Marin's Meanderings: Giving-In to the Selfish Side of Me: Day 2 in Ca.

I faced a dilemma. We are in Ca.--30 minutes away from a major tennis tournament that features a majority of the great pros from around the world. I have a chance to see some of the semi-finals and quarter-finals. Many of you know tennis is one of my biggest passions. However. . . I am on a family vacation--in Ca. to see and be with family. For months I looked on the BNP Paribas Open website anticipating the possibility of maybe seeing one day of tennis. Well. . . . 3 days before we leave for Ca., Kevin gives me his reluctant blessing to buy a day ticket and it's done! From around 10 in the morning until 5:00 at night, I was able to see (distraction free) Andy Roddick--both practicing and in a match, Andy Murray, Mardy Fish, Vera Zvonareva, and at the end of my day, Rafael Nadal. The day was very hot in Indian Wells--90 degrees, but after a couple of hours, a coolish breeze came through which made the viewing a lot more tolerable. I would have enjoyed watching with Kevin and friends like we did 6 years ago before Molly came along, but I didn't feel lonely. I made friends with a nice older lady who was also there solo and a few volunteer ushers who I would sometimes stand by trying to get out of the sun for a few minutes. Amazingly, only the part on my scalp and a small patch on my arm where I missed sunscreen got sunburned.

I left at 5:00 in the middle of Nadal's match (I had to see if Nadal cont'd his trademark habit of "pulling" his underwear out of his rear after nearly every point which he did:)). (Later I found out he won easily.) I headed over to Palm Springs for a nice seafood dinner with Kevin, the kids and Kevin's mom. They told me all about their trip to Joshua Tree (see photos below) and then we stopped for frozen yogurt at this incredible place on the way home. This place had 10 or more flavors of frozen yogurt. You fill your own cup with the amount that you would like--choosing any flavors you want. You then added your own toppings from 20 or more choices. I felt like I was at a salad bar, but with a lot more sugar and calories:). My favorites were fresh strawberries, small pieces of cheesecake and frozen raspberries. After you are done adding more toppings than you have yogurt like Molly did, you put all your cups on the scale and pay 39 cents an oz. Talk about encouraging indulgent behavior! It was awesome!

Anyhow, although I missed the family during the day and I know they missed me, we had a nice evening together and we have 5 more full days of fun together.