fourth and family

Yeah, that one day of being "back again" at the blog didn't work out so well, huh? Let's try to kickstart this thing again and get it going. With a lot of travel coming up, this is my best way to share what I'm up to, so I need to get back in the habit. We'll start with the 4th of July. Last year, instead of our usual day hopping around Hermosa, Manhattan, and Redondo Beaches beginning with the Hermosa Ironman in the morning, we did the beaches for half the day followed by the LA Galaxy game. It was a little too much to handle all that again, so we opted for a low key late start of the day of drinks and grub in El Porto, followed by the game. Pat joined us for the first part and then dropped Michele, Andrew and I off at the game, which made our lives a lot easier (thanks, Pat!). ACB was out in force for a fun picnic/tailgate. Lotsa food, lotsa beer, beer pong tourneys, a great dj. It was hard for me not to be cognizant that I wouldn't be seeing a lot of these guys for a couple months. Getting a little emotional about that took me by surprise, and it would creep up on me every now and then throughout the day, but I tried to keep my poker face on. As for the game itself, well... The Galaxy have had a pretty bad season this year. We hoped it was turning around, but.. well, maybe not so much. We'll stay hopeful, but I'm just blocking out that part of the day. Aside from that, it was fun day and night with a great crew of friends that feel like family. Good ingredients for a good 4th of July and a good sendoff before some time abroad.