Watching the World Cup in a Hotel Room

 I just spent a week visiting California.

As I stated in an earlier post my Mom's best friend is visiting from France, and one of the things we wanted to do was take her to some of her favorite places in California: Cambria, Hearst Castle, Solvang, and Santa Barbara.

I've also mentioned in previous posts that I'm a bit of a sports dunce.  If sports could be made sentimental in anyway, I'd be more inclined to watch.  I'm always up for going to a baseball game thanks to going to Anaheim Angel games as a kid.

With my Mom's friend Patou being here I've watched a few of the semi-final games to catch up a little. A few years back I tried getting into Soccer by watching the Salt Lake Real games on television.  It didn't stick, though I made a valiant effort. I have to say the team logo and merchandise is sweet. The female team logo is totally Gryffindor meats Utah.  I wonder if I went to a live game if that would help.

Anywho . . .

Earlier in the trip I couldn't watch the Belgium vs France game since we were visiting Cambria that afternoon, but it was fun telling Patou that France was advancing to the finals.

Sunday was our head back travel day.  Drive from Solvang to Las Vegas, stay the night, then come home Monday night.  Thankfully the game was at 8 am, so it was possible to watch the game and then the awards before hotel checkout.

The game was really good.  6 goals in total.  As I've learned watching soccer, * cough* football, that's a lot of points for a game.  I heard so many variations of "Ooh La La" from Patou during the match that it was pretty amusing.  Usually I don't root for a team when watching sports, which is probably another reason I struggle watching games, but it was a lot of fun rooting for the French team.  And sure enough they won.  Patou was overjoyed.

So overjoyed was Patou that she wrote about it on a deli chalk board.

Then there was check out.  So many people must have been watching the game because everyone seemed to be leave around 11 am.

We got a late start getting back due to the deli and grabbing another pastry in Solvang.  Word to the wise: Never visit Solvang on a diet.  We drove through Baker around 11 pm.  The giant thermometer read 106, and that's at night.  Late night I-15 construction got us to the hotel after 1:00 am.  Three lanes narrowed to one.  The next day it was 108 in St. George during our stop.

Suddenly the mid-nineties doesn't feel so bad.

Stay hydrated.