The Ethos of Orange County

I have two weeks down in the OC and I must say it’s been a bit of a surreal experience. The amount of wealth surrounding you in unlike anything I’ve seen. Couple that with the lifestyle that accompanies year-round perfect weather and easy access to nice beaches, this place is unlike any other I’ve been to.

It’s strange to be here in a way because I, like many other people in the country, have grown up watching shows like 90210, The OC, Laguna Beach, etc. It’s easy to watch something on TV that represents a far off place because it becomes fictionalized. However, when you are actually in the place that serves as the foundation for those shows and lifestyles they represent, you begin to take on another perspective. Suddenly, those large houses and unimaginable wealth become real and when they are real, they are in a far off way, attainable. Suddenly, the life that you lead and the things you have worked for seem inconsequential compared to the things that the other people have in this area.

But amidst the beautiful weather, beautiful people, and beautiful cars, it’s not a bad place. It’s easy to forget about the rest of the world while you are out here. The weather is constantly nice and with most of pop culture news happening an hour away and the majority of the population being three hours ahead of you, it’s easy to not feel concerned about what’s going on elsewhere.



Of course, the weather and proximity to numerous nice beaches comes with a high price tag; if you wanted to move out here from East coast, you would never be able to afford a house. If you can live with that, then it may be a good place for you (especially with winter approaching in the East). In addition to price tag comes the traffic. It seems everyone wants to live here and driving on any freeway in the LA area redefines the term “time commitment”.

My first night here I found myself in Newport Beach at a huge outdoor shopping called Fashion Island. It’s essentially a huge outdoor shopping center. A short way down the road is Corona Del Mar which is a small beach on a harbor. What struck me was the amount of people on the beach at dusk as the sun was setting. They were huddled around stone pits with fires burning in them cooking out and simply enjoying each other’s company. It was so awesome to see a city condone the responsible use of fire on the beach. As I walked around, I offered to take a group picture for a bunch of students from UC Irvine. They subsequently, and kindly, asked me to join them. After hitting a volleyball around and partaking in some s’mores, I called it a night.

The next evening, I checked out a little place called Balboa Island which is just off Newport Beach. The Island is quaint and small and almost reminds you of a small New England town, except that it’s in California the small houses on the island cost a few million. After dinner at a local Italian joint called Amelia’s, I drove up to the Balboa Peninsula which is the “beach” part of Newport Beach. There are two clusters of parking and downtown-type areas with main access to the beach and a pier at each. After parking, I went for a walk along the beach at night. The weather here is usually overcast in the morning and cool, clearing by early afternoon approaching sunny in the low to mid 80s’ with no humidity by day and becoming cool at night. In other words, amazing; and it also makes for excellent beach walking weather. The beaches here are wide and you don’t see the huge, often-times hideous hotels that mar the beaches in New Jersey. For that matter, you also don’t see the syringes, sewerage lines, and other things that you may find whilst strolling the Jersey shore. Another difference is that the beaches are used year-round because winter doesn’t really exist here. At night, the beaches aren’t very crowded so you can walk in peace which is nice. You occasionally run across the [very] young couple making out on the lifeguard stand but that’s about it. Newport has two fishing piers that flank the peninsula and they are a little over a mile apart. The piers themselves have a little restaurant or diner at the end are used predominantly for fishing. The demographic you see there, at least at night, is starkly different from the demographic that lives in the houses along the beach.

After a nice walk, I returned to my car in the parking lot to find a couple making out next to the car parked in front of me. It was fairly late for a weeknight, 10pm, but there were still a few cars in the lot. As I walked closer, I noticed them making some odd movements and when I reached my car, I noticed a little more than making-out going on. Now, I’m not the type of person to judge someone for utilizing the outdoors for sexual escapades but when you do it in the middle of a very public parking lot, with people around, you’re just asking for it. As I approached the car to open it, I would have thought they would have stopped what they were doing or tried to hide it a little better, but alas, no. So, as I turned my car on, I also turned my headlights on and “accidentally” turned my high beams on (which they were pretty much directly in front of). Now, I didn’t do this is a voyeuristic way, it was more of a means to let them know that I people don’t really need to see what they were doing and if they realized that people were around watching them, they would stop and move to more private quarters (like say, inside the car). But no, they didn’t even flinch so I exited as quickly as possible.

The next day at work, I struck up a conversation with Leo Malamud. Leo was an interesting character because he was your typical SoCal surfer guy. Every morning he wakes up to hit the waves, is a surf advocate (as evidenced by him driving to San Diego to protest at a hearing where they were debating building a toll road that would interfere with a surf spot he used to use in his younger days), is an avid skateboarder, and like to strategize about how he can get into the Hollywood clubs with little or no cover charge. Essentially, he has lived a life that is pretty much as opposite as you can get to mine and I was really struck by that. These people have never grown up watching leaves change, or even seeing snow fall. They can be outdoors most of the year and enjoy sun at the beach while they are at it. Of all the people I met that week though, Leo was the most outgoing and friendly, in a Californian sort of way. I say that because the breed in California is definitely different from the East Coast. I don’t think it would be fair to say that people in California are fake or shallow because that would probably be unjustly harsh. They are all nice, just not very outgoing or welcoming. Ultimately, I don’t think I could see myself finding any deep friendships with people out there because they don’t seem to be wired that way.

As I mentioned, Leo and I struck up conversation at work that day and he made mention that he was going to try to go to a club that night by the airport and that if I were interested, I could join him. Initially, my reaction was no but after a pause, I realized that if I were ever to really get a sense for the social life out here, I need to be flexible and give things a chance so I told him it was a possibility and as I left that day, it was. My mission for the evening was to find a restaurant called the Bluefish Grille. It’s a chain out in that area and apparently has some good seafood. I couldn’t find the original one that a co-worker told me about so I let my GPS guide me to one up in Santa Ana. In true base-model-GPS fashion, that location didn’t exist or has since closed causing me to make numerous circles around a parking lot (which looked shady considering I was driving an old Grand Prix with peeling paint weaving through Maybachs, Rolls Royces, and other high-end models).

Through some handy GPS/Blackberry combination, I was able to find the original location suggested which is next to a military base of sorts and was part of this huge outdoor complex. Eating dinner alone is always an awkward event, especially if you aren’t sitting at a bar. The waiters or waitresses either a) look at you with pity or b) look at you with skepticism wondering what horrible disease or social disorder you may have because you are all by your lonesome. To abate some of this, I took in my Fodor’s Los Angeles book to begin planning out my weekend.

Before the weekend arrived however, I would have to deal with Friday. That evening, I decided that I would head down to Laguna Beach, of MTV fame. I have to admit, it was weird for me being a closet MTV junkie just to be there. Laguna, like some other towns in SoCal, has a strange obsession with parking meters. Let me take an aside here and rant about parking meters. Honestly. How inefficient can we be? Who carries nickels, quarters, and dimes on them anymore? I’m lucky if I carry paper money instead of a check card – it’s ridiculous. It’s not that I mind paying to park, it’s just that I never have any stupid change to put into the stupid meter. On top of that, in some areas, you get 15 minutes for 1 quarter. What is that? I’ve got to carry around 8 quarters if I want to eat and more if I want to go for a walk on the beach afterwards…



Ok, I’m calm. Laguna was certainly not what I expected. In fact, I thought it was pretty touristy which was surprising given my view of the town through the MTV lens. The beach was not overly exciting either because it was at the bottom of a little Cliffside. The sand was hard and eroding. It had a slight hint of a New Jersey beach town (but nothing close to being that bad). That night, as the sun was very quickly setting, there were about three different couples who were on the beach for wedding pictures right after they got married. They were of course very young, very attractive, and I’m assuming very rich. I eventually found a little open air Irish pub with a woeful beer selection but good burgers. After dinner, I left Laguna unimpressed and headed up to Huntington Beach (a.k.a. Surf City, USA) to get a flavor of that town. Huntington was awesome. The beach runs the length of the city and most of it is a state park. The upside is that it isn’t lined with houses or hotels; the downside is that you have to pay $10 for parking or *gasp* use the parking meters. By this point, it was 10pm and I assumed that the parking meters were only into effect until the normal hour of 6pm. Nay. Midnight. What?! Grrrrrr. I said screw it; there were more parking meters in Huntington than there are people in Wyoming – my odds were looking good. I got out for a stroll and was amazed. Huntington took the fire on the beach concept to a whole new level with fire pits lined in two rows the entire length of the beach. Making it better was the fact that every high school kid in SoCal seemed to have migrated there that night and was having a little gathering. In the midst of the mass socialization, a group of people were playing some sort of game that seemed to be a cross between tag and football with lightsabers dug into the sand as endzone markers and teams delineated by glow necklaces.

After my short walk, I headed back to the car (with no parking ticket….woot!) and went back to the hotel to get rest for my whirlwind tour the next day. However, that wouldn’t happen until I had a minor run-in with the California police. I made a slight mistake and was on an exit I shouldn’t have been which in California can take you places like Mexico, or worse, New Jersey. So I cut across the four lane exit to get back on the highway. I was totally clear except for the cop car that saw me do that. I tried to pull over on the exit ramp but was told not to do so. The problem was that the exit ramp was like three miles long – now I know how OJ Simpson felt (but I didn’t actually murder anybody). I eventually found a place to pull over and the cop, who had the emotional intelligence of a rock, saw that the Pennsylvania driver with a company car would have been a paperwork nightmare and decided to let me off with a warning.

I woke up fairly early to a huge commotion in the hotel lobby and perhaps the best breakfast spread I think I’ve ever seen. It was move-in day at UC Irvine so the masses bought out the hotel it seemed. With a full stomach, I hopped in the car and headed north on the 405. Now let me take another aside and say that what the GPS lacked in knowledge of local restaurants that were actually still open, it more than made up for it with successful navigation throughout the day allowing me to do things I never would have been able to do otherwise.

My plan was to head up the 405 into LA and take the Sunset Blvd. Exit. Sunset essentially runs along the northern tier of LA taking you through Hollywood. The first stop was UCLA which was massive! Tall buildings everywhere! I was going to park and peruse but I couldn’t find a good spot to do so and have to live with the driving tour. A little further down the road was Beverly Hills. Boy, I thought Newport Beach was rich – yikes! Beverly Hills, in my humble, poor, opinion puts Nepwort to shame. The houses in Beverly Hills were huge and, pleasantly, each unique in their own way. The streets were lined with these amazing trees that had multiple trunks, smooth bark, and a perfect leaf canopy adding to the ambiance. I finally found Rodeo Drive and, ironically, did not have to pay for parking at a meter. Walking down the street, I was met by stores whose names I could not pronounce and felt like I wasn’t allowed to walk in. It was the first time ever I saw a DeBeers diamond store. DeBeers is the only true monopoly left in the world and they own all the diamond mines. Essentially, they mine them and sell them to other outlets (jewelers, etc.) I have never heard or seen of an actual storefront of the company. The shopping part of Rodeo was surprisingly small but muy rico; the bouncers at the door probably make more money than I do.



After a short jaunt up and back, I was back on Sunset heading east until I hit Hollywood Blvd. I parked and went for a walk along the Walk of Fame. I almost immediately came upon Grauman’s Chinese Theatre which was a) crowded and b) awesome. Sid Grauman was a showman, not an actual actor; he supported Hollywood stars, built theatres, and put on shows. In front of Grauman’s are the famous hand and foot prints (which put the walk of fame to shame). The footprints (or in some cases, face prints, dreadlock prints, robot feet, or horseshoes) are only allowed to be done by movie stars (the Walk of Fame is movie, TV, and radio) and they are selected on a very strict basis. Everyone who has ever left their mark still has it there today. Thus, there were many tiles from the 20’s and 30’s. It would have been great to have one of my grandparents there to see it and tell me stories about who those people were. Every year, there is a committee that decides who will get to honor of leaving their mark and once they fill up all the space, they will stop having the ceremony. The range of celebrities who have left their mark are quite vast; Shirley Temple, Frank Sinatra, Tom Cruise, the cast of Star Trek, Harry Potter, Ocean’s 11, Star Wars, and the latest, Michael Caine (for his role in Batman: The Dark Knight).




I was contemplating going on the tour of Movie Star’s homes but I for the price, I didn’t feel it was worth it. Instead, I took a tour of the inside of the Chinese Theatre which was ok. I was disappointed initially because the actual theatre part had a movie showing at the time (you can still see new movies there for $12 on the widest movie screen in the country). The good news though was that they allowed us to come back after the movie was over and see the inside of the theatre which worked out better because I was the only one who came back and got to hang out inside the theatre all by myself. Attached to Grauman’s Chinese is the Kodak Theatre and, of course, a shopping mall, which was sadly closed for a “private event”. Who rents out the Kodak Theatre for a private event?? It turned out to be Disney.

Following the Walk of Fame, I got to see Chuck Norris’ and David Hasselhoff’s star, the Capital Records building, and some other sundry shops including a great mask shop. But it was time to move on to see the most quintessential Hollywood icon – the sign! I failed to remember that the sign and most of the residents of Hollywood are actually in Hollywoodland. Thanks to my trusty GPS and guidebook, I headed up far into the Hollywood hills through the most amazingly snakelike and skinny roads to a high spot that gave me a great view of the sign. Mulholland Drive which actually goes up to the sign has been closed for quite some time so my spot was the best I was going to get. I headed down to try and see the Hollwood Bowl outdoor concert area but got there too late because they were setting up for that night’s concert.




My plan that night was to go see the Dodger’s game but had a few hours to kill so I headed to pay tribute to Bug’s Bunny and visited the LaBrea tarpits. Shockingly, the tar pits were free and more shockingly, they are right in the heart of LA. I expected them to be out in the desert a little more but nope, right smack in the middle of skyscrapers. More interestingly is that they are on the ground of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art complex which is huge. Now, I’m not a civil engineer or architect but I had to ask myself: “Why, on God’s green earth, would one think it’s a good idea ot build a five massive building complex on the same grounds as prehistoric tar pits that are still bubbling up out of the ground?” I mean, how is that structurally safe? Maybe that’s why I’m an ex-engineer.

After the lackluster tarpits, I still had time to kill so I headed down to Santa Monica, the famous beach with the famous pier. Prepared this time, I dumped all the quarters I had into the parking meter and went for a walk. The pier, in my opinion, was lame. Although come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pier I’ve been impressed with. They had a very basic amusement park on it with a lot of fishing space and pedestrian traffic. The beach itself was crawling with people of interesting varieties with various gymnastic apparati. Before heading to the game, I wanted to try and check out muscle beach and impress the people with my stunning lack of physique. Sadly, the parking meters got the better of me and I had to suffice with a drive through and saw no muscle heads.

It’s good things worked out the way they did though because I got to sit in the famed LA gridlock traffic on my way to Dodger Stadium. Earlier the day before, I had tried to call Ticketmaster to get some cheap-seat tickets and *shockingly* they were sold out!! I figured I would take my chances with the scalpers. I arrived at the stadium about 30 minutes before the first pitch (thrown by Arsenio Hall – whom I don’t recall having a star on the Walk of Fame, huh). I paid $15 for parking (cash only!!) which was more than parking costs at Disneyland, go figure. The stadium was built on a hillside and has different levels of entry with many, many stairs in between. As I ascended and descended levels, I found one scalper who wanted to sell me a $9 ticket for $45. I laughed at him and moved on and found this exceptionally shady gentleman who sold me a $9 ticket for $20 which was palatable. You would swear he was selling me drugs based on his demeanor and cold sweat that he seemed to be breaking out in. As he went on his panicky way, I looked at the crumpled ticket and realized there was a good possibility that the ticket was a fake. Crossing my fingers entering the stadium, I found out not only was it a valid ticket, but I had good seats in the top section behind home plate. There were two girls sitting behind me who were certifiably crazy but we got along swimmingly and had a good time. They played the Giants and eventually won after some ugly early innings. The team turned 50 (at least had been in LA for 50 years) this year and was still playing in their original stadium which was very retro and ultimately grew on me. The game crept on at a painful pace and I had to leave before it ended because I had a big day the next day…




I arose early and headed north into Santa Ana towards Anaheim where on a piece of land that used to be an orange grove sits the Happiest Place on Earth, at least the West Coast version: Disneyland! I felt that if I were in the area, Disneyland was one place I had to visit out of principal. As I drove, I had mixed feelings about spending one of my rare free days at Disneyland. Not only was I by myself, but I was 28. My first foray to Disneyworld was when I was 9 and I remember it truly being the most magical place I’ve ever been to. When I returned in High School with Young Life (multiple times), I remember being shocked at how small the park was and how well, lackluster it appeared the second time around. I had trouble reconciling how the same place could look so different in a matter of 6 years but different it was. That time however, I was there with no parental supervision with a group of friends and was thus able to have a great time. This time however, as I said, I was a) 28 b) alone and c) heading to the smaller, older Disneyland instead of the massive four-park Disneyworld complex.




As I arrived, you have to drive forever to get to the most massive parking garage I’ve ever seen and take the tram to the central area. Once there, you can go into Downtown Disney, California Adventure (Disney’s new park), or Disneyland. I decided to start with California Adventure and arrived before the bulk of the park was opened. Looming in the distance was the Tower of Terror, the same ride that resides in MGM studios. I waited behind the barrier and the bellhops from the Hotel met the people and escorted them to the ride at the beginning of the day. As impressive as the size of the ride was the detail they paid to the décor in the lobby. If I had to say one thing that Disney does amazingly well, it would be their attention to detail throughout their parks – the lines, the gardens, the shops, everything. I was on the first car of the day and the ride there was either different from the one at MGM, or my memory made me think it was shorter and less, well, adventurous than the original.

After that, I went to Paradise Pier where the rollercoaster was and I have to say, while it was simple in design, it was a lot of fun. I was able to get into the front seat which is always a bonus. The park had designed separate lines for single riders which would help me at various points throughout the day. However, if you choose that path, you can’t dictate which seat you were going to get. I tried to get on a Toy Story ride that was apparently pretty popular. The line was the longest I had seen at both parks the entire day and was probably over an hour long. I contemplated waiting and then looked at the demographic and realized that the screaming 3 years olds in line dictated what type of ride it could be and figured it wouldn’t have been as excited as it needed to be to wait that long.

There wasn’t too much to California Adventure and overall, while it was a “nice” park, I wasn’t overly impressed. One ride to note was this iMax-type ride that lifts you up in front of a huge screen and flies you over California’s National Parks which was pretty cool. You twist and turn and when you fly over pine forests, they spray pine scent into the air and orange scent when you fly over the orange groves.

After walking through the park, I headed to the main attraction Disneyland and from that moment, I slowly became a little kid again. Walking down Main Street, I stopped in and watched a mini-documentary on the history of Disneyland which I found to be both informative and entertaining. It was in what was once, I think, the Hall of Presidents. They also had scale models of what the park looked like today and when it opened. They also had Walt’s original sketches which were pretty neat. I was the only one who seemed to find their way into that theatre which is unfortunate because there was a lot of Disney history in there.

As I walked down Main Street, I ran into my first surprise of the day – the castle. I knew they had a castle and that it was different from the one in Disneyworld. What I didn’t know was how SMALL it was. Seriously. It’s small. But it’s still neat. I ate lunch at a place with a view of the castle and The Matterhorn and I have to tell you, nothing beats handing over your corporate card at a place like Disneyland for ridiculously overpriced food.




I made my way into Tomorrowland and went on the MGM-cloned Star Wars simulator and Space Mountain. Space Mountain never gets old – I’m a huge fan of roller coasters in general, but more so of roller coasters in the dark. I once again made my way to the front seat and sat next to an older gentlemen and it’s safe to say that we were both giddy. I asked him if he was here alone and he said no, he is here with the wife and kids who are too scared to go on the ride so he rides it three times, in the front seat, and gives them the rest of the day to do as they please and he willingly follows. My hero. (Well, not really).

I ventured into the House of Tomorrow which I had assumed was the original House of Tomorrow and I was looking for some high cheese factor for amusement. Sadly, they updated the house and it’s actually a very modern version of the house of tomorrow filled with Microsoft and HP stuff. It was pretty neat and I must say, a fairly realistic version of what tomorrow’s house could look like (if you were a millionaire).

Right outside, I ran into the Jedi Training Academy which was one of the highlights for me. They called up about thirty little kids, gave them lightsabers (sidebar, boo on Microsoft for not having lightsabers in their spell checker) and cloaks. This cool Jedi guy (he did flips) trained them and in walked Darth Vader and Darth Maul and all the kids get their chance to fight them. Priceless. Surprisingly, none of the kids were scared and I have to admit, Darth Maul was very in character and I think scared some of the adults.

The rest of the park was a lot of fun. Fantasyland, Adventureland, New Orleans all had their own charm. It’s a Small World was closed which I had mixed feelings about and the biggest disappointment was that the Haunted Mansion was closed because they were decorating for Halloween. Pirates of the Carribean was fun and they even updated it to include a robot of Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow. What’s cool about that ride is that you start off by floating through a Louisiana jungle and pass by an “outdoor” restaurant lit by lantern. I went over to Pirate Island which is essentially a huge fort for kids to run around on which made me wish I was about 20 years younger but I made do.

I made my way over the teacups and felt odd sitting in a teacup all by myself but I can tell you that mine spun the fastest!! I then went over to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride which I had heard of so decided to give it a shot with the other 5 year olds and it was there that I ran into my first major irony of Disneyland. It’s a simple ride that takes you through painted cartoon-like landscapes of London. At the end, you run into a train and see painted explosions and apparently you die. Now, you are in the Happiest Place on Earth and a) you die but what’s worse, b) YOU GO TO HELL! They have demons and other things. Unbelievable.

I headed over to Adventureland to go on the Indiana Jones ride which was closed because something terrible happened I’m sure and they told me to check back in a few hours. So on I went and ended up in the Enchanted Tiki Room. Now, I’ve always been a huge fan of the Tiki Room song since I’ve been little and was disappointed that Disneyworld didn’t have a Tiki Room. So I sat through the show and sang along as loud as I could with everyone else.

Dinnertime was fast approaching and I decided to head out of the park into Downtown Disney where I came upon the second happiest place on earth: the most awesome Lego Store I’ve ever been to and let me tell you, it was money! I decided then that if I’m ever a millionaire, I would buy a mansion and have a at least a room or two dedicated to Lego’s. This store had everything, this massive Death Star playset (for $400!), and even kitchen utensils (ice cube trays, salt pepper shakers, and yes, a jello mold!). If I had an extra suitcase with me, it would have been dangerous.

I eventually got out unscathed and found a House of Blues for some dinner. After some voodoo shrimp and a burger, I made my way back towards the park and walked through this MASSIVE store that seemed to have every Disney product on the market which was awesome. I made my way back to park and got on the Indiana Jones ride which was ok. I hung around that night for the fireworks which were pretty cool. They were set to all the old Disney songs that we know the words to and other rides in the park. I was able to sneak out early and beat the traffic.

Monday, I was exhausted so I took a quick jaunt to the UC Irvine campus, was thoroughly unimpressed, found a brewpub, watched the Phillies game, and retired back to the hotel and watched some TV. The next day, our Corporate Controller flew in and we went to dinner. He was feeling under the weather but we ventured out to this place where he kind of knew where it was but didn’t remember the name. We drive in that general direction, gave up, and headed towards Joe’s Crab Shack in Newport only to find out that the restaurant he was thinking of was right next store. We were both excited to try their specialty, Opakapaka which is my favorite fish. He had tried to get that last time while there with my boss but they were out. Of course, they were out this time too. We substituted with the sea bass which was still good and realized very quickly, that this was a restaurant where the Orange County wives hung out. We tried to play the popular game “Wife or Mistress” but quickly concluded that all the cougars there were wives because their husbands weren’t there (most likely, they were home with their mistresses).

The week started to wind down for me on Wednesday so I decided to head out to Huntington Beach again and explore the town a little more. I went to a highly recommended restaurant right at the end of the pier. As I sat there by my lonesome with my beeper waiting for a table, in walks a supplier of mine from the East Coast and they happened to be talking about me as they walked through the door. After we both talked about how shocked we were to see one another, they invited me to their corporate dinner with all of their specialized sales team. So I got a free meal (or I should say my company got a free meal). The steak was fantastic and the wine was flowing. After the dinner festivities, I decided to go for an extended walk on the beach. As I started my walk, I noticed that the beach closes at 10pm. How do you close a beach? Simply stunning – isn’t that public property? It was very New Jersey-esque of them.

As I was walking back towards my starting point, I heard a screech, thump, and crash. About 100 yards in front of me, this guy drove over a curb, through three thick wooden posts, over a path, and through a concrete dividing wall and onto the beach. It was a brand new Infiniti G35 completely destroyed and the driver looked slightly hoodlum-ish and young. As I walked by, the cops came and I overheard him telling them that he “was going 10mph and skid out on some sand”. Riiiiiight, because I know if I were going 10 mph, I would have blown through that concrete wall too……

Thankfully, that was the peak of my excitement for the rest of the week. The next day was taken up with a large team meeting that concluded with dinner at a mediocre Spanish Tapas restaurant. Then, early the next morning it was back “home”.