Hello I'm Rich Brown and this is my personal website and blog. I'm just your simple, average, down to earth, professional, out gay man and aspiring circuit boy, living in Phoenix, Arizona with a few things to say while trying to find my place among all the scary, conservative, religious nuts in this sick and twisted world.
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
@HOME. Well it was an interesting week off from work and now I'm back. I was just sitting here uploading my pictures from this weekend. So to go back a bit, last week was started out with Philip arriving for the first weekend. He was here with his brother and his brother's partner to look at some real estate. They are thinking about buying an investment property here in Phoenix. So we hung out in the evenings, went out to dinner and drinks. Nothing especially notable, but it was a fun time for everyone. Philip flew out on Monday and the next few days were spent by Justin and I just relaxing a bit. On Wednesday, Justin, Mark, Andrea and I went down to Tempe to watch the debate and be there for the Post-Debate Kerry rally. It was awesome. We had tickets which got us into the center of the rally. Everyone was going crazy and the mood & energy there was incredible. They were handing out posters to everyone and United States flags to wave. Also the Foo-Fighters were there and playing during the break. Shortly after the debate was over, John Kerry and his family showed up at the rally with the governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano. We were literally 2 feet from the raised walkway where they were coming by and shaking everyone's hands. I would have tried to shake his hand but I was too busy taking pictures. The crowd went crazy and he spoke for about 10-15 minutes. It was an awesome experience to be part of this and to see American democracy at it's best. I did end up getting a Kerry Edwards poster for my living room window.
So Thursday was pretty much another relaxing day for us both. We packed up our things for the weekend. On Friday morning we dropped off Berg at Mark and Andrea's and then headed out right around 11:30. We decided to trek down the I-10 through Los Angeles and stop off in West Hollywood for a few hours to hang out. Unfortunately we hit traffic in Los Angeles which extended our driving time by a few extra hours. We did manage to get into West Hollywood around 7 pm, parked and walked down to the Coffee Bean to grab some coffee. Justin and I walked around a little bit on Santa Monica Blvd. and went into a few stores. We then headed back to the car and took a short drive down Sunset Blvd. and up to Hollywood Blvd. We decided it was time to get headed down to his sister Sarah's in Oceanside which was our destination for the weekend. We headed down the I-405 and traffic was bumper to bumper almost the entire way. It turned into a 2 hour drive before we arrived in Oceanside. So once in Oceanside we call Sarah to meet us ... at the gates of Camp Pendleton, the United States Marine base, where Sarah's husband Jed is stationed and we were staying for the weekend. After being harassed by the young guards at the front gate for a few minutes we were finally let on base.
On Saturday we all went down to San Diego for the day. We had lunch at Rock Bottom Brewery and walked around downtown San Diego. It was funny we saw one of the Atlantis Gay Cruise Trips boarding a Royal Caribbean liner when we were there. We first noticed the rainbow flags hanging from some of the balconies and then realized we couldn't see a single woman on board. It looked cool and the ship was enormous. I think Justin and I would like to try a cruise one of these years. So after walking around a little bit we headed over to Coronado Island and down to Silver Strand beach. We we walked on the beach just after sunset and the weather was great. After leaving the beach we decided to head up to Old Town San Diego to the Hillcrest district. This is the predominately gay district of San Diego. After finally finding it (keep in mind it's been 5 years since I was last there and I couldn't quite remember the directions) we parked and went for some coffee. We walked around a bit, headed over to Balboa Park and walked the edge of the park and then decided to grab a drink at Hamburger Mary's. We soon decided that we better head back up to Oceanside for the night. We stopped at Denny's on the way and grabbed some desert before heading back to the base housing. On Sunday we got up and went over to Oceanside Harbor to sit by the beach and have lunch. Shortly after lunch, Justin and I said our goodbyes to Sarah and headed home. It seemed like a long drive back even though it was only 5 hours. I think we were both glad to get home, get Berg and relax before starting back to work on Monday morning. All said it was a good week and some much needed time away from work.
