Colton Goes To Cali (and Mom&Dad too)

 

California here we come ... last year Colton had been approached by a travel team for basketball, and we didn't commit then, but held onto the information for the future. After his Wolves finished up he needed a team, so we went ahead and joined Metro for Summer 2023. I'd told Grayson that while I'm not a big traveler, I wanted to go and attend one of the tournaments. Colton had three, Arizona in April, and two to California in July. We went to the one July 15-16th. We flew in a day early, on Friday the 14th. We got settled at the hotel, the same one the team would be staying at, the ubered out to get some dinner. Found a little Italian place ... and ALL the servers were good-looking young men. Our waiter's biceps barely fit into his shirt (Grayson was the one who commented on it, not me!). It was the opposite of Hooters :) 

The hotel served breakfast, so Saturday morning we partook of that, then ubered out to Newport Beach. Our Uber driver chastised Grayson for his Red Bull (oh no, you should not be drinking that!) and was very talkative. At the beach, we walked the pier and dipped our toes in the sand and water. Grabbed some donuts from a popular shop there.  

Gray noticed a little shop selling souvenirs ... usually his name "Grayson" is unique enough that he doesn't ever find it on pre-personized items, but today, there it was! No Callahan or Keaton, but Cooper and Landon were there. Cole, but no Colton ... and NO Jen (generally quite common).  I was busy getting a little Pokemon Go in while we were out and about also. 

 

Colton and his Metro team had two games Saturday, at 3:30 and 5:40, and two Sunday at 9:00 and 12:15. They won two, lost two (they were still pretty close). It was a nice facility, but they charged parents $20 to watch, and they charged $20 for parking too.  I got video and made highlights ...

Game 1 ~ https://youtu.be/QiQWJp_eMZE

Game 2 ~ https://youtu.be/dtfJ6-e3K0w

Game 3 ~ https://youtu.be/AhsntW5Khnk

Game 4 ~ https://youtu.be/3WKXI7hr5bA

Salt Lake Metro - Black

Kahner, Jason, Cai, Carter, Colton, Dawson, Reef, Coach Hammer

We flew from Salt Lake to Long Beach Airport, which was very small and low-key. We Ubered when we needed to get places. Colton's buddy Carter was playing in Vegas on Friday, so he and his folks drove the rest of the way to California for this tournament. We carpooled with them a few times. I'm not a travel gal, but this went well and made me wish that we'd gone to some of the other tournaments as well. 

After we got back - Gray had recapped some of the little memories he had, bullet style ...

• 65 degree room with queen....err, double beds
• Running lost - calling Jen - maybe not the one to aid in this sitch
• "Hooters" Italian restaurant except it's for the ladies
• Extremely loud gastropub with meh fish and chips (no beating Red Robin at this point, methinks)
• Uber driver chastening my decision to drink Red Bull
• Newport donut lunch with pigeons eating fries under our table
• Red Vines and more Red Vines - the short, thick ones please
• The Mule starring LaMar
• Watching a weird episode of Barry in a weird way
• Airport moving sidewalks with Jen laughing - thinking she was pretty funny
• Colton with two elbows on one arm

... adding more of my own ...

• Colton going on his own with TSA precheck - Gray staying with me, like a peasant. On the way back "why are you here in this line?" LGB airport (took a picture, Landon's initials!)
• Squished, three in the back of an Uber
• Colton gets his own room
• Gray's RedBull runs at the nearby gas station
• Hotel breakfast - cute little circle waffles
• $8 Dibs
• Watched "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries" on Youtube during drives
• Watched Creed on the flight there - thought I had Creed II for the flight back but it wasn't downloaded. Had a backup movie "We Have a Ghost"
• Getting some Pogo in ... missing out on the little Koala
• Family History "find relative nearby" activity between games
• Catching a ride with Carter's family ... Carter's mom squishing into the back for the final ride back to the hotel (with the two sweaty boys)
• Kahner (tallest player) almost hitting the ceiling at the hotel ... and sitting next to Colton on the flight home. Definite space issues for that size!
• Not so great fish and chips (twice) ... Red Robin still a favorite
• Gray zooming through the airport ... would he notice if we were no longer following him?

I asked Colton to write up his memories ...

Friday - We landed in California in the evening and had a pretty cramped Uber ride over to the hotel. Really just dropped off our stuff in our rooms then headed back out to get some food. Went to this Italian restaurant. Nothing really happened for the rest of the night, just chilled at the hotel for a bit, before going to sleep.

Saturday - Don’t remember exactly what time I woke up, but I quickly headed down to breakfast and met up with Vaughn for just a bit. He told me about how he had a distant grandma with my same last name and was just wondering if I maybe had a family tree to look at and see if there was any connection. After breakfast, we headed to the beach for like an hour, just walking around and eventually grabbed some donuts to eat. After we got back, a few of the other boys were waiting in the lobby for their rooms to be ready, so I just had them come up and chill with me for a couple hours until they got their room keys. After that, we had the first games of the weekend, losing the first game and winning the second. I was pretty exhausted after the games, just took a shower and needed some food, so I headed to the Carl’s Jr. next to the hotel with Cai and Dawson. Got some snacks from the gas station to take back to my room after and watched Creed III on Amazon once I got back. That was all for the night.

Sunday - Not too much happened for the trip on Sunday as our games all wrapped up by 3:00. I headed down to the lobby to grab a quick breakfast then went back up to the room to pack up my stuff. I left my luggage with my parents before I left with the team for the games, since we were leaving for the airport directly after the games. The games went really similar to the day before, losing the first one and winning the second. Did a quick change of clothes back at the hotel before catching an uber to the airport. We ate at a nice little restaurant right by the gate and finally got on the flight back to Salt Lake City.

At home, Landon and Cooper were holding down the fort. I had instructed Cooper on the watering of the garden (most of it needs handwatering) and he handled that while I was gone. The guys (Landon, Cooper, Cal and Keaton) still made a foursome for pickleball Sunday morning.