Satiated Beaver Tour Day 6 -10

Day 6 … according to Burns “3rd Degree” Chamberlain
Long Beach, California

So the day began with a stroll to the coffee shop and taqueria for breakfast. We met a very helpful woman at the donut shop, who advised us on the best route to the beach, good restaurants, stain removal, and a general treatise on life. We were rescued by delicious tacos, SoCal style. Suitably fortified we made our way to the beach.

At the beach we decided it was time for a bit of a workout and used my stopwatch to strictly regulate turning every 20 minutes while suntanning. [As an aside, I want to point out that Austin gets a lot of sun. All of the Beavers understand sun safety and know to apply sunscreen often. Somehow, this did not prevent every single Beaver from getting sunburned. Some were worse than others, however, there is no excuse and in 25 years we’ll all be cursing this day at the beach.] We also played in the water, ran, and worked on a few snazzy sevens moves.

After a couple of hours Beaver tummies were rumbling, so we walked to George’s Greek Café for a late lunch. What felt like seven hours later, we left, having enjoyed mimosas (including a tasty pink lemonade version), Greek food and some very garlicky hummus. Such was the strength of this hummus that it spawned a new secret weapon to take to Belmont; winning scrums with garlic breath. By the time we finished, we had to hustle back to Miller’s to get ready for the game and hustle back down to the beach for our seaside match.

Meeting Belmont at the beach, we decided to warm up with some touch, playing with three rotating sides to ensure everyone’s participation. From there we moved on to proper sevens, with one critical addition to our side: Ros’s chosen accessory of stick-on mustaches. Super Beaver powers now firmly attached to our upper lips, we were ready to play Belmont for keeps. While we didn’t win, we played solid sevens, building on our experiences in Vegas and improving markedly. Belmont fielded a strong side that adopted the strategy of playing fifteens, thus tying up our forwards and creating much more work for everyone. Never fear though, this strategy was noted as a heinous crime at that evening’s Beaver Court…

Court was held at the Belmont Brewing Company, where the Belmont ladies graciously hosted us, i.e., provided “gallons of beer the color of tires.” The beer and food were excellent and fortified for a lengthy Court, featuring some 436 different charges, the wise and honorable Judge Krafty presiding (pink hat firmly in place), 749 punishments, and Belmont singing to us for their unpardonable offense.

Leaving the Brewery, we headed for Yankee Doodles, where we hit the trifecta: alcohol, trivia, and most importantly, karaoke! After a strong showing in the trivia, where the Beavers swept the Landsharks, it was time to sing. Ros led the way with the crowd favorite “Zombie” and was joined by T-Hole for a performance of their Nashville hit “I’m Too Sexy.” It was spectacular. Rocky roused everyone with “I Will Survive” before PhB and Beef closed out the night with their stirring rendition of “Sister Christian.”

After this much excitement, a few Beavers couldn’t head home yet, so PhB, T-Hole, Shay, Shaleezy and I headed for Ripples (though I still think it was called Ruffles), only to discover that it, and every other possible venue had closed, except for the Shorehouse Café, a 24-hour diner. It wasn’t until we arrived, were seated and given water that we realized none of us were hungry. We briefly debated the merits of splitting a $1.45 egg five ways, but (thankfully) left instead.

We arrived back at Miller’s and headed for bed, still sweaty, sandy and gross, but now dreaming of the beaches in San Diego…

And that is Day 6 according to 3rd Degree.

Day 7 … according to Tiffany “T-Hole” Hall
Long Beach to San Diego

I awoke this morning on two ottomans pushed together to form my bed, both of which were covered in sand from my dirty post-rugby-on-the-beach-sans-shower self. Unlike yesterday, the parrot in the corner did not wake me up at 6:00 am rubbing one out on its post, so things were looking up. I brushed the sand out of my eyes and gave myself a quick once over, only to discover two quotes from the previous evening written on my arms. “I drank a gallon of beer the color of tires” from our illustrious PhB, and “They smell good like laundry detergent” from karaoke master Chou. Good times.

Eventually the Beavers showered, packed and bid their most generous hostesses farewell and loaded up on da bus. We had a couple crankmeisters for a minute, exclaiming things like “I haven’t even had breakfast yet I don’t wanna do no trivia!” (Kitty) and “UNGH did anyone move my emory boards?!?” (Krafters), but we soon arrived at Seal Beach and had a wonderful breakfast of delicious Mexican tasties and local coffee drinks and we perked right up. Some of us had to forego beans and rice for a blander meal of yogurt and bananas as, while playing 7s is great, going #7 is not. We had a picnic in the grass and enjoyed Seal Beach, which we discovered is not so named for having dead seals. Sorry, Rock. The Beavers split up, checking out various shoppes and
fulfilling kangaroo court punishments and even racking up another heinous crime or two, before getting on the road to head south. San Diego here we come.

The drive was beautiful as it was short and we arrived in the sunny seaside city in no time at all. Upon arrival at the home of missing and greatly missed Beaver Daikon’s mother Kristin we got one of the best gifts so far – orange cones marking out a parking spot for da bus. Thank you Kristin!! Some relaxed around the pool, some sat and chatted in the shade, but the majority of the Beavs set up Apple camp in the serenity room, checking e-mails and bank accounts with as though they hadn’t been satiated for days. When the internet phenomenon had died down it was time to eat, so veggie grill master Ros prepared the burgers and dogs and only one Beaver was given a bunless, floppy weenie. Not bad.

This particular Beav then went to dinner with a fellow rugger from college and has no idea what went on with everyone else. As for me, the beers and times and Karen were all great. We reconnoitered around nine and put on the closest thing we had to dress blacks including fingernail polish and eye make-up courtesy of Rocky and prepared ourselves for the Summer Solstice Gathering with the Circle of the Stag Huntress at the Hot Monkey Love Café. Holy mouthful. While waiting for the ceremony some Beavers got their fortunes told, some drank big beers in the Bermuda Triangle behind the bus, and we all took a field trip to a Mexican-owned Irish pub that played reggae music. We were all sporting our day’s accessory, candy necklaces from Shalinka, and some of our fellow bar patrons were quite intrigued. We made our way back to the H.M.L.C. just in time for a very quick Wiccan solstice ceremony, piled back on da bus and went home. Some Beavers slept in the house, some Beavers slept on the bus, and some Beavers went wee wee wee all the way to the beach to watch the sunrise over the beautiful ocean. In the west. God bless them.

And that is Day 7 according to T-Hole.

Day 8-10 … according to Tiffany “T-Hole” Hall
Long Beach to San Diego

According to Wendy (until the beavs update the website…)

The beavers started the long trek back to Austin from Tucson today. They arrived on Sunday morning around 9am exhausted, dirty and glad to be home safely. Kitty in all her sunburnt exhaustion joined us at breakfast at Austin Java to give us a few tales. We enjoyed stories of exhaust (ooops…engine) throat, sleeping on the bus, the rugby games and more.

Later as we returned home we met up with another exhausted beaver. Shalay was at home on the couch catching up on all her tivo’ed shows. She was excited to tell us about a few things in Vegas, California and more.

But as we all know, what happens on tour, stays on tour…we didn’t get an inside scoop at all! Glad you all are back home safe and sound. I just got an email from the Swedish ref that did the Deb Ball for us and he suggested we take a tour in Sweden his home town. Wouldn’t that be a blast?? An overseas beaver tour…we would have to get a bus over there though…