Sean and I left Vegas around 4pm headed to our friends Seth/Happy Feet & Alex/Figgies' place in Chino, CA. When we arrived, we spent awhile just hanging with Seth and Alex and then watching them play ITG before joining in for a few songs with them. Our first time dance gaming there! Sean and I aren't as good as we used to be but we did a streamy 16 without much warmup and could've pushed to finish a 17 we tried but decided not to ruin our legs before the race we were running the next morning. We eventually got hungry and all went to In-N-Out before spending the rest of the night chatting at the house. We didn't end up going to bed til we needed to be up again in 4.5 hours and I didn't fall asleep til an hour after that! x.x;
Day 2 - 6/4/16 (Hollywood Sign Run):
In the morning, we were all tired but had to get ready and head out. Sean, Alex, and I had all registered to run the Hollywood Sign Run starting at the Old LA Zoo in Griffith Park that day and Seth and Alex's mom would be joining us for moral support and so Seth could snap some pics of us. Sean and I left first since we still needed to get our race packets and were doing the 8 mile race which, started 30 mins earlier than the 5k Alex was running. The 8 mile race didn't start til 9am but was an hour from Seth and Alex's house so we left at 7 to get there and get ready.
We got a bunch of free goodies from the companies who had tables set up in the race festival area before and after the race as well as in our race packets from the organizers and sponsors. We ran into Seth and Alex again just before starting our race. Then Sean and I got on the finish line and we were off, starting what soon became the hottest, hardest, steepest, MOST hilly trail run I'd EVER done. Holy shit. The race was longer (8.22 miles instead of 8) and much steeper than we'd been informed, much hotter than we could've prepared for (should've been started earlier), and much harder than at least I'd "trained" for. I couldn't believe it. I was averaging 2+ water cups per aid station and was honestly still SO close to dropping I had to stop and lean on tables at a couple of the aid stations before convincing medics there that I wasn't going to die and was okay to continue. That was all mostly due to the insane heat but the hills did me in too. I walked so much of the race. I think the vast majority of runners there were in the same situation I was though. Even most of the "real"-looking runners eventually gave in to the hills. Still, despite it all, I made it back to the start/finish (out and back) line after about 1 hour 23 mins. Sean was there waiting for me when I got back, ready with ALL THE BEVERAGES to cool me down and rehydrate me. He's so damn sweet! Wow. <3 Alex, Seth, and Alex's mom found us then and we spent a lonng time together taking advantage of more freebies, recouping in the shade, taking pictures together, and waiting for the awards ceremony. Alex's "5k", which overlapped part of Sean's and my race, had actually been closer to 4 miles (maybe 3.8x?) but Alex beasted it anyway. She even ended up getting an age group award despite it being a hard race, a decent sized race, and her first timed race ever! I got 2nd in my age group and 78th overall out of 413. Sean did the race in 1 hr 4 mins and got 5th in his age group and 11th overall out of 413. Not bad!
Finally done at the race, Seth and Alex wanted to go get food but Sean and I wanted a little beach time so we parted ways temporarily and Sean and I drove to Santa Monica. It was supposed to take less than half an hour but ended up taking well over 2 hours to get there and find parking. We were soooo frustrated. We actually had to give up on going anywhere near the pier. On the brightside, we ended up finding lots of free parking about a block from the beach with virtually no time limit in an area we'd never visited before! It was already getting chilly when we got there but we didn't care. We headed towards the ocean and claimed a spot in the sand. Since Sean had had to deal with all the crazy traffic getting there, I rewarded him with a 40 minute massage. Then we burrowed under a few towels together and napped for nearly 2 hours til it was too cold to stay any longer.
Seth and Alex had invited us back to theirs to hang out again so we started back that way after the beach, stopping to get Starbucks and Taco Bell on the way.
Seth's sister, Ervin, and Josh/Nova wound up at Seth's during the night as well, the latter two for the purpose of dance gaming with Seth and us. Alex hung out for a bit but finally had to get to bed so she could get up early the next morning for work. The rest of us played a bit on Seth and Alex's ITG2 dedicab til it got pretty late. They actually have Miguel/Parrax's ITG2 dedicab and a DDR Extreme they'd bought from their friend Lani in their garage too but we didn't play Miguel's machine and I think only Sean tried DDR. (Accordingly, I didn't add it to my Groovestats locations list since, according to my old rules, a location "doesn't count" til I've played all the dance machines they have when I visit. Lol Silly rule but I can't have any inconsistencies or I'll never be able to keep track!) DDR wasn't working when we got there but Sean managed to fix it, for the most part, though it came at a price.. After getting it running, he went to push the cabinet back into place and the loose marquee fell on his head and left him a huge gash. We were all freaking out! We heard the marquee crash down loudly and saw the plexiglass front shatter but the fact it'd landed on Sean's head was the real concern. A big flap of his scalp, hairs and all, had gotten cut away from the rest of his head. It was still attached and I managed to clean it up with some first aid things I keep in our travel supplies but we didn't yet have insurance for Sean let alone a needle and thread for or experience with doing stitches. Instead, I found a tube of super glue in my purse, closed the cut by pulling hair on each side of it together to tie across it, and glued the hair down to hold it closed. Really, he should've gone to the hospital and at least had stitches but the super glue trick ended up working pretty well and he was doing fine so I just kept an eye on him and helped him keep his head clean. Then he decided he was up for more dance gaming! Geez..
Everyone finally started getting tired as it got late and Ervin and Josh eventually headed out to get home before they were too tired to make the trip. Seth and Alex had invited Sean and me to stay over again so we spent a little more time with Seth before crashing on their couch for the night again.
Day 3 - 6/5/16 (91X X-Fest 2016):
Alex had to work early in the morning so I got up to see her off and then went back to sleep til 11:30am. Sean, Seth, and Seth's sis all got ready to head out then. Seth and his sis had an event to go to and take pics of and Sean and I had a music festival to attend in Chula Vista, CA. It was only supposed to take Sean and me 2 hours to get there but traffic was crap and it ended up taking well over 3 hours.
The music festival was called 91X X-fest and took place here:
Sleep Train Amphitheatre
2050 Entertainment Circle
Chula Vista, CA
We'd found it on Groupon for about $7 or $8 per person after various discounts. Crazy! Headed there, we didn't know what to expect but had thought it'd be an indoor concert, maybe a couple of hours long. Accordingly, we hadn't planned very well for it to be an all-day, outdoor music festival without re-entry. We didn't bring jackets or blankets or eat much prior and they didn't allow outside foods or beverages let alone any sort of completely empty bottle or other container to fill with water from the fountains inside. :/ The food and drink inside was insanely unhealthy, expensive, and disappointing too so we just starved and froze all day and night. Lol It wasn't so bad though really. We'd found and washed out a refill cup and got free drink refills all day so we didn't have to walk to the water fountains every time we got thirsty. We snuggled together and walked around exploring for heat when we got too cold or when the music wasn't as good. A lot of bands we'd never heard of played through the day but the music was decent, some of it was even pretty damn catchy, and at the end of it all the two bands we were there to see (The Offspring followed by Cheap Trick) came on for their sets! The Offspring was, in my opinion, the best band of the day by far but, of course, Cheap Trick is always a classic and is really awesome, especially considering their age now! Of the bands we didn't know, the one I liked best was the Kongos. Couldn't get a couple of their songs out of my head after hearing them! As for The Offspring, some of the most epic and noteworthy songs they played included Why Don't You Get A Job, Head Around You, Self Esteem, and Pretty Fly. They played A LOT of songs Sean and I knew and loved during their set. Cheap Trick played a lot of songs we'd never heard before, possibly because they were a bit more before our time, but they also played some classics I'd grown up with (thanks to my parents!) and loved including Surrender, Dream Police, and I Want You To Want Me. TOO awesome.
At the end of the night, Sean and I were both cold, hungry, and exhausted. We ate some car food, might've gotten a little more to eat on the way back towards Vegas, started the lonnnng drive home, and eventually made it into our bed again for a ridiculously long and much needed sleep.
