Saturday afternoon, we headed downtown to the Dollhouse to watch Jill's first Roller Derby Bout. Her SoCal Derby team was playing the North County Derby Alliance (NCDA) from up in our neck of the woods. Jill (Buzzsaw Bunny) had almost a perfect Jam in her first attempt, slipping past the blockers on the outside and then juking past the pack again on the inside to score her first ever points as a Jammer.
It was a close bout for the entire match with 70-70 score at half time. Jill's team took back the lead in the closing two minutes with a high-scoring Jam to win 151 to 138. An exciting finish!
After the bout, we all walked into the Gaslamp Quarter to eat at Tin Fish before going back to Jill and Kenny's house to watch Deadpool. Very funny movie!
The San Diego Zoo celebrated their 100th anniversary with a Zoo Tribute Performance in Balboa Park on Saturday. Since Tommy was performing in the show as a Giraffe puppet, Tori and I drove down with Kenny and Jill to watch. The Plaza de Panama was crowded with people and lined with food trucks that extended down the El Prado. It was a mistake to arrive starving since all the trucks had very long lines. We ended up ordering delicious Spanish Sandos from the Back to Foods truck which had the shortest line. (Twenty Minutes)
After getting our food we headed over to the Spreckels Organ Pavilion to grab a spot for the Zoo Tribute Performance starting at 8:15pm. As soon as the twilight faded, the show began with a projection of the sun setting over the African Savanna and a opening proclamation by Mayor Kevin Faulconer. Accompanied by a live orchestra and light show, the large wrapped boxes spread out on the stage were opened by dancers to reveal giant human controlled puppets of an Elephant and the California Condor. Between the gift box reveals, there was a short speech by Joan Embery and a song by the Tony and Grammy award winner, Heather Headley, backed by a 130 person choir. The third and final present was opened to reveal a giant lion puppet who ended the show with a roar.
It was great to see Tommy leading his fellow Giraffes through the crowd during the show. He will be performing with the other animal puppets at the Wegeforth Bowl inside the San Diego Zoo this summer. Since we were still hungry after the centennial tribute, we walked across the Cabrillo Bridge to eat tacos at Barrio Star in Bankers Hill. Their homemade corn tortillas are always so good.
Tommy's friend, Anthony, was visiting from out of town so he booked an Escapism Puzzle Room in Hillcrest for the six of us. After a few pre-game drinks at Fiesta Cantina, we allowed ourselves to be locked into the dark Attic. With only four hints allowed, we ended up using one for each of the four locked rooms we had to navigate through to escape with only five minutes to spare. It was tough solving all the hidden clues with only two decent flashlights. Our Gamemaster told us afterward that the Attic was their toughest puzzle room with only a 10% success rate. Afterwards, we went for dinner and drinks nearby at the Salt and Cleaver.
On Saturday, we went to Trapeze High for the first time since New Years Day. After the noon class, Tori and I took a few swings and worked on our Catch Locks. It felt great to shake off the rust after an eight month layoff due to my hip flexor injury. With Kenny sitting on the Fly Bar and Tommy up in the Catch Trap, I had fun tossing the hula hoops up for them to catch and toss back and forth with the feet. While we were playing around, Tori worked with Isaac and Lianna on the Static Trapeze rig. Afterwards, they tried an AcroYoga variation of the Three Headed Dragon.
After trapeze, we drove down to San Diego for the AcroJam at Aerial Revolution. I attempted several new tricks and it felt great to be able to do AcroYoga for the third week in a row without re-aggravating my hip. Maybe someday I will be able to base standing up like some of the other talented acrobats practicing at the Jam.
