Kick in the Eye

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were spent at the racetrack. It was HOT there (high 80s) and it felt like Cleveland (which is usually in the 90s). The best showers in the world are the ones you take after spending an entire day hot day at the race track. You start to feel as if you're never going to be clean again, but then you jump in the shower and life is good again. Not that life isn't good at the racetrack, because life is BEST at the racetrack.

To show my complete Champ Car Geekness, here is a picture of me (I swear the camera put all extra 10 lbs on my face, so beware of the fat-faced chicke) with Kevin Kalkhoven, aka The Savior of Champ Car and co-owner with Jimmy Vasser and some "P" guy of PKV Racing who raced Jimmy Vasser and Cristiano da Matta this year.



I got a hug from Scott Pruett when he saw me (I sat across the aisle from him on a plane from Cleveland to St. Louis, as well as talking to him in the paddock at various races) and that was pretty exciting to this race fan. I don't think he realised I was just a fan that he's seen tons of time, but I'm relishing that hug!



Monday was the absolute pinnacle of my trip because I ate at the same restaurant as Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata! In fact, there are stories of Pancho Villa riding into the restaurant/bar on his horse. And I don't know if everything that occurred there happened on the same visit, but he also shot his gun into the ceiling and the bullet hole is still there. And supposedly Villa and Zapata ate together there and planned the revolution. I was beyond excited to be there as my first cat's name was Zapata – named for Emiliano.



And a close-up:



That bullethole was over the booth next to us. And this was my view from our booth:



Besides eating at La Opera we also touristed at El Zocalo where we saw the National Cathedral which was impressive,

This is the smaller altar you see when you walk in the door where they hold daily Mass:



This is the side entrance to the Cathedral:



and the National Palace



which has Diego Rivera murals up the yin-yang (all incredible) and we had a guide which explained them all to us with me obnoxiously nodding along to show my immense knowledge of Mexican history. They were just brilliantly done. Here are the main three:







We then walked to the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts)



where most of it was closed off (other than the lobby) but we did enjoy an extensive visit to the bookstore where amazingly enough I bought NOTHING!!! How unbelievable is that??? From there we walked to La Opera where I was in my glory sitting in the booth next to the one with Pancho Villa's famous bullet hole and chose to believe that Zapata had eaten at the same table as me!



And that was my wonderfully fun vacation to Mexico. I hope you enjoyed my little account of it. I have more pictures of different things from the Museum of Anthropology, so if you're interested, let me know I'll post them or send them. The problem is that most of them I don't remember from what era they are, but they're still very cool.