. Shortest travel time... but longest editing. My computer kept being full and mean so it took me a while. But alas... here it is...
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