Last night, they had Air New Zealand night at AT&T Park during the SF Giants v. Arizona D'backs game. Thanks to Nicolette for the tickets! I'm glad I got to go and enjoy a bit of cross-promotion for NZ!
It all started out in front of the Ball Park at Willie Mays Plaza where Air NZ had a big board and a handful of staff promoting flights to NZ. If you took a picture and tweeted it (#airnzgiants), you even had a chance to win a free flight to NZ. I got a pic with these two (rather tall) flight attendants. Haven't heard whether I won the flight yet...
They played a number of promotional videos (clever advertisements) extolling the virtues of traveling to NZ on this special night. Seemed to work as I overheard several folks in the crowd discussing NZ.
Eager for a bite to eat once inside the park, we hunted down the Crab sandwiches that I heard I had to try. The verdict: tasty crab with buttery garlic bread. Delicious but, as with all sporting event foods, kinda pricey at $16 for how much you get.
We stood on the First base side as we awaited the first pitch of the night (thrown at 7:19pm). Play Ball!
As a part of the Air NZ promotion, four players from the All Blacks came up, did some activities with the Giants players before batting practice and got to hang around to watch the game. I definitely wanted to be at the game to have a chance to see some ABs players, in the US no less. So, as I gazed around the park, I kept a keen eye out for Aaron Smith, Conrad Smith, Cory Jane and Victor Vito (of course, players all on Super Rugby teams eliminated from the playoffs). While sitting in our seats in the left field bleachers, I spotted a group of the Air NZ flight attendants (wearing their conspicuous uniforms) walking towards an elevated area near the Coke bottle slide. I walked near there and, low and behold, saw Aaron Smith and Cory Jane! I caught CJ's attention, he noticed my All Blacks jersey and he gave me a thumbs up. I gestured to get a picture and he got Aaron to turn around to pose for a pic. At this point in time, I didn't know for sure whether I could get up there for a closer picture or not. But, I became determined to find out if maybe I could...
And I did! They had just given away tickets to NZ to four lucky fans in the crowd and I managed to catch the two guys at a good time to snap a quick picture (CJ on the left, Aaron Smith on the right). Had a enough time to exchange a few words with the guys and they mentioned: 1) Conrad and Victor probably stayed in the luxury box 2) they would only be in town for couple days total. I shook their hands and went back to the bleachers as a few other All Blacks jersey wearing fans made their way up to get pictures. Mari mentioned that she could see me during this entire event and that I looked like an overly excited, child-like fan. Too true.
After the 7th inning stretch, the game had settled down into a low scoring affair (even CJ mentioned someone needed to hit a home run or two). Unfortunately, all these kayakers in McCovey Cove didn't see any home run balls fly in their direction. In the end, the Giants held onto their two run lead (all scored in an exciting 1st inning) and Sergio Romo got all three outs in the 9th to end the game. Giants win!!!
On the way back to the Caltrain station, we stopped to grab a snack (sushi and a meatloaf sandwich) from the Safeway. Unfortunately, that little detour put us towards the back of a really long line to get on the train. As it turns out, they loaded up as many folks as they could onto the 10:40pm train and we missed the cutoff (meaning we had to wait for the 12:02am train). The card (which they handed out as a part of the Air NZ promotion - it had 9 facts about NZ on the back) pretty aptly describes our situation with the train having departed the station (the tired face also adds to the storytelling).
All things considered an awesome overall night filled with great company, an entertaining game and a close encounter with a couple of my sporting heroes. Throughout the evening, I had that sort of buzzing feeling that I remembered getting as a young kid meeting a few All Blacks for the first time. Very thankful to have had the opportunity to come up for the game and participate in the experience. I hope it turns out to be a successful venture and perhaps we might see a few more NZ celebs up here in the not too distant future. Well, this Bay Area Kiwi can dream!
Okay, so after alluding to this in a previous post, I've finally gotten around to getting these pics together and uploading them. Thanks to Linda, we had an opportunity to camp at the awesome Big Basin Redwoods State Park for the second year running. A few different faces this time around, but still plenty of Abbott folks representing. Away we go!
We managed to consolidate into fewer tents this time around and Linda, being camp counselor extraordinaire, brought the massive two cabin 10 person tent on the right for us "kids" (all 5 of us) to stay in.
After a lovely lunch on Saturday, a group of us set out to tackle the Pine Mountain Trail heading up to Buzzards Roost. Here's a pic of Babu, Khine, Me and Stephanie on a log bridging Bloom Creek near the trailhead.
The hike up the mountain (roughly 1200 ft over 2.5 miles) wasn't too bad and afforded us many great photo ops. In this one, Khine does her best "pro rock climber" impression.
Alas, it all comes down to perspective...
We made it up to Buzzards Roost on a lovely afternoon and gathered for a group pic: Me, Khine, Stephanie, James, Teleshia and Babu.
While we got a good amount of shade on the trail, the top didn't have much at all. As we took a break to rest and snack, I caught sight of this little guy hiding in the shadow of a small tree trunk to get a bit of respite from the hot sun.
As previously mentioned, not much shade at the top there. That, however, didn't stop us from doing a jump pic! By the way, at the horizon towards the left side of the pic is the Pacific!
Another pic of Blooms Creek after we finished the hike back down the Pine Mountain Trail. So cool and calm!
Post-hike, we sat around and recuperated before getting ready to prep dinner. Here are Me, Khine (carrying Linda's dog Ed) and Babu enjoying our rest on the picnic table.
As I learned last year, Linda takes her food seriously and so here we have the tri-tip hitting the grill (teriyaki on the left, bbq on the right).
Dinner is served! Arugula/artichoke salad, red quinoa polenta, tri-tip and grilled veggies. Yet another legendary Linda camp meal!
And for dessert, Steph, Stephanie, Khine and Teleshia took jumbo marshmallows and stuffed them in their mouths!
Another year, another enjoyable weekend at Big Basin. Thanks so much to Linda and the rest of the gang for making it fun and memorable. Cheers to the outdoors!
Graduation season has come and gone. I've long appreciated the ribbon leis Mum has made for me and Deryck throughout the years and I occasionally thought to myself perhaps I'd give that a try someday. What folly...
The task began with a treasure hunt of sorts. After deciding on a specific lei style, the Pakalana lei courtesy of Joy of Crafting, I had to go find eyelash yarn of natural colors. This being the mainland, fat chance I had of finding anything particularly useful, other than the bright green color in the middle. Thankfully, Google came to the rescue and I stumbled upon the website for "Amazing Yarns" who I found out I could drive 5 minutes or so up the road to visit. While they didn't have exactly what I wanted in terms of eyelash yarn, the nice lady did scrounge up this reddish silk yarn and dark green yarn that just might do the trick. Side note: if you happen to be looking for some unique yarns, call on the friendly folks at Amazing Yarns!
The Youtube video made it look so easy, but I had never crocheted before. It took me FOREVER to get the hang of the chain stitch...
After about an hour or so, I only had a few inches of chain stitch to show for my efforts. Talk about frustrating! To boot, I began to worry that the red silk yarn overpowered the bright green eyelash. The dark green yarn, with its low profile, could barely be seen. Had I chosen wrong?!
On top of those doubts, I made the rookie mistake of tangling up the silk yarn. And then I had to stop the chain stitching to untangle the monstrous ball o'yarn.
This literally took hours. Slowly and painstakingly removing knot by knot and carefully laying it out so that I could keep it untangled.
With silk yarn untangled, I could resume the chain stitching. I think by this time, I finally began to settle into a rhythm. A slow, inconsistently-sized chain stitching rhythm. It didn't help very much that my fingers started to hurt too.
In the end, after hours upon hours of work, all the chain stitching finally came to an end and I could then loop and twist the full length together. I think it turned out pretty good given the materials I had available. In particular, I'm pleased by the color of the red which turned out to come through very nicely in a fairly natural looking floral way. Victory!
Anyhow, as amazing as it felt to finely complete the job (in the wee hours of the morning no less), I'm pretty sure I'll retire myself from the lei making business and leave it to the professionals. The combination of coordination, repetition and patience required just doesn't quite suit me. Now more than ever do I appreciate the craft that goes into making each of these leis. Mum, you amaze me. To all my friends out there, I hope none of you consider going back to grad school anytime soon! Congratulations to all the 2013 grads and, until next time, adieu!
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