DAY #3 (July 1) - Wine, Wine, Wine!

For our second full day in Cape Town, we decided to venture out to Stellenbosch, the popular South African wine country. Many wine enthusiasts here in the states are probably familiar with South African wines, as they have a large presence in the wine market across the country. With that in mind, we thought what better way for two wine-lovers to spend a day in a foreign country than to investigate the local wine scene?!

During our research and planning, Julie found a tour company that shuttles people around to different wineries all day, and includes a guide who gives you some background and history of the area as you go through the towns. The cost of the wineries was included in the tour fee, so there was absolutely no stress or responsibility at each place...you just walk in, sit down at a table reserved for you, and begin your tasting. This sounded like a perfect way to introduce ourselves to an unfamiliar area, so Julie booked the tour in advance of the trip.

After another egg and bacon breakfast at the hotel, and a quick consult with the front desk about our daily activity, we set out on a beautiful hour-long drive out to the eastern wine country. One thing we discovered was that the day before we arrived it had been pouring rain and gusting wind, which was typical weather for Cape Town winters. However, from the moment we set foot off the plane to the morning we left Cape Town, we had all sunshine and no bad weather. By the time we left a few days later, the locals were asking us to stay so the weather would continue. Anyway, the drive was absolutely spectacular, with long rolling green hills, beautiful puffy clouds and thick green patches of trees lining the countryside. We knew we were in for a treat.

The drive to Stellenbosch.

We navigated our way relatively easily to the pre-determined meeting point where the shuttle would pick us up, and within minutes our van pulled up. Our driver for the day, Keith, got out of the car and introduced himself, and within seconds of knowing him, Julie and I knew this guy was going to be awesome! We got in the van to find that only two other people had booked the tour, so the four of us would have a relatively private, small tasting experience all day long. Definite advantage in the world of wine tasting! The two girls, in their early-mid 20's, ended up being from Texas, and were very easy to talk to. They were celebrating one of their birthdays, and they told us very early on that their goal for the day was "to get hammered." More on this later.

*SIDE NOTE* - Apparently as the van pulled up to meet us, Keith looked at us and then said to the two girls in the back, "That Julie looks thirsty!" Yep, already sizing up the wife as a boozer!

Once we were all situated in the van, Keith first drove us around downtown Stellenbosch and gave us the historical background of the town, its Dutch heritage, and some great information about the buildings and their original purposes. I think Stellenbosch was a unique blend of Napa and Solvang, with a wine-country setting in a smaller, quaint town feel. After our quick driving tour, we set out for our first winery of the day, L'Avenir.

Arguably the most beautiful grounds we saw all day, L'Avenir is a beautiful, small tasting room that sits on a large plot of grassy land that overlooks its vineyard. We were fortunate enough to sit outside overlooking the grounds, and we had a very nice tasting as we soaked in the sun and the sights of wine country. As he would for most of the day, Keith would join us at our tables, introduce us to the staff, and just be our concierge while we drank and asked questions. Not necessarily our favorite wine of the day, but certainly one of the best overall experiences.

Wine tasting on the patio

 L'Avenir grounds

From there we continued on to Warwick, a popular winery that has a large distribution in America as well. Once again we had the ability to sit outside, and this time our tasting room attendant was extremely knowledgeable and gave some excellent descriptions of not only our wines, but the history of them and the winery itself. One of the more unique moments of the trip came at this winery. Keith told the winery attendant that we had recently married (slight stretch of the truth, but he did it for our benefit), and later on in the tasting he came out with a bottle of wine and a very unique drinking container called "The Wedding Cup." There is a long folklore story that goes with this, that I will attempt to briefly paraphrase:

A silversmith wanted to marry a princess, but her father (the King) said he would only allow him to marry her if the young man could make a cup that allowed both a man and woman to drink from the same time, without spilling. After many attempts, the young man came up with this chalice, inspired the shape of a woman's body. As the man drinks the top cup, the bottom cup swivels away, toward the wife. The cup worked, the King approved, and they all lived happily ever after. This cup is now used by the Warwick winery for weddings and anniversaries. So we were instructed to drink from the cup, but with one additional set of rules - Julie was not allowed to use her hands. So I held up the chalice, and as I drank, I ducked down so she could drink from the bottom cup. Odd, but totally fun moment.

 The Wedding Cup

 

 Look ma, no hands!

After we finished up at Warwick (and bought a bottle for home), Keith drove us just outside Stellenbosch into a neighboring wine-town called Franschhoek, where we had a lunch reservation at La Petite Ferme. Keith did not eat with us, he just dropped us off, then drove off to go eat an orange in his van until we were ready. The restaurant was perched atop a very high mountain, and had an open-air patio that overlooked the entire valley of vineyards. It was, without question, one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my whole life. The four of us sat down for lunch, where we ordered a cheese board, more wine, and, on the recommendation of Keith, some amazing entrees. The quality of the view was matched by the quality of the food. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Cheese board at La Petite Ferme

 

The view from above La Petite Ferme

Stuffed from our lunch, we lumbered back to the van, ready to go to our next stop. But before we set off, we first drove up the mountain a bit higher, where we found baboons on the side of the road, taking in the view like we were. It was here that Keith informed us he wanted to take us to FIVE wineries in one day, and we needed to pick up the pace if we were going to make them all. SIR, YES SIR!

 

 Baby baboon!

 

 Baboon crossing!

After the quick detour, we stayed in Franschhoek and quickly reached our next winery, Boekenhoutskloof (yeah, it's a mouthful). Much to Julie's excitement, as soon as we got out of the van we were greeted by 4-5 massive dogs, including a couple Great Danes. They had some deep, scary barks, but proved to be all talk, as they immediately fell victim to tons of petting and cooing from my crazy wife and the two drunk girls. Once we finally got them away from the dogs, we went inside to start the next tasting. Boekenhoutskloof is known for a special wine named "Chocolate Block", which is a blend of Syrah, Grenache Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault and Viognier. We tried that wine (and weren't huge fans) among some other ones, and after a very quick round of tasting (the girls were starting to pound the wine at this point), we bought a bottle on our way out and headed out to hit our fourth winery of the day, Grand Provence. 

 

 Large porcupine sculpture outside Boekenhoutskloof

Unfortunately I do not have much to say about Grand Provence, as we were there for a very brief amount of time. The Texas girls were plastered at this point, and started to become slightly rude as they would say things like "We don't need the history of the wine, just pour!" Not exactly my favorite moment of the trip, but due to the combination of the drunk girls and trying to hit five wineries in one day, some of the typically calm wine tasting experience was lost at this place. The grounds were nice, as were the people...and that's about all I got.

 The entryway to Grand Provence

We finished our wine tasting quintet with a trip to Tokara, a stunningly beautiful winery with a tasting room that is elevated above a valley of vineyards, with a floor-to-ceiling window for customers to view the area. Our wine tasting facilitator was a very nice, young South African guy who had never once left Cape Town. He was very passionate about the wine, and was very informative. After our experience at the last place, Julie and I tried our best to separate ourselves from the drunk girls, and I think the attendant picked up on it, so he just poured for them, then turned his back and spoke to us. We had a wonderful time and walked away with a couple bottles of wine from Tokara. Definitely my favorite wine of the day.

Stopping for a photo at Tokara

 
With the two Texas girls hammered into oblivion, and getting slightly emotional, we were ready to make our way back to Stellenbosch and call it a day. We had an absolutely amazing tour, with huge kudos to Keith for making it an incredibly special experience neither of us will ever forget. He dropped us off at our car at around 5:30, we hugged him and thanked him for his hospitality, and then he drove off, with the two drunkies passed out in the back.

Keith, our hilarious wine guide

Earlier in the trip we had decided that we would stay in Stellenbosch for dinner, as there were many highly-rated restaurants in the area, including some suggestions from Keith. Not quite ready for dinner, we stopped at an ice cream place where we got some incredible, wonderfully rich ice cream, and sat inside discussing our dinner plan. After scarfing down the ice cream (sorry Mom, we spoiled our dinner), we walked toward our restaurant of choice, only to find it was closed for construction! We regrouped, found a new restaurant and walked about 15-20 minutes to De Oewers, a place specializing in fancy South African cuisine. After a little bit (okay, a lot) of confusion about where the restaurant was, we finally realized that two restaurants shared a wall, and (we think) had same ownership, and there was no visible delineation between the two. Apparently De Oewers was not the place we wanted, but rather its sister restaurant, De Volkskombuis (yeah, another mouthful).


We had an excellent dinner, with Julie ordering a sampler platter of different African meats, including a chicken pie and bobotie (beef curried mince, spices, egg custard), while I ordered a braised oxtail. Between all the wine and the extremely rich food, it did not take long for us to realize that we were absolutely zonked. We quickly paid the bill and very slowly ambled our way back to the car, ready for our hour-long drive back to the city. The drive was relatively calm, with the wife dozing off every now and then, and finally we found our way back to the hotel, parked the car, walked up the stairs, kicked off our shoes, and drifted off into sleepy-wine-la-la-land.

*NEXT UP* - We visit Crayola-colored houses, go to the southern tip of the continent, meet some ostriches, and have one of the most uniquely wonderful meals of my lifetime.

DAY #2 (June 30) - Coastlines, 12-Course Meals and Glitter

We woke up Sunday morning very excited to begin our adventure in Cape Town. We had talked a lot about how we liked that we had split our trip up into two parts: the first being the more self-sufficient, throw-on-a-backpack-and-go style, and the second part staying at a lodge where meals and responsibilities are taken care of for us. This first piece reminded us of our honeymoon in Greece, where we did everything ourselves, did lots of research, spoke to locals, and just enjoyed the journey. We were ready to live it up in Cape Town.

*NOTE* - Be forewarned...this is an extremely long post. And not just because I'm long-winded. We did a ton this first day.

We made our way downstairs for breakfast in the hotel, and we were greeted with a quaint dining area with tables set up with cereal, juice, breads, and yogurt. Once we sat down, a server came and took our hot food order, and within a few minutes we had eggs, bacon and tomatoes to go along with our coffee and juice! It was so nice to have breakfast taken care of in the hotel, because then we were able to just head out and go!

We decided that we wanted to spend our first day in Cape Town driving the long eastern coastline and getting a feel for the culture, food, and climate of the area. Having had our first driving experience under our belts, I was confident that I was comfortable (enough) to jump back in the vehicle and navigate on the wrong side of the road without incident (or more importantly, accident). With catch phrases like "inside left" and "wide right" to remind us of how the turns should be negotiated, we ensured a safe driving voyage.

We set out driving south along the eastern coast to go check out all the fun beach towns the Eastern Cape had to offer. Our first stop was Kalk Bay, a small beach town that was lined with some cute coffee shops and small businesses. It's main feature was a harbor and pier where the local fishermen came in from their morning fishing sessions to fillet and sell their day's catch. We got there a little before they arrived, so we walked the pier and took photos of the old boats in the harbor, the sea lions in the water, and some of the day's catch being filleted. It was probably my favorite part of all of Cape Town. The town was quaint, the restaurants were excellent (we'll re-visit this in a couple days), and it had a real local, "homey" feel to it. Kalk Bay alone made us feel like our 30+ hour trek to South Africa was well worth it.

Kalk Bay Harbor

Sea lions below the pier

Kalk Bay Pier

It was in Kalk Bay that we were first exposed to one of the odd features of the Cape Town tourist culture. In our pre-trip research we had read that there might be some confusion between "parking attendants" and "parking watchers." Basically, the struggling economy of Cape Town has forced some locals to become creative in their money-making ventures, and one of the ways they have made some side money is to stand on the street, and when they see a car about to park, they run to the car, do some fancy hand signals like they are helping them park. Then when you get out of the car, they say "We'll watch your car while you're gone to make sure it's safe!" You kind of awkwardly smile and go on your way. When you return to your car hours later, they come running back to the car and say "I watched your car, no one stole anything!" And as they say this, you notice their open hand extending toward you, soliciting compensation for their valiant deed. Let's just say that this will not be the last time you hear about "parking attendants" in this blog post...

Anyway, after spending some time in the Kalk Bay harbor, we jumped back in the car and made our way further down the coast and drove through Simon's Town, another coastal business community. This area had many more shops and pedestrians, with lots of tiny shops and interesting store fronts lining the 2-lane coastal road. We just drove through Simon's Town, as we were on our way to one of Julie's most anticipated parts of the trip...to see the penguins of Boulders Beach.

Boulders Beach is a sheltered beach area where a large colony of Africa Penguins can be observed by (paying) customers. We made our way to Foxy Beach, where the observing boardwalks the opportunity to get up close and personal with the penguins. Julie was in absolute heaven, looking at all of the birds flapping their wings, waddling on the beach, and swimming in the ocean. We spent some time taking photos, walking around, and taking in the sights of the beautiful area, and as the afternoon progressed, we started to realize it was definitely time for our next meal.

Penguin gang

Think she's happy?

We jumped back in the car and decided to cut across the mainland a bit to make our way to another popular destination, the cove at Hout Bay. To do that, we entered a windy toll road that took us through an area called Chapman's Peak. And if ever my patience was going to be tested behind the steering wheel of a car, this was that moment. This was the most winding, back and forth, switchback-filled road I'd ever driven...and I had to do it with the passenger side basically dangling over the edge of a cliff! By the time we got to the bottom of the mountain, I realized I might have been a tad  stressed, as I realized I hadn't breathed in about 10 minutes and I looked down to see my white knuckles glued to the wheel. Deeeeeeep breath....

A quick break at the top of Chapman's Peak

After the drive of death we made it to Hout Bay, a small cove known for its food and local craft and food markets. On another lunch recommendation from the LP Bible, we stopped at Fish on the Rocks, a bayside fish market that specializes in fish and chips. The best part about this place was that you got to pick the fish you wanted for your fish and chips (fries) meal. Julie decided on the yellowtail, while I went with the hake, a mild white fish. They gave us absolutely insanely huge serving sizes, and did an incredible job of battering and frying the fish without making it ridiculously thick and greasy, and allowed the fish to be the star of the meal. We would both agree later that it was probably the best fish and chips either of us had ever had. We had the food out on a picnic-style, community table overlooking the bay and the peak we had just traversed, and after inhaling the food, we did our best to peel ourselves off the seats to explore the nearby market.

The Hout Bay market was definitely one of the most culturally appealing parts of our Cape Town experience. As soon as we walked in to the massively large circus-tented bazaar, we were presented with some incredible sights, sounds and smells. The local vendors were peddling their sculptures, crafts, apparel and toys, while the music vendors played songs of local South African artists. The food vendor area was by far the most impressive, with an incredible hustle and bustle surrounding the food carts, wine bars, beer taps, and food sampling areas. We saw so many unique types of food and variety of options that, had we not just gorged ourselves on fish and chips, we probably would have wanted to sample everything. The atmosphere was electric, buzzing with locals and tourists alike. Definitely a cool hangout spot.

After tooling around the area a bit longer (and being accosted by a "parking attendant"), we had a nice drive to the western side of the cape en route to another popular beach town, Camps Bay. When we arrived, I was very much reminded of Santa Barbara, with the long beaches lined with grassy areas between the sand and the road. We took the opportunity to slip off the shoes and walk the beaches and tidepools and enjoy the crashing waves on the rocks. After being approached by a couple bold beggars and peddlers, we decided it was time for a drink, and Julie had a place already drawn up right on the coast. We went to Caprice, a nice sunset-special type cocktail lounge with outside seating that looked across the road to the ocean. We sat back and took in all the sights and sounds of this awesome town, including a couple street performances by some locals. Definitely one of those moments where we remembered to take in our surroundings and just breathe.

On the beach in Camps Bay

Drinks at Caprice and the LP Bible that got us there!

And then the fun began.

As I mentioned earlier, the streets were crawling with self-appointed parking attendants with absolutely zero legal authority looking for a cheap way to make a buck. Well, after having been accosted a couple times that day already, we were over it. As we walked back to the street where our car was, we saw the attendant from very far away, and before he saw us. Our car was parked at the very top of this long street, just before a T-intersection where we would be heading next. The attendant was between us and our car, and Julie and I knew that if we passed this dude, he would follow us all the way to our car, then ask for a tip, even though he probably hadn't even so much as looked at our vehicle over the past two hours. So Julie and I made a bold play. We decided to take the long way, divert ourselves to a side street, loop all the way around that T-intersection and bypass the guy entirely. As soon as we got to the top of the street, I poked my head around the corner, saw the guy at the base of the hill with his back to us, and I gave Julie the "coast is clear, let's go" sign. We bolted for the car, jumped in, and tore off straight ahead, never looking back. We beat the system. And we were proud. And just as a final note (I promise) on the parking attendants...how deserving of a tip was he if we were able to steal our own car without him seeing? Justice was served.

We finished the drive back to our hotel, and showered up before we would go out for dinner. We consulted the LP Bible again, and this time we settled on a restaurant named Gold. It was a restaurant inside a local museum, and was advertised to have some cool live entertainment and good food. After getting the necessary directions via the hotel WiFi, we jumped back in the car and rolled down the hill to find Gold. We found it quickly, and as we walked up to it, we found a big huge oak door that was closed, with a sign that said to use the intercom. Julie buzzed in, a security guard answered, and then this happened...

Guard - "Hello?"

Julie - "Yes, um, we're here for dinner..."

Guard - "Uh, ok..."

(long pause)

Guard - "The restaurant is no longer here. It moved."

Julie (confused) - "Oh, um, ok. What's the new address?"

After some tough deciphering, eventually not hearing the correct street name, we rushed back to the hotel, Julie looked for the new address, and found that the place had relocated close by, so we headed out to the new Gold restaurant. We laughed the entire way to dinner, thinking what that security guard must have thought when Julie randomly buzzed him saying "Umm, we're here for dinner?" Hilarious.

After a really short drive, we found our way to the restaurant, which was tucked away on a small dark road with very little lighting. But as soon as we stepped in, we knew we were about to have a great experience. All of the staff were dressed up in traditional South African dress, headwear and facepaint, and we were immediately escorted up to the second floor of the 3-story restaurant. Now, in addition to the live entertainment, the main reason Julie chose this place was because she found out they serve a special 12-course set meal. Yes, you read that right. Each person gets 12 courses. All you do is sit down, select some wine, and then you don't do any ordering...you just let the food parade begin. Knowing I'd be blogging about this later, I did us all a favor and just took a photo of the menu (sorry for multiple photos, the menu was too large to fit legibly in one photo)...

The first seven courses

The next five courses

Bread, soup and biltong dip

The main entrees

All the food was insanely good. We didn't want any of the courses to end. The soup and bread were incredible, and the samoosas were wonderful. All the meat and vegetable dishes were uniquely seasoned and marinated, and the desserts were a perfect end to the meal. Throughout the insane food fest, we witnessed three live musical performances, where the staff played bongo drums, dances, and brought some guests out to dance with them. All the performances had a story element to them, although being in Afrikaans, it was harder to follow. One show had some odd over-sized puppets with oddly positioned breasts come out and dance, which freaked Julie out. One of the shows had this crazy woman come out with a Tinkerbell-type wand and dumped glitter all over me. Now, for those of you that don't know...I HATE glitter. I hate it so much that I get upset when I get birthday cards with glitter. And this woman just took that and multiplied it times infinity. I was literally sparkling in the restaurant.

 Don't do it...

Oh, and then this happened (watch until the end, it's worth it)...

Note the breasts.

Yep, 14-courses meals, glitter, and puppet abuse. This place had it all. And to top it all off, as we left, our waitress offered to paint our faces with South African markings. So then this happened...

Would you expect anything less?

Just another normal night, right?

*NEXT UP* - We head to Cape Town wine country, meet some baboons, have some young drunk companions, and get incredibly confused finding our restaurant for the second straight night.

DAY #1 (June 29) - Welcome to Cape Town!

We technically left for our trip on Thursday night (6/27), but the majority of the time was spent in cars, planes and airports. Our travel path looked like this:

• DRIVE:                San Diego to Los Angeles (2 hours)
• FLIGHT #1:       Los Angeles to London (10.5 hours)
• FLIGHT #2:       London to Johannesburg (11 hours)
• FLIGHT #3:       Johannesburg to Cape Town (2 hours)

(*NOTE - During the course of this travel bonanza, we lost Friday altogether.)

With well over 30 hours of travel and layover time under our belts, I'm sure you can imagine it was quite the relief to finally land in Cape Town. All the stress of flights, connections, customs, boarding and baggage checking finally behind us, we were finally able to breathe and forget about all the stress...

Until we rented the car.

Now, I had privately been a bit worried about my first experience with driving on the left side of the road and the right side of the car. I wasn't sure what it would be like, how different it would be, and what the South African drivers would be like. I had spent a good amount of time getting directions before we left so I could minimize the stress of the driving. Since we didn't have international data plans, our iPhones were no help in navigating, so we had to do our prep-work before the trip. So how did we do?

Let's just say it wasn't mine and Julie's best moment.

Between our jet lag, major hunger, physical exhaustion (neither of us slept well on the flights), and unfamiliarity with the area, we immediately got stressed and lost. As soon as I would miss a turn, I'd blame Julie, and as soon as I got anxious, it made Julie anxious, and we both just went into complete shutdown mode. The roads actually were incredibly well-marked and not confusing, but just being new to an area makes you second guess every set of directions you have.

Panic. Sheer Panic.

After a very humbling drive that featured about ten U-turns and 30 expletives (only out of my mouth...Julie is a saint), we finally arrived at our home base for the next four nights, The One-8 Hotel.

During our Cape Town research in the prior months, we found this hotel and really liked it because of the area it was situated (Green Point), the free parking inside its gates, the overall look, and of course, the price. We couldn't have picked a better place, as it featured very nice rooms with large bathrooms, as well as a downstairs lobby where they cooked us a fresh, hot morning breakfast every morning. The two main attendants were extremely attentive and helpful, as they would end up helping us plan our itinerary almost every morning before we headed out for the day.

Since we were absolutely exhausted, and glad to be done with the navigating process, we threw our bags down, crashed on the bed for a much-needed siesta, and agreed to get up in a couple hours to go walk around to the local waterfront area and get some food. And so we slept. 

HARD.

And when we woke, everything was right in the world.

After freshening up a bit, we packed up the backpack and began our stroll down the main drag in Green Point, as we made our way down to The Waterfront, a popular tourist area and mall where tourists and locals alike shop and choose between many different food options. As we walked to dinner, we passed the Green Point Stadium, which was one of the host sites to the World Cup in 2010. We noticed very early on that South Africa was a melting pot as it pertained to food, with many cultures being represented in the food world. 

 Julie at the V&A Waterfront

True to form, Julie opened up the Lonely Planet "Cape Town" edition and picked out a great sushi place called Willoughby's inside the Waterfront mall. We asked our waiter what was good, and we ordered off a few of his suggestions. We ordered a glass of wine while we waited, and as soon as that first taste of the wine hit our tongues, we knew we were in for a great trip. Not only because we love drinking, but because we had a full day planned to the South African wine country in Stellenbosch. If this wine was any indication of what was to come, we were in for a great wine trip. The food ended up being amazing, especially some rock shrimp that were absolutely addicting. It was far and away their most popular item on the menu, and we had no problem understanding why.

Our first glass of wine at Willoughby's

After dinner we took a few photos, but felt the overwhelming chaos of the day start to take its toll on our bodies and minds, so we slogged back to the hotel, ready for a full night's sleep...in a bed, not a plane seat. And holy hell, combine that with a glass of wine, good food, and a long walk...we were done-zo.

NEXT UP - We drive the western coastline, see the local fishermen bring in their catch, eat a 12-course meal, and get covered in glitter.

Back From the Bush!

Just a quick note to say we are back safely from our amazing trip to South Africa. We spent time exploring in Cape Town, and then spent three days at a private wildlife reserve lodge.

The experience was truly incredible, with memories that will last us a lifetime.

True to form, over the next few days I will be doing a day by day breakdown of the trip. Give me some time, as I have some 1,000 photos to sort through, and a lot to write down.

Stay tuned!

SOUTH AFRICA!!!

The countdown is finally over. Our South Africa trip is here!

Obviously I will be coming back with quite the docket of blog posts to unveil. But in the meantime, here is a quick preview of our upcoming adventure...

      -4 nights in Cape Town

      -copious amounts of food

      -copious amounts of wine

      -3 nights on safari at a private reserve

      -Julie making friends with meerkats

      -me stealing a baby elephant

      -Julie racing a cheetah (and winning)

...and yes, all of these things will happen. Twice.

AWAY WE GO!

NBA Finals Game 7 - What Next?

You all knew it was only a matter of time before I posted about this year's NBA Playoffs. They have been exciting and intense, showcasing some of the best players and match-ups that the league has to offer. Now 14 teams have been eliminated, and we find ourselves in every sports fan's dream scenario...

NBA FINALS - Game 7

I am so excited, I am actually counting down the hours to tip-off (just under five as I write this). This is how it should be. The two best teams in the league. Neither team winning more than one game in a row in the series. The most talented team in the world versus the best team in the world. The best player in the world versus the Hall of Famer with four rings already. The old school coach versus the young coach. This series has it all.

I could go off on a long tangent about Game 6 and how the media blows everything out of proportion. I could talk about how important free throws are. I could talk about how Gregg Popovich leads one of the most entertainingly-horrible press conference in professional sports. I could talk about Magic Johnson having the uncanny ability to somehow relate any sentence back to his days playing as a Laker. But I'm not going to. What am I going to do?

Just Watch.

I'm sure ABC will have at least eight pre-packaged highlight reels of the Spurs "Big 3", the Heat "Big 3", Ray Allen's place in history, Kawhi Leonard's free throws, flashbacks to Lebron's "Decision", and Duncan and Popovich's relationship as their run slowly fade into the sunset. But I won't even notice. I just wanna watch this game play out.

The adjustments each team has made have been unreal in this series. The role players have had good and bad moments. The stars have all had their time in the spotlight. And now it comes down to one game to decide the NBA Championship. One game.

Do you realize how insane that is? Forget for a minute that any team in the league, including Miami and San Antonio, would kill for this chance to win one game to win it all. But to reflect on an entire season, all the hours of training, lifting, practicing and shooting...and to see it all culminate into 48 minutes of frenzied glory. The defense will be frenetic. The offense will be calculated. The energy levels will be through the roof. And yet, throughout all that, these guys have to somehow channel the right amount of energy and frenzy without playing careless or with reckless abandon. The line is thin. Razor thin.

So to Lebron James and Tim Duncan - best of luck. I'm not even going to taint this post with a prediction of winner or score, or even a hint at who I'm rooting for. A lot of people would ask to see these players' best 48 minutes of basketball tonight. But not me.

I know they're gonna bring it.

I just want to watch.

My Life...By The Numbers

I assume many of you have heard of or seen the youth art toy called Paint by Numbers? Well enjoy Livin the Dream's "Blog By Numbers", where I countdown from 11 (my favorite number), and re-tell a random story or general factoid that has some (often paper-thin) relation to that number.

Bizarre concept, I know. But hey, it'll be fun!

Marc's Blog by Numbers

11 - My Lucky Number.

10 - When I was in Little League, my baseball jersey number was #10. I wanted #11, but some other snot-nosed kid got it before I could. Anyway, while wearing #10, my single most embarrassing moment occurred. This one requires a bit of background...

During my second year of baseball, our league gave the option for kids to go to the plate wearing a batting vest. Well my cautious mother told me that if I wanted to play, I had to wear the vest. So all season I threw on the vest on my way to the batter's box. Luckily a lot of kids wore them.

However on this one particular afternoon, I ran in from the field and was up first the next inning, so I threw on my helmet, grabbed my lucky bat, took a couple practice swings, and marched off to the plate. I stared down the pitcher, dug my foot in, spit a big squirt of Big League Chew juice to the side, and bared down. And then, as the pitcher went into his windup, he heard a faint voice yelling, and he backed off the mound. What did he hear...?

My mom. Running full speed from her seat in foul territory in the outfield. Yelling at the top of her lungs. "Marc, Marc, MARC! PUT YOUR BATTING VEST ON RIGHT NOW!"

All my buddies are laughing. I'm embarrassed beyond belief as I put my head down and drag my bat back to the dugout to grab my straight-jacket. And then I didn't get a girlfriend for another few years.

 

Thanks Mom.

9 - The number of colleges I applied to. Talk about a random list - Stanford, Duke, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, University of Washington, University of North Carolina, Northwestern, Georgetown and UCLA. And no, there was no real reason that I applied to each one. So...Go Bruins.

8 - Ah yes, the Elite 8. In the 2005-06 college basketball season, UCLA made a run all the way to the NCAA Championship game in the March Madness tournament. Thanks to the help of some family and friends, I was able to go to all six of their games. The most amazing game of all was the Sweet 16 victory over Gonzaga in Oakland to advance to the Elite 8. In this game, UCLA was down 17 points and looking like a dead team walking. Then one of the most epic comebacks in college basketball history happened. And then this happened:

 

The most exciting live sporting event of my life.

7 - Years ago that I got my internship at the Holiday Bowl. SEVEN YEARS! Holy hell, seven years ago I was fresh out of college, barely of drinking age, hadn't developed my awkward patch of chest hair, and had a metabolism faster than Usain Bolt. Times have changed.

6 -"Eat 6 saltines in a minute Marc!" Everyone said it couldn't be done, and then I saw my best buddy Tom do it like a champ in another friend's garage. So I decided to go for it. I dominated the first 30 seconds, chewing and noshing the salty crackers in my mouth. And then everything turned to drywall in my mouth. And then someone cracked a joke. And then I laughed so hard that I spit dried saltines all over my friends. It looked like a real-life snow-globe. True story.

 

6 in a minute 

5 - The number of Olympic rings. The Olympics have a balance beam gymnastics. competition. When I was eight, I went to a week-long summer camp where each day you did a different sport (soccer, softball, basketball, gym, bowling, etc.). Well Wednesday was gymnastics day, where all the kids got to go do somersaults on the mats, try to do handstands, and walk the balance beam. Now, being an undeveloped eight year-old, the balance beam had minimal scare-factor to me. Oh geez would that change. The teachers helped us get up on the beam by a set of stairs, and then we had the option to either run or walk across. I was a little piss-ant kid, so of course I wanted to run. And that I did. For one step. And then my foot slipped, my legs fell to both sides of the beam, and I got nutted so bad that I spent the next two months being mistaken for my mom and sister whenever I answered the phone. Balance Beams - The Anti-Puberty.

 The nutter...

4 - This number reminds me of 4-Square. Which reminds me of handball. Which reminds me of the first real "fight" I ever got into. In fourth grade I was playing handball (the kind with the big red bouncy ball on the wall), and I was playing against Brandon C. Brandon was a year older and was a punk kid that no one liked, and was notorious for having a bit of a hot streak in him. Well, I was pretty hot stuff on the handball court, displaying a wide array of skills including sliceys, rainbows, and sliders, and I kicked Brandon C.'s butt. And then he said I cheated. And then I said he was a liar. And then he ran at me, I tried to elude him (also known as running away like a baby), he grabbed my shirt collar and ripped it from neck to sleeve so that the sleeve was dangling off. So I turned around and socked him in the temple. I wasn't really aiming, it's just where my fist landed. It hurt a lot. We both got sent to the Principal's office. My mom got called by the school secretary for the first time ever. The nurse gave me a "loaner" shirt, which was obviously the shirt kids get when they throw up on themselves. And I went back to class. Brandon C. was an idiot. And I destroyed him in handball.

 Damn Brandon C.

3 - This reminds me of how I wooed my wife. We met in a bowling league (yeah, I know, we're awesome), and much of our flirting and courtship stage revolved around our Tuesday night bowling nights. Well, our team made the finals, and in the final frame, we were trailing the other team, and I was the only bowler remaining. We were down so much that I needed three straight strikes to win the whole thing. So I stepped up, feeling more pressure not to bowl a gutter ball in front of Julie, and bowled a strike. I looked back, gave her that shoulder shrug that basically meant "Lucky shot", waited for my bowling ball, stood up, took a half-serious deep breath, and bowled another strike. This time I walked back, grabbed my ball, then looked at Julie with a "Uh-oh, this might happen" smirk and turned my back. Then I stared down the alley, took a very serious deep breath, and let it fly. And all those little pins fell down. A TURKEY TO WIN IT ALL! Pretending it was no big deal, I casually turned around to see all my teammates cheering and clapping, except for one. Julie just sat there, staring at me, shaking her head, giving me the "You've got to be kidding me. I'm never going to hear the end of this" look. And she was right. That my friends, is how you get the girl.

The lady-killer 

2 - Number of tickets I've received for non-speeding violations. Which reminds me of another time I was pulled over for eating a girl scout cookie. No, you didn't read that wrong. A few years back I was leaving a friends house late at night, and I was leaving, my friend gave me some girl scout cookies for the road. Being the pig I am, I tore into them as soon as I got into the car. Well, I made a turn at a stop sign, and within five seconds there were flashing lights behind me. Obviously panicking, I throw the half-eaten cookie in the center console, grab my license and registration, and wait for the cop to come up next to me...the whole time trying to figure out what the hell I did. He asked if I knew why he pulled me over, and I responded, "Honestly, I don't have a clue." He said it looked like I had been on my cell phone, and I told him I hadn't made a call in three hours, and that my phone was in my pocket. He asked to see it, and when I showed him, he then said, "Well it looked like you had your hands up to your face back at that intersection." And then this exchange happened...

ME - "Officer, that's because I was eating a Samoa Girl Scout Cookie."

OFFICER - "I'm sorry, what?"

(At this point, I reached into the center console, picked up the half-eaten cookie, and showed him.)

OFFICER - "Well, uh, be careful with your cookies and have a good night."

And then he walked back to his car. So many questions. Did he really pull me over thinking a cookie was a phone? Why did I feel the need to be an asshole and tell him the type of Girl Scout Cookie I was eating? Why did he say to "be careful with my cookies"? What is he thinking when he walks back to his car? Does he tell anyone this story?

One of the most bizarre stories of my life.

 

Most dangerous cookie on the roads...

1 - One is the loneliest number. That song was sung by Three Dog Night. Julie and I want three dogs (a rescue dog she can run with, a French Bulldog, and a Boxer). I know, those are some pretty specific criteria, but when you live with Julie, you learn to expect specificity when it comes to her obsession with canines.

So...did you get all that?