JV Legacy Soccer

Gavin made JV soccer this year, which was a bit disappointment for him, but in the end, I think was a good fit.  He was one of the elder statesmen on the team that was heavy with a bunch of sophomores.  He had some off the field troubles over the summer that caused him to miss a game in the beginning of the year, but with that behind him he was ready to jump on and make a difference with the team.

He played a bit of a combo between outside back and center back for the team.  He brings a good physical presence and surely lots of attitude to the position.

Here he is waiting to be subbed back in, which was a bit rare this year as he tended to play most of the game without a sub.

Basement Fix Up

Here is a look at the finished wall repair with new drywall and paint for under the window.  I think this part turned out pretty well, considering the damage we had.  The next step was to work on new carpeting, which actually turned into a bit of a saga.  I had a guy that specialized in mold previously look at our crawl space and ended up putting in a vapor barrier below our sub-floor earlier this year.  I had him come back out and take a look at our situation and although our sub-floor looked dry enough, he had said there was still residual moisture present.  He recommended renting some dryers for a week and really ensuring that all the moisture was gone before putting down new carpet.

We heeded his advice and delayed the carpet install by a week or two, but finally got it done and this is the finished result!  This is walking down the new stairs to the refreshed basement look!

The guys were already loving it and were sprawled out on the floor almost immediately.  I do have to say that I appreciate brand new carpet.  It's the feel and the smell that just is so nice when it first gets put in.  This also feels really good to get done as we are just slowly trying to make improvements to house.

Surf Cup - Day 3

The summer and fall mornings are almost always foggy in this area and then it burns off for hopefully a nice afternoon.  This was a pattern we saw almost every day that we were there.  Here are Gage and Astik warming up for the second game of the tournament.  They played Rush South Gage FC and, unfortunately, got a bit crushed with a 1-5 loss.  They were a pretty good team and just had more "dudes" than we did.

In between the morning and afternoon games, we found another hotspot to eat at.  This is the famous The 101 Diner which was just packed to the brim with people.  I think we had something like a 45-minute wait, but it was definitely worth it.  The people watching here is also off the charts.

After some lunch it was back to the fields to catch the second game of the day.  The sun had come out and it was great weather and just a bit of wind.  They played their third match of the tournament against San Diego Surf Soccer Club and came out with a 2-2 draw.  I think the biggest thing for the team was to recover after the morning loss and fight through for a good performance.  By the end here, we were playing much better than when we started.  This is probably what we would have expected given that the team had barely any practice time coming in with a tournament this early for a Colorado team.  Great job Gage!

This was a team picture from after the last game.  They went out for a quick trip to the beach before we all headed back to the airport for a late afternoon flight home.

I am very happy that we got to go out to watch Gage play in the Surf Cup and spend some extra time in Southern California.  Whenever I travel there these days, it always brings me back to great memories from growing up on the west side of LA in Brentwood.  Until next time, see you later!

 

Surf Cup - Day 2 (Part 2 of 2)

At long last, we met up with the team at the Surf Cup grounds.  This place is pretty intense with some of the best competition in the entire country on site.  The area was broken up into two main areas containing something like 30 different fields.

With a tournament this big, there are probably 10 different brackets of teams all in Gage's age group, so it is always tough to tell if you are seeded correctly for the competition until you start playing the games.  Our first game was against Albion SC Hawaii B10 Elite.  Gage and Astik split halves in goal, with Gage getting the start for today's game.  It was a well fought game, but we couldn't quite get it done and ended with a 0-1 loss.

After the game, we headed over to the merchandise and media tents.  They had the names of all of the players on this wall...so if you look really careful you can see Gage's name in the picture.

Here is Gage, all smiles after the game!  Actually, he was having a great time, I think I just caught him by surprise.  As this was a serious tournament, the boys were totally separate from the travelling families, so we caught up with them and then headed our separate ways until tomorrow's game.

Later that night, Gavin and I sought out another place for a good meal and ended up at this pizza place. Gavin gave it two thumbs up, but I can't remember the name of the place.  If we are in the area another time, hopefully I can find it again.

Surf Cup - Day 2 (Part 1 of 2)

 

On the second day of our trip, we spent an hour or so in the morning down at La Jolla before we had to head over to Gage's first soccer game of the tournament.  It has been many years since I was here, and it was a pretty cool area.  There is this overlook down to where the seals all hang out and you can walk along the coast for a bit winding through parks and storefronts.

This is a bit of a closer shot of some of the seals just chilling out and playing in the waves.  They seem to have a pretty easy and chill life hanging out in this area.

Finally, a shot of Gavin and I with all the seals in the background.  These were cool to watch, but we were quickly reminded about how smelly seals can be out in nature.  It would almost bring a tear to your eye walking by!

Surf Cup - Day 1 (Part 3 of 3)

Later in the afternoon, we were finally able to check into our AirBnB.  We found this awesome place about six blocks off of the beach in Encinitas.  It was also only about a 15–20-minute drive to the soccer fields for Surf Cup, so it proved to be a great location.  Southern California always delivers on the food scene, and Gavin and I found this place that was truly amazing for dinner!  What you are witnessing in the picture above is a takeout plate from Cancun Mexican and Seafood.  This place is in like the back of a gas station and was crazy good!

It was getting close to sunset, so after dinner we drove over to the beach overlook near Leucadia State Beach.  This view was outrageous...and to either side of the overlook was just a solid row of multi-million-dollar houses backing up to this view.  It would be hard to imagine if this was your nightly view while eating dinner.

We were joined by probably 20-30 other people out there for the sunset just like us.  What an awesome day and evening together with my son.  I am so glad he joined me for the trip, and we got to spend this time together.

Surf Cup - Day 1 (Part 2 of 3)

With some time to still kill before we could check into our AirBnb, we headed out to the beach.  I believe this is Carlsbad State Beach, but I am not quite sure where we ended up exactly.  The water is fairly cold year-round, but Gavin was still up for jumping in.

We didn't have any boogie boards with us, so he tried to do a bit of body surfing.  You can see from the above how it was going...haha! The waves on the west coast are so nice, though so he had a great time out there.  I wanted to jump in with him but was worried about leaving our stuff fully unattended, so I just watched.

He finished the afternoon with a bit of sandcastle making.  I could tell he missed his little brother though, as they would have been at this for hours together and just generally messing around together at the beach.

 

Surf Cup - Day 1 (Part 1 of 3)

Gage's soccer team planned to travel to two major tournaments this year (Surf Cup in San Diego in the Fall and Jefferson Cup in Richmond in the Spring.  With San Diego being such an awesome destination, Gavin decided to join me for a full guy's weekend.  After an early morning flight, we had to seek out some breakfast food on the way to our Airbnb and the Leucadia Donut Shop was the place to go.  This tiny shop is a supper classic, old-school deal where once they sell out, they are done for the day, and they only accept cash.  The donuts were awesome, and Gavin was already loving San Diego.

It's also hard to wait too long before getting right to the beach, which happened to be just down the street from the donut shop!  Here is Gavin as we see what's down this walkway towards the beach.

We ended up at Grandview Surf Beach, which was new to me.  There were quite a few surfers in the water, but (as always) the water is pretty chilly here and even the day was a bit overcast still with it being late morning.  We walked along the shore, and Gavin took his shoes off to dip his feet in the water, but it was actually a rock beach so not tons of sand in this particular spot to make a relaxing walk out of.  After an hour or so, we headed back to the car and took off in search of some lunch.

Gavin was eager to get to In N Out, so we found one on the way to check out where the weekend's games were going to be played over in Del Mar.  The fields looked great, though it was a bit windy for this day.  Hopefully, things settle down a bit for when the soccer starts.