Whew

Emma, Jacob, Elena and I experienced a lot of this picture this past weekend. We were in Long Beach for a soccer tournament. I don't know how people do it down yonder.....the traffic, the cement, the noise. I thought our travel day on Friday was going to be really bad traffic wise as we were in very slow moving traffic starting just north of Calabassas (that is not a good sign!). Susie Theule slowly passed me on the left as they were heading down to some extended family gathering. It was funny to be where we were and look over and see them. We managed to wade our way through that, catch the 405, get in the carpool lane and zip through. Coming home late Sunday afternoon was interesting. Lots of cars going north bound, but traffic was moving. Southbound on the other hand was at a standstill on the 405 and 101. As a matter of fact 101 was barely moving southbound from Camarillo all the way up to and through Santa Barbara! I've never seen so many cars.

Long Beach is interesting.....it is readily apparent they are trying very hard to clean up the city. We were down by the water. Lots of fun things going on , but not a place to wander. I was amazed at the amount of kids and young adults just hanging around. That is so foreign to me. It was way, way hot and very humid. I kept thinking, "don't you have something better to do then stand in the sun and just hang out!" Apparently the answer is no. Unfortunately some of my daughters team witnessed the tail end of some violence in traveling to the fields. Nothing like a lot of police with weapons drawn and a body lying in blood on the street.

Funny yet stressful moment of the weekend. Once again (yes, it is an ongoing challenge) we were given incorrect directions to the fields from the tournament host. Our club is known for having it somewhat together and being on time etc... Every family was driving around the scary part of Long Beach looking for the fields. The cell phones were ringing off the hook! Finally with me stopping and asking for directions in which I just got a blank look in response and tagging behind a family with a GPS, our minivan and surburban parade made it.......to the wrong part of the fields. We had to load back up and move down a few city blocks. Oi....

The girls won the tournament, though! We were happy for them, but glad to load up and head back to SLO. Now onto life......