Love-15

Camille and I made our annual pilgrimage out to the desert for the tennis tournament.  And this time we became True Tennis Fans and went two days.  This gave us a bit of an in with a certain set of people, namely, the elderly.  Because it's the elderly who have the time and means to spend multiple days watching tennis matches.  At nearly every match, particularly on Friday when it was still just the first round, we would end up sitting next to a senior citizen gentleman and would strike up a conversation and it would come out that we were there for a few days and suddenly there would be a hint of respect.  We were there to watch tennis, not just see super-stars.

 

Except that we TOTALLY SAW SUPER STARS!

 

Look, it's Roger Federer, and Andy Murray, and Juan Martin Del Potro.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had to race to see Andy (remember we are his biggest fans.  We've seen him every year but last year and we made it a goal to casually run into him this time around.  Check!).  And Camille's height once again came in handy in getting us up to meet Del Potro. And being that close to Roger Federer meant that there were several large men behind me trying to get his autograph and I very nearly elbowed one in the groin because he was practically molesting me and when I kindly asked for him to back up Roger said, "Yes, please, everyone back up." Only then did the guys stop leaning.  So he wins Grand Slams and rescues girls from being impaled on media fences. Class act.

 

Other highlights

 

 

 

Don't let this picture of our drive into Palm Springs fool you.  It looks lovely, right?  But it was cold and threatening rain in Indian Wells.  We felt like we were at Wimbledon.  But aren't the windmills pretty? And, tennis miracle, there was no rain.  Just an arctic wind. 

 

 

 

There is always creative head-wear at this event.  This guy tied his jacked around his head to block the sun and/or the biting wind.  And he spent most of the match chugging a bag full of trail mix. 

 

 

Camille almost cost this kid the match!  We really like going to watch matches on the small courts because you can sit right in the front row in comfy seats about 20 feet from the players.  There were many times when a player nearly landed in our laps running for a shot.  So we're watching this match and Camille grabbed a bag of chips just before this guy served and the noise distracted him and he gave her a very serious look. Fortunately, as you can tell from the picture, heaven was on his side and he won. Is he being Raptured?

 

I get asked often why we go to this thing if we don't play tennis.  And here's the answer, it's the same reason why I go to Dodger games (I also don't play professional baseball) or any sporting event for that matter.  It's just really, really fun.  You're in the sunshine and these awesome athletes are doing amazing things and you get to cheer them on (I love cheering for people!) and there's usually an ice cream cone involved.  I'm really surprised why people even ask me this question.