8/2/13, 8am PT - We gather ourselves and went the C-Lounge on the 21st floor for breakfast.  The place was crawling with Yankee fans, every one decked out in their in-your-face Yankee game attire 11 hours before first pitch.

10am - I called for the car and we drove across the 200-foot-high Coronado Bridge across San Diego Bay.  First stop was Little Sam’s Beach Shop for a chair, umbrella and boogie board.  We set up shop in front of the Coronado Del Mar hotel. 

The waves were fairly strong and the boys had a good time riding in toward the beach.  After a couple of hours, we picked a lunch place on

Adella near Orange Avenue, the main drag of Coronado.  It was a picture-perfect San Diego weather day, just the right combination of warm, cool, humidity and breeze. 

2pm - Back across the Bay in San Diego, we drove over to Office Depot for a poster board and sharpies, so the boys could make their “our 30th ballpark” sign.

5pm - we queued at the gate on the corner of K Street and Tony Gwynn Drive, and were through the turnstile at 5:30pm.  First, the boys played whiffle ball, on the small diamond behind center field.  We took up a position in the left outfield seats for batting practice.  A couple of balls came our way, and Peter successfully scrambled for a ball tossed up by one of the Yankee pitchers in the outfield.

7:30pm - We took our seats in the upper deck (high but overall, a good view).  We were surrounded by a mix of Padre and Yankee fans.  Many times, we were incredulously asked by Yankees fans, why we were at a Yankees game, to which we replied “actually, we are at a Padres game,” or my favorites, “to see you lose” or “watch CC get shelled.”  Shelled indeed.  The Yankees, and their Ace, CC Sabathia were horrible, even giving up three home runs in pitcher-friendly Petco Park.  We caught lots of “Red Sox Suck” on the way in, but not a word from anyone on the way out. 

A 7-2 loss to the struggling Padres would shut up anyone, including beer-fueled Yankee fans.   Fenway Refugees liked my post on Facebook.

I posted the boy’s picture on Fenway Refugees and Ballpark Chasers.  Together, we got over 650 likes and 50 comments. 

11pm - Back at the room, we ordered room service, watched the victory on SportsCenter and zonked out.

8/3/13 - 9am - Fairly laid back start to the day; A quick sweat in the gym on the the top floor was followed by packing the room.  We loaded the car and were on the road by 10:30 and set out for the 130 mile drive to Marina Del Rey, south of Santa Monica.  Traffic on the I-5 was pretty balky all the way to the Marine Corps Base, but loosened up around Mission Viejo.  We stopped at the boys’ new absolute-favorite, In-N-Out Burger in Carlsbad.  We continued to clip along northbound on I-5, and then I-405 after the El Toro “Y,” ground zero of notorious horrible freeway traffic.  HOV Lane-willing, we made it past this famous automobile quagmire unscathed.

4pm PT - We pulled into the valet lane at the Ritz Carlton Marina Del Rey, right on time.  We checked into a nice room on the 6th floor, and headed straight for the pool.  After the swim, we went over to the tennis courts and banged the ball around for more than an hour. 

8pm PT - I wanted to show the boys where I lived in the 80s with Chris, Fred and Stephen.  We had the ultimate bachelor pad, 1/2 block above The Strand, ocean view, sound and smell from every room, at 117 36th Street in Manhattan Beach.  What a great place to spend part of one’s 20’s.  After my imposed stroll down memory lane, we parked the car and had a dinner at Pancho’s, an MB staple.  After dinner, we drove south to the Manhattan Beach Pier.  In the post-sunset darkness, we encountered the USLA National Lifeguard Championships

in progress, in the fairly-wavy surf beneath us in the water below the MB Pier.  The lifeguards took turns racing from the sand to a set of buoys beyond the end of the pier and back to the sand.  All of the competitors seem to be college-age cream-of-the-crop Southern California Lifeguards.

11pm PT - We retuned to the hotel room, called for a light room service order featuring Ben and Jerry’s Peanut Butter Ice Cream.

8/4/13 8:00am PT - Once again, we were in vacation-mode, and we slept will into the late morning.  Once we dragged ourselves out of bed, we donned bathing suits, called for the rental car from valet and drove to Venice Beach.  We easily parked in a lot near the Venice boardwalk.  Shortly afterward, we settled on a breakfast place at the Waterview Cafe.  Food and service were marginal  After breakfast, we walked north in search of the hippie, guitar, roller skate guy, which we found near Sunset Avenue.  Venice Beach quest satisfied, we turned south back toward the car.  Towels in hand, we took up a position on the beach near the first lifeguard tower and headed into the waves.  The surf was considerably higher compared to San Diego.  The boys tested their mettle against the waves; Peter was surprisedly welcomed to Southern Cal surf perfectly catching a wave that pitched him to the top of a 10‘ crest only to be callously dumped to the ocean floor.  “Wow, Dad, did you see me get owned by the Pacific?”

2:30pm PT - We returned to the Ritz, packed the room, loaded the car and set out on PCH northbound through Malibu and onto Topanga Canyon northbound for the San Fernando Valley.  By 4pm, we were in Kristy and Stephen’s driveway, for our 18 hour visit in Woodland Hills. 

Nice symmetry to the the baseball trop sequence; we began the cycle at SPM’s in 2009 and finished here 5 years (almost to the day) later.  After a gorgeous bar-b-que and run for frozen yogurt, we retired for the night just past 9:15pm.

8/6/13 10:30am PT - We parted company with the SPM’s and headed south on 101/405 for Westwood.  After finding Kate’s Anderson School of Business at UCLA, we snapped a couple of pictures and drove to LAX.  We boarded on time and settled in for the 5+ hour flight back to Boston.  I connected to gogo internet and learned that Kate booked us a car for Wayland.