Wordless Wednesday: Somos unidos! [and go Isotopes]

More Sunday sports

Yes, it seems odd, since we usually take in our sports from the comfort of our own TV room, that we've actually been to live sporting events two Sundays in a row.

Some of you might have read about our attendance at a Spurs pre-season game last week. Then a few days ago we were out again.

Our much-decorated women's national soccer team played Australia in a friendly match right here in San Antonio! (Here's the article in Monday's paper about the game, with much better pictures than you'll see here, I'm afraid.)

It was very exciting to get to see these real international stars in action, and they didn't disappoint. Here they are, just after celebrating the second of what was eventually 4 goals scored against the hapless Aussies.

But the real treat in seeing such a match is getting to watch the players you are used to seeing in a mediated fashion (i.e., on TV) right there in the flesh. Pretty cool. 

Especially the really big guns...

super-super-star Abby Wambach warming up...she scored the 3rd goal later

a somewhat blurrier super-star, Alex Morgan...
moving too fast for my lens!

Here are some more scenes of the occasion. Don't worry, I'm not including any more in-game shots. My little camera just isn't up to that challenge. Unlike the ones these guys were sporting, along with their endline credentials which gave them a much better vantage point:

I didn't realize that our own national federation is celebrating its centennial this year...

The beginning rituals of international matches are always fun to watch. Here the flags are being carried out onto the pitch in advance of national anthems and team introductions:

And here are the starting teams entering the field:

You can see by the upraised cell phones in the foreground that I wasn't the only person trying to get good pictures here with inadequate equipment.

The fans themselves are another big attraction at soccer matches. This group of very enthusiastic and tireless amateur cheerleaders (the best kind! you don't need amplified prompts or scantily clad dancers when you have these folks with their drums and chants!) kept up the spirit level non-stop. It was fun cheering and clapping along with them...

I'm showing you this particular shot our of the many I took of this group because of the sign near the left edge: "Keep Calm, We Have Hope." Which could be just a nice philosophical epigram, but it actually refers to our goalkeeper, Hope Solo, who did make some pretty spectacular saves in the first half to guarantee our clean sheet.

Henry was kind enough to take this picture of me with the field in the background before the game started. Honest, I didn't know that the Aussies would be wearing Houston Dynamo orange when I selected this t-shirt to wear...

It might look like there aren't too many people in attendance, but that's because this isn't really a soccer friendly venue (in fact, it was a fine crowd, of over 19,000, the largest to see the US girls at home this year).

The rather inappropriate site for the match was our (ridiculous) Alamodome, which is vacant most of the time, and therefore available for this match. It should never have been built, at least not where it is, thereby taking the space that should have been saved for a Spurs arena. But that's a topic for another discussion, and probably a different blog.

It is a somewhat attractive structure, though, especially with the gorgeous blue sky we had Sunday as a backdrop...

Since it was such a lovely day, we didn't mind avoiding the extortionate parking charges and walking from a free spot several blocks away. I took these pictures on my way out.

Live sports! As much a treat as live music, and we don't take in either of these entertainments as often as we should. 

Two-sport weekend...2.0

Heading to Houston for a two-sport mother-daughter weekend is beginning to look like a summer tradition. Readers with long memories might remember our trip last June. Well, schedules aligned favorably again this year and last weekend we were able to save ourselves from the agony of watching the Astros lose two baseball games, which was our original plan. Instead, we got to watch the Dynamo win one!

These fine fireworks were at the baseball game Friday night, and they were certainly the highpoint of the evening. As Chronicle beat writer Zach Levine (a much better writer than the Astros are a baseball team) penned in Saturday's paper:

It's a good thing it was fireworks night. That’s probably the only thing that stood between the gathering of 29,252 and the Minute Maid Park exits as the captive audience was treated to nine of the worst innings of baseball by the home team all year as the Astros lost 11-4 to the Atlanta Braves.

But the fireworks, though spectacular, weren't the only interesting thing about the game. For folks who were seeing their first game of the season, the new incredibly hi-def scoreboard cum video screen was pretty impressive. On the right is the pre-game animation it showed.

And, of course, just being at the ball park is fun. Especially when it's really hot outside and they have the roof closed and the a/c contained. It really is a lovely stadium. Here's our view as the roof was opening after the game for the pyrotechnic display:

But as we headed back to our wonderful lodgings (many thanks to Barbs and Paul for being such great hosts) we knew that our weekend had really only begun.

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After sleeping until an ungodly 10 a.m. the next morning (driving 3½ hours to watch your favorite team get mauled is exhausting work!) we headed out for a full schedule of activities.

First on the agenda was the quirky Orange Show, which I've wanted to visit for years and just never had gotten around to. Reminding us somewhat of the Bishop Castle that we stumbled upon in Colorado several months ago, although on a much smaller scale, it's an eccentric Houstonian's monument to things orange. And things mechanical (-looking). And things musical (it's a concert venue where the setting must upstage a lot of the acts). And just things odd.

Apart from size and setting, another difference between it and the Castle is that the Show is a finished product. Recently re-opened after refurbishment, it has become something of an institution in the middle of the nation's 4th largest city. Rather than a continuing project somewhat isolated in the Rockies.

It's also affiliated with Houston's most concerted effort to out-weird Austin, the famous Art Car Parade of song and story. [We saw it once in pre-blog days; my brother takes it in every year and it would be fun to go again. We'll have to put that on a future Houston calendar.] The art-car sculpture on the right is in the front yard of the house across from the Show.

Here are some more Orange Show photos:

a panorama
Sally taking a sight-seeing break on one of the remarkably comfortable
tractor seats available for viewing shows at the Show

the entrance booth (where they collect the $1 admission) and gift shop

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And now for something completely different, as Monty Python used to say.

Not far from the Orange Show (especially not far in Houston terms) is the Forest Park cemetery, where I learned to drive and where most of my forebears are buried. [When we first moved back to Houston after my father died in 1960, Mom took us out here very frequently. And when I was old enough, but before I got my learner's permit, it was a good place to practice driving and get ready for the more daunting experience of Houston traffic.]

I had felt rather bad about not visiting the site in such a long time, so this was a perfect opportunity. We stopped at a little florist shop across the street and took flowers to the sites of my parents', grandparents', and several aunts' and uncles', graves.

The environment is just as peaceful and nice as I had remembered, although Houston is almost as dry as we are and the vegetation looked a little brown. I'm sure our flowers won't survive long in the heat, but it felt good to make the gestures.

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Since it took us surprisingly less time to get around than we had planned (this hardly ever happens in Houston) and since the Orange Show didn't take nearly as long to see as we thought, we had some extra time on our hands before the weekend's second sporting event was to get underway.

So we decided to head over to my old stomping grounds, the Rice campus, and walk off our large Tex-Mex lunch (a highlight of the trip which I neglected to mention) taking in the sights there. As it turned out, we did some walking, but also spent a refreshing hour recharging our batteries in the pleasant (air conditioned) atmosphere of the new campus pub that you might have seen in my last post.

One of the highlights of the campus ramble was getting to go into the (relatively) new Rice baseball stadium, which I had only seen from afar. [Note to selves: we must come to a college game here next year!]

Reckling Park with the Houston Medical Center beyond the outfield—what a great view!

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Now for the sport number two. A short jaunt to the UH campus and we were surrounded by the sea of orange that is Houston Dynamo soccer. The fans were just as enthusiastic as last year and I was so glad to have found bright orange Dynamo gear for us to wear. [See photo at the top of the post. Thanks to our friend Amy (who met us there with her mom for the game) for taking the picture with Sally's camera.]

Here's a shot of the crowd, celebrating the team's first goal (they ended up winning a very exciting match, 2-1):

The win was a perfect end to a perfectly orange day. Historically, before the Astros were the Astros they were the Colt .45s, and their colors were orange back then, too. So it was really an almost totally orange weekend.

A most cheerful color for a very satisfying and fun trip, in spite of the dismal baseball. Here's hoping the Astros will be in a bit better shape in time for our two-sport excursion next year. Maybe they should bring back the rainbow jerseys, with all that orange?!

Wordless Wednesday: 2-sport weekend!

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One day between trips

That's right. We just barely got home from our 10-state drive and I'm off again.

Tomorrow I head for Houston (via an overnight stop with my cousin in Brenham) to experience a two-sport weekend with my daughter. We'll see a Houston Dynamo Major League Soccer game (our first!) on Saturday night. This is a Houston sports team that has actually won a championship (two, in fact) in the 21st century. Then, after a relaxing day Sunday (perhaps a museum visit) we'll see our Astros Monday afternoon. Even though they are having a pitiful season this year, we're still fans and still enjoy our time at the ballpark.

This means I'm pretty busy today and won't be able to start telling you about our last trip until I get back from Houston. But I did dash off a quick Google map yesterday showing our route and our major stops:



View a larger version of the map here.


So you'll know what's coming. Note that the drawing lines following roads feature in Google Maps is a little squirrely, so if you zoom in, some of the lines and dots won't be too accurate.

Careful readers of the notes I've written to identify the markers will notice the mention of not one, but two rafts. The slightly deranged spouse is rapidly moving toward seriously derangement, and his eccentricity might be losing a bit of its adorableness. (See this post for an explanation of these references.) Here are the "babies" with their new and old owners:

Do you think, maybe, we have enough boats now?

Summer plans (and fun with calendars)

Summer plans this year must take the World Cup into account, at least from mid-June to mid-July. If traveling during that time (which I will be!) stops will have to be arranged in towns with sports bars around game time. (In west Texas, this might be difficult....so you see why I have to plan ahead.)

You can also watch all of the games online at ESPN, which I've done during some previous events. I was very impressed by the video quality. Since we don't yet have country-wide, free, wifi coverage, though, I'll still have to find sports bars when traveling. But for those game days when I have to be at work...fortunately I can probably find jobs to do while watching.

To help all of us make these plans, I've made a Google calendar with the games, times, and TV information, and thought I'd share it with you. We just put up a calendar for summer work schedules at the Library and it was so easy I decided to do one for this
much more importantmore trivial purpose. I got the information from ESPN's website, and I think there was a mistake in their times for the semi-final games. So I just left the times off these, but will add them when I find the correct information. I'll also be updating the match-ups after group play when we know who will be advancing. Here's hoping both the US and England keep playing a long time!

Tuesday night lights

We just got back from a walk down memory lane, of sorts—at a high school soccer game.

There was a time in our family's history (actually, about 6 years worth of that history) when every Tuesday and Friday night in the first quarter of each year* was taken up with this activity. Tonight we were just casual spectators; certainly we wanted our team to win, but that incredibly intense personal connection that only parents of children playing team sports can appreciate was—thankfully—absent.

This morning's paper picked tonight's game, between our own Alamo Heights Mules and archrival Boerne, as the best bet for the week on the boys side. So, since we had an open evening, we decided to take it in. It turned out to be a very good game, exciting but with an emphasis on defense, just the way we like it. The final score was 0-0, but since it was the Mules' first tie, with no losses (in district play) it puts them in first place in the district.

We enjoyed watching the energetic and skillful young men playing where our son and daughter once played, met some of the current proud parents, and generally reveled in the pleasant, spring-like evening. Next week the girls are playing at home, and while they're not leading their district (we keep up with these things in the paper, although not quite as assiduously as when we knew all the goal-scorers mentioned) they're having a good season. So we'll have to come support them, too.

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*Unlike high school soccer in most civilized parts of the country, soccer here is played in the winter, which is most unfortunate since it runs almost concurrently with basketball, and often kids who like one of these sports like the other one, too. But playing both is practically impossible. (It's also very unfortunate for the poor soccer parents on those brutally cold winter evenings. Nothing makes you feel the cold more sharply than sitting for 90 minutes.) The reason for this travesty, I assume, has something to do with the other kind of football, which shares facilities with real football in this part of the country. And, for some strange reason, it takes precedence.

Below you can see part of the shared field. The yellow line extensions are for soccer, whose players don't need the yardage marked off but have to put up with it anyway. It's distracting at first, the kids tell us, but they eventually don't notice it. Still looks surreal to me, though.