July kicked off with a long weekend, and a lot of time outside of the house. Friday night I went to play some basketball since i stayed so late in the office all week that i felt i needed to break a sweat. It was a really crowded night with a total of 25 people showing up, but I still managed to play about 5 or 6 games. A slightly twisted ankle, a pound of sweat and really put me to sleep.
I was worried about my ankle swelling because Joy and I had already made plans to go hiking and when i woke up it didn’t seem bad at all so we laced up our hiking boots and went to Temescal Canyon for a leisurely 5 mile hike to a trickling waterfall and a gloomy view of Santa Monica. For lunch we ended up at The Misfit on the 3rd St. Promenade because they had a two for one entree brunch and it also happened to be happy hour at noon so we enjoyed some eggs, delicious asparagus salad and a sangria for a strong performance on the mountain. The people sitting next to us mentioned that we have to wait to get their sea salt chocochip cookies, and we did and they were warm and so very tasty as long as you didn’t get a mouth full of salt. That night we went to watch Transformers 3, but i’ll save that review for another post.
For the third of July it was an all out beach day in the south bay that started off with a 4 mile run from Manhattan Beach to Hermosa Beach down the chip trail and running back along the beach. Once we got back to our car we changed into flip-flops and walked backed to Hermosa to have some beers on the strand and wait for some friends to get to the beach too. The beach was really crowded with all the volleyball courts taken and some pretty fancy setups from boom boxes to straight up DJ’s spinning under a popup tent. There sure don’t mess around with their beach fun here in the south bay, the marketers know where to go because we ended up getting a free frisbee, bottles of water and coconut water. Too bad the sun peaked out of the clouds for a total of five minutes or else it would have been a perfect day otherwise. We got a few games of volleyball in before heading to Andrea’s apartment for some beers, steaks and a game of movies? A cross between pictionary and telephone which made for a very safe and sane night.
When we got home there was some house party in the neighborhood that had a band playing in the back which was coming straight into our windows. I actually wouldn’t have minded because i know what its like to get their age, but i just couldn’t stand how badly they played. They used so much unnecessary distortion and really had no business trying to even attempt at playing Metallica’s Master and Puppets that i had to do the unthinkable, call the police to file a noise complaint. At least i waited till after 11:30pm, but by then it didn’t seem like it was going to end and Joy needed to get some sleep so i had to do it. About ten minutes later it was nice and quiet.
As for the actually 4th of July, Joy had to of course work, but got off early enough so that we could head to her cousin’s house in North Hollywood to grill up some burgers and chili, and to have her cousin Pat’s homemade funnel cake. So good and an awesome way to end the weekend. Ever since we move away from Santa Monica, we don’t go up to visit as much as we should, but the drive and the weather really do make us think about making the trek out there. Joy’s nieces are growing up so fast and are so different from when i first met them as just toddlers and munchkins. It was a very busy weekend but a super fun one indeed.
