What a great weekend. I can only hope yours was as good as mine. As we stated, we had plans to take a group of folk to The Sand Diego Wild Animal Park, which in and of itself is cool. However we had won a silent auction way back and had the private tram tour set up for 2:45 PM.
We (Jack, Kristin, Devin and I) were on the road about 9:00am. After maing our way about 25 minutes, Kristin started looking green. (Ryan could not make as he was in Colorado attending his father's graduation who recently received and Master's in Leadership. Way to go Doug!) Amazingly enough, Kristin was getting car sick. I say amazingly because after she graduated from college she spent 3 months on the east coast working on tall ships. How do you survive that and get car sick in a Cadillac on the freeway.
Anywho, we stopped a few miles short of the park to visit some fine toilettes and I let Devin drive and got in the back seat so Kristin could ride up front. Good thing as Mother and Daughter were having intense discussions about how to get to the park. I sat in the back relaxing.
We arrived and were whisked to reserved parking and in minutes we could smell the dung of exotic animals. There was ten of us in total and moved like a well trained seal team attacking exhibit after exhibit. Then we made it to the Tiger Exhibit and Alpha Team got separated from Zulu team. Fortunately the cell phone got the teams back together in time for burgers and the private tram ride.
We were gathered in the back of a flatbed truck with a bench around the outer edge, and we commenced our way into 4 unique animal environs. It was truly amazing to get that close to these incredible animals. Devin got to feed her Giraffes and she was so excited. We also got to feed two rhinos which is very unusual. When we first got to the rhino are, we were quickly surrounded by 6 rhino. At first ehy were very docile and mild mannered, but then something spooked one of the females and she was getting agitated. Our guide, Danielle, was cool and calm, but I could tell she was a bit spooked knowing that the 4-5,000 pound animals who were just a few feet away from our vehicle could quickly ruin our afternoon. She patiently suggested to our driver Dan (Yes Dan and Danielle) that we mosey to another environ and so we did.
Many of the animals we saw will be extinct by the time we get our pictured downloaded and put somewhere where you can access them so here are two from Man Child's iPhone.
Jack Feeding Kissish The Giraffe
A Rhino About To Join Us For Lunch
It was a magnificent day and I did not want it to end so I used my iPhone and the Wine Spectator dining guide to find a great place in downtown Escondido called Vincent's. It was a little higher end that what we were dressed for, but they welcomed us and put on a great show. The food was great and the service was terrific. I kept everyone but the designated drivers in a great Chassagne Montrachet (Droughin 2009) and a fine Amarone from Veneto (2007).
We thinkest everyone had a great time. Dennis, one of our friends and reader and fishin buddy made a great comment I got a kick out of. He said that "Wine Speculator" sure know how to find a good restaurant. (Spectator, of course.) We all got home later than we expected. What a great day.
Today of course was Mother's Day. Even Man Child found it a bit peculiar today and wrote on his Facebook page, "What does my Mother want to do on Mother's Day, clean the entire house!" Well it wasn't that bad, but we only had the big dumpster till tomorrow morning so it was our lance change to get rid of stuff now that our projects are coming to a close.
We went room by room and got rid of things we no longer needed and put then aside for charity of in the dumpster. I am actually sending this e-mail from our office which is 80% cleaner than a few hours ago. Kristin and Captain came over to shed Mother's Day cheer. We enjoyed a Cesar Salad and ribey steak on the BBQ. AND for the first time since Dec 22, 2010, my car is back in the garage. Life Is Good. It was a great fun almost stress less weekend. Just what the doctor ordered after a couple of really long weeks.
A few of you were trying to help me find the song I said I could not find last week. It was a blues jazz riff that the Takin Care of Business (TCB) band, (Elvis's band) would play while Elvis introduced the members of the band. Two of you suggested What's I Say, the Ray Charles song and to some degree you are correct because James Burton, (Elvis's lead guitarist 1969-1977) would indeed play What'd I Say when Elvis introduced James, but then they would go back into the song I was looking for. Look no more Boys and Girls, I accidently tripped over it today. I was downloading a few songs on my iShuffle and saw a song called Comin Home Baby already in my song library and I remembered downloading a coupel fo years ago because it sounded just like the band intro song. Well it is the TCB Band intro song.
Comin' Home Baby was recorded in the sixties by Donald Bailey. It has been covered a dozen times and there is a great arrangement by Michael Buble on his Call Me Irresponsible CD. I also have a cool version by Bob Burford on my iTunes Library. Thanks to all of you who helped me look for it.
Now I will be able to pay a little better attention to the market this week so let's take a peek at what we might see.
