GROWN UP WEEKEND ~ A PHOTO ESSAY

GROWN UP WEEKEND ~ A PHOTO ESSAY

Hello The Photo Essay Experience members and anyone else who might happen upon this article.

"Youth has vision! Old age, dreams."

Melvin Tolson

GROWN UP WEEKEND ~ A PHOTO ESSAY

As I write this, The Sensational Son is on an airplane flying back to USC after a weekend at home. Friday was his 21^st birthday and he wanted to commemorate it by doing something adult. We came up with ideas for a year and none of them really stuck. Sensational Son fumed when he found out that the track at Santa Anita doesn't open until October for their winter season. He wanted to gamble on some ponies and thought he had to be 21 in order to do so (turns out it was 18). We looked into a weekend trip to Las Vegas, but that didn't pan out. He's not a drinker (thankfully), so he didn't want a big party. Then I saw the USC football schedule and realized that they would be here playing the UW Huskies on Saturday. Right after that we got a flyer in the mail announcing that September 30^t was the final race day of the season at Emerald Downs Horse Track. I immediately sent an instant message and got the ball rolling.

He arrived late on Friday evening (just about an hour after his birth time) and he and the Househusband made their first stop at Dicks for a bag of cheeseburgers and fries. They only have a few items on the menu and each one is wonderful.

After gorging on meat and cheese, we toasted our little family on a successful 21 years and made plans for another 21. He wasn't too impressed with the champagne that night, but on Sunday night he and The Househusband stayed up all night talking and he enjoyed two more glasses with some crackers and cheese and decided that he likes it.

The guys slept in on Saturday morning since they are true night owls, getting up just in time to eat muffins and slurp coffee before heading out into Sensational Son's first rainy birthday weekend ever! They met up with the USC Alumni Association at Argosy Cruises on Lake Union in Seattle

They toured Lake Union and Lake Washington, (Here's Ivar's Salmon House) on the Lake Washington ship canal. (They tried to get fish and chips after the game, but Ivar's has shortened their hours and they were already closed. Bummer dude! That is one of the "must do's" whenever the Sensational Son is home. He hasn't been able to find a good fish restaurant yet in Los Angeles.)

Here are some of the sights from the boat tour: the Space Needle, St. Mark's Cathedral, the KING5 (television) Evening Magazine float plan took off near the boat.

They ate a nice late buffet lunch and were dropped off where all the Husky fans with yachts dock to see the game.

All that time at the game (USC 27 - UW 24) and they brought back shots of the USC Song Girls, the Trojan Marching Band and only a couple of the game. (Where are my photos of John David's Booty!?)

Sunday morning they got up and found they had screamed themselves hoarse so headed down to Emerald Downs where they could see some real horses in action. It was really wet and because of the diminished crowds, nearly everything was a dollar - hot dogs, coffee, soda, etc. (They still managed to spend $20 on food, admission and parking). The first person tey ran into at the track was the father of Desmond Reed (USC Running Back) who recognized thir allegience by ther USC attire. They are such astute gamblers (they used my time honored system of picking based on names, silk color, rider and closing their eyes to point. They even tried to call me for my pick on a race, but I was online) that they came home with $47 more than they left with!
  

  The Sensational Son got together with his favorite high school teacher for dinner where he ate calamari. Calimari? I asked him where he'd learned he liked it and he told me about a restaurant in Los Angeles. All this from the little boy who zipped his lip and refused to eat one single green bean! He and The Househusband played Gin Rummy the rest of the night until they left for the airport at 4:00 a.m. He's no longer a child and I do believe he is a great young man!

~ Susan B.

If you liked this photo essay, you might like to view some of my other photo essays which you can find by clicking on this link.