The Last Hurrah

Yesterday was our final tournament. It was Friday/ Saturday tournament at Club V but since we haven't talked about volleyball in a while I'll catch you up. We had a tournament at the LA Convention Center right in downtown Los Angeles. Going into the first game, I thought we weren't going to do very well because a lot of the teams their were local which means they were really good. We ended up by taking 15th out of around 150 which is good, especially for our team. But volleyball is pretty boring to listen to if you don't play so I'll tell you something actually interesting about our tournament. The convention center was right next to the Staples center so walking to our car we got to see all the fun things happening every night. Most of the time it was basketball games or something like that but one of the nights was the MTV Moive awards. After a game, me and three other teammates walked to a restaurant. On the way, we were right next to a HUGE line of people and a bunch of security guards. It was really cool!

Photo courtesy of: VolleyballMag

Our next tournament, the Triple Crown Sports Salt Lake one, we took second. It was a pretty small tournament at the Salt Palace but I was fun to win-ish. Not a lot of teams traveled to this tournament especially not in my division but there was some really good teams who came from California and Texas. When my team wasn't playing, some girls and I watched this really good club, T-Street, play. Their 18s one team had a 6'6 setter who was amazing! She's on the USA youth national volleyball team and she's only a junior. Back to my team, we were the runner ups and got a really cool trophy. They even wrote an article about my team! Read it here.

This past tournament, the AAU power league championship, wasn't a great one but we did okay. We took first in our pool the first day then second the second day. During single elimination play, we took third over all.

I'll miss my team and it will be really weird not driving down to Club V three or more times a week. However for some of my team, we will be together by doing Project V. Project V is a three hour session everyday starting this Monday and going until the end of summer. I would do it too but that would mean I'd have to leave right when I got home and wouldn't get back home at about 8:00.

It was a good season and I''l miss playing with my teammates.

SPRANG BREAK!

As you already know, last week was spring break and disappointingly, I did almost nothing that I had said I wanted to do in my Springing into Spring post but that didn't mean I didn't have fun!

I missed Friday at school so we could get there as soon as possible. On Saturday, we went shopping and Sunday was Easter! We were staying at my grandparents on Balboa Island so we just walked to church. My grandparents had left earlier so they could get us spots and my brother and I were right behind them. When we got there, all the seats were taken and there was no room to even stand in the church. We had to stand outside. It was windy, we could barely hear the priest and it was a long service but when we got home, it was fun. All my cousins came over and we looked for Easter eggs and opened our Easter baskets. We have a tradition of getting a couple lottery tickets and I won the most money in my family! A whopping 10 dollars!

After that, my cousin, Colleen, stayed with us for the next couple of days. I was really fun because without her I get kinda lonely and we do more fun things together. We went out to dinner almost every night (and we went to really good places too!). Colleen is in 7th grade but we will be the same age for a little over a month during the summer. Together we went kayaking around the whole island, walked up and down Marine Ave (the main street with all the shops), went to the beach, and made some stops at Balboa Candy.

Balboa Candy Store!
Photo courtesy of OC Mom Blog

My favorite part of break was going to Malibu or "the Bu" as me and Taylor, who I went with called it! We went to dinner at Malibu Farm, right on the pier, and it was super good! We had this stuff called "Broccoli Mash". I looked up the recipe and it's very simple. All you have to do is, make mashed potatoes, as usual, and put your cooked broccoli in a food processor. After, just mix it all together and you've got some broccoli mash.

"The Bu"
Photo courtesy of Community Table

A burger from Malibu Farm
Photo courtesy of Vavawoom

After all that, I had one last travel tournament in Los Angeles at the convention center. Stay tuned for a more detailed post about that one!

Craving California pt. 2

Photo Courtesy of: Island Seashell

As I mentioned before my grandparents live on Balboa Island. They've lived there my whole life so it's like a permanent vacation home for me and my family. I've been going to visit them every summer, Thanksgiving, and spring break. These grandparents are my dads parents. I call them Grandma and Papa Beach because they live at the beach! I'm one of the youngest on this side of the family so I didn't make up the names but my oldest cousin did. The names works because they live right on the water.

Me, my siblings, and Grandma and Papa Beach

My Papa is a fisherman. Every so often he will go out on the boat and go fishing. He used to take all the kids with him sometimes too. When My sister was about 8, he took her, my cousin, Drew, and my dad deep sea fishing in Alaska. They saw tons of whales and even watched them bubble feed. He's also taken my brother, dad and Drew fishing in Panama a couple of times. (My other cousin, Scott, who's Matts age, never wanted to go to Panama with them because he was afraid of leaving his home country!) I've only been fishing a couple of times (mostly because I prefer not to be on a rocking boat waiting for a fish for a long period of time. And I don't necessarily enjoy the smell of fish...) When I did go with my Papa, I remember having to gut the smaller fish. Gutting a fish is basically just cleaning it and you have to scrape off all the scales. EW.
Whenever he would come home from the long fishing trips, you can always expect at least a of week of fish for dinner and I am not a fan of fish. Like at all. I'm kinda weird in regards to my taste in fish. Most people don't mind it cooked but can't stand it raw, I'm the opposite. I love sushi and sashimi, especially when it's freshly caught.

A couple of pictures from Balboa/ Newport:

The view from outside the shopping mall.

Me and Hailey, my sister, taking a picture next to the Balboa mural

One of my friends who moved to Encinitas
but always comes to visit me in Newport.

Under the pier

Another picture of the sunset.

From the ferris wheel!

A pit stop at the candy store before going to the beach.

A "world famous" hippo cookie from Dads Donut Shop.

and another one...

Looking out on to the pavilion from in front of my grandparents house.
It's a sunset... shocker?

My cousin, Colleen, and I on the ferris wheel on Balboa Peninsula after the beach.

and another.

When our Papa took us fishing.

Hailey, Elise and I selling lemonade on the board walk on Balboa.