Sunday, July 31, 2011

A Day At the Races

One of my bridesmaids and a fantabulous pretty amazing friend, Chelsea Moody, came out to visit me this weekend. We had a BLAST! Having her around made me miss college when we lived right next door to each other. I definitely took advantage of being able to walk only a few feet to go see her and Anna. While Chels was here we talked late into the night (only as 2 women can do), we went to the beach, shopped; it was pretty much a typical girls weekend.


But the highlight of the weekend was definitely the Del Mar Races. Every July traffic here gets worse all because of the Del Mar Races. When we would visit here for the summer I remember my parents and I being bitter because of the "race traffic". But this year instead of complaining about it I decided to see what the hype was all about. Chelsea and I headed to the racetrack where we met Mara (my lil sis in the sorority) and her fiance Cole. We had no idea what to expect or what a racetrack was like. I assumed there was one race that everyone watched and then went home. Yeah, I was wrong; there were probably 10 races and then there was a concert afterwards. It was an all day event.


One of the horses we bet on "Stormy Anna"... she did AWFUL and came in LAST!

Chelsea and I wanted to bet on some horses but we were clueless. We had never heard of any of the words in our program "trifecta" "exacta" "furlongs"; it was like a foreign language to us. But we tried to learn as best we could and started betting. We had no strategy at all. Well I guess we did but it wasn't a professional one; we simply picked the name of the horse we liked the best.


Losers!

Our little "strategy" didn't work for us the first couple times. But in one of the races we triumphed!! The horse we picked to win was "Emerald Gold". She wasn't favored and had good odds (I think it was 9-1) and she surprised everyone and won first!!! By the way, I think all race horses are boys but I'm not sure, but regardless I think "Emerald Gold" should be a girl. Before this happened Chelsea and I had decided that the first horse we won on would be the name of her new car. Earlier in the day I had asked her if her car had a name and it didn't so this solved that problem. Now her car's name is "Emerald Gold" or "Em" for short... pretty cute huh? Its lucky we didn't win on some of the other horse names like "Nuggets Please" or "Free Beer". Yes, these were actual horse names; some of them are so strange. Chelsea and I really want to name a horse. We wanted to come up with some clever ones but the best I could come up with was "Munchie Munch" and she came up with "Wickedy Whippedy".


Emerald Gold wins first place! That's her/him in front... what a stud!



WINNERS!

We bet on one more race and won again!! This time we won with "Pick and Pray" and we picked him because that's pretty much what our strategy for betting had been the whole time so it was very fitting. Originally he one 1st place but then after some instant replays he got disqualified and got bumped to second; but it was all good because we still won! Overall we lost twice and then won twice and only lost a total of 40 cents! Pretty good I'd say for our first day at the races and for not having a clue about how to do any of it.



Some of our winnings. We are high rolllers what can I say :)


So so happy with our winnings!! What a great day at the races!


We all had such a great time at the races. The races only last about a couple minutes but those 2 minutes are so exhilarating. Everyone is yelling and cheering and standing and jumping; its super exciting. Maybe I'd actually enjoy Nascar....actually I don't know about that... that's a stretch. I will definitely be coming back to Del Mar! And next time I'll get dressed up in a sundress and wear a "race hat". How fun would that be to get all dressed up for the races?!?!


After the races Chelsea and I strolled along the beach (I know romantic right). I never get tired of sunsets at the beach. They are so gorgeous!! Chelsea said whenever she thinks of the beach she thinks of a big ice cream cone because they just go together so well. So for the evening we were little kids eating our ice cream at the beach. We were two happy campers!

Happy as a clam with her ice cream cone!


To wrap up our weekend we relaxed outside on the patio and sat in our new patio furniture. I'll post pictures of the patio later because I'm pretty proud I put it together myself. We successfully built a fire in the firepit (and neither of us were girl scouts either). Pretty good for 2 sorority girls! The whole weekend was so fun, so relaxing and perfect; I don't think either of us wanted the weekend to end. I LOVE having house guests and love to explore Southern California and all its awesomeness with my friends. Thanks for driving out Moody and coming to visit!! :)

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