Day 21 - Tuxedo Junction

For our first breakfast at Arthur's, we were not only treated to our much-loved combo of cereal and fresh bagels (he's certainly been reading the blogs), but we were also provided with visual entertainment in the form of an all-access pass to his freestyle video archive. When enjoyed alongside such visual delights, the bagels and cereal tasted even better! It was the ideal way to prepare oneself for an energetic day of freestyle play down at Ocean Beach in San Francisco.

Today was the day of Summershred 2008; an event arranged each summer which features a pairs tournament and hour upon hour of jamming. We arrived at the beach at about 11am, where we were joined by fellow freestylers Carl Dobson, Doug Korns, Skippy, Mike Esterbrook, Melissa Trail, Tam Wolfe and Keith Armstrong (many of whom, the J's were meeting for the first time). Once our batteries were fully charged with Powerade and Power Bars, we joined the jam field. The conditions took a while to accustum to (northern California coast lines are substantially cooler than those of the south, and the wind was very strong), however we soon settled in to the jam and many a great co-op was executed. In the early afternoon we had the Open Pairs competition which featured 4 teams... Team J finished 2nd, with Arthur & Skippy taking 1st, Carl & Doug in 3rd and the trio team of Mike, Melissa & Tam taking 4th. After the results had been announced, there was of coure time for more jamming in a now very strong wind (a wind speed of 16mph was recorded at one point!). Despite this, the valiant freestylers persued for another hour or so, before deciding to call it a day at around 4pm.

Back in San Leandro, we called in at a local Starbucks for a well-earned beverage. We made some enquiries into the flavours of chocolate Mocha on offer and were told that in addition to the dark and white choc flavours, a combination of the 2 could also be done. In fact, two nicknames for this such combination were also thrown into the mix with the waiter telling us it can be referred to as either a 'Tuxedo' or a 'Michael Jackson'. For the both of us, it was our first Starbucks Mocha and we both thoroughly enjoyed it... it may well become a regular order from now on.

Back at Arthur's, we spent another hour or so utilising our archive pass, before painfully dragging ourselves away from the screen in order to ready ourselves for an evening out. At 8pm, we departed for Zachary's; an Italian restaurant in Berkely that is a personal favourite of Arthur and Chadi (a close friend of Arthur's, who was also joining us for the meal). The pizza was of an interesting form, with an extremely deep base that is very unique and probably best falls into the family of the Chicago deep dish pizza's. In fact, the pizza is so thick/deep, that it has outraged a few Italians, notably Lui (a freestyler from Rimini, who came across them when staying with Arthur a few years ago) who refuses to accept that they can actually be classed as pizza. When they finally arrived on the plate, they were no dissappointment... absolutely delicious and incredibly filling. Between us, we only managed to get through half of what we'd ordered but thankfully none was wasted as it can be brought home and re-heated.




The rest of the evening has been sent back at Arthur's drooling at yet more of his archive!
Another great day reaches its end,

Ciao for now,

$JJ