Che Spettacolo?

It's the most wonderful time of the year: the MotoGP race at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. Although my beloved Sete Gibernau has abandoned the sport and retired to Switzerland with his Spanish supermodel wife, I still dragged myself and my family to the race. The atmosphere is very European, with a lot of walking and men with accents running around in short shorts and colored shoes with socks to match. Our adventure started early Thursday. Mercifully, the temperature was about 30 degrees cooler this year than last year. It also probably helped that I wasn't 6 months pregnant. So, we dipped the girls in our giant vat of sunscreen and installed their various ear protection devices before strapping them into the backpacks and making the 1/2 mile hike down to the track. We walked around for a bit and spent a bunch of money on stuff we didn't need, like fancy Italian driving shoes and Ducati racing apparel before heading back to the RV so the girls could nap. Patrick then lugged his giant painting of Valentino Rossi down to the pits to be autographed. His hour and a half wait for "The Doctor" paid off! "The Rossi," as I call it, has been signed by Valentino himself. Yay! The next few days were a blur of walking, picture taking, race watching, and the like. John and Heidi came up with the Row-bot (Baby Rowen), and we all enjoyed the races together. The actual GP race was kind of boring; all of the Americans choked and Rossi came in 4th. My little favorite, Loris Capirossi, did not even finish due to mechanical difficulties. But, despite the lack of excitement, it was an enjoyable family vacation. We got to spend plenty of time together, and our girls were stellar (as usual). We are definitely looking forward to next year!

Here we are with our professional child toting setup. Our consulting services are available for a nominal charge.

Madeline puts her navigational skills to work.

When we arrived at our campsite, we were greeted by a 3 foot deep pot hole where our left front tire should have gone. They also decided to cut 5 feet out of the length of our campsite and put in a row of outhouses. But, our Daddy is a very talented driver and positioned us safely and comfortably in our designated camping area. That is our front wheel several feet of the ground, but we were level!
"I'm sorry; what's that you say? I can't quite hear you. Oh, I'm the cutest thing ever? Yes, I know."

OCD rears its ugly head at breakfast.

"Can I help you?"

The Martinez Family right after leaving the apparel shop on Ducati Island. I am not ashamed to admit that one of my main reasons for being a Ducati fan is that they have the cutest clothes of any of the manufacturers. I expect nothing less from Italians.

Fi wearing her headphones attracted more attention than many of the racers got. There were people stopping to take pictures of her all the time, many of them without even asking me. The nerve!

Maddie and Daddo's thinly veiled attempt to convince Mom that Maddie is old enough to have her own motorcycle.

We're ready for the races!

They look bored, as if they do this everyday.

Sleepy Baby

Maddie was way into the motorcycles this year. Every time we were in the motorhome when the bikes came out, Maddie ran up to the front window to watch. It was so cute how she clapped whenever a bike sped past.

The Row-bot recharges on his mom.

Maddie and Rowen

"Well, I'm about ready to go home."

I am not going to label all of the rider pics, because those of you who care will know who they are. I do want to make a note about the second picture here though. Every Italian and Spanish racing team has one guy whose sole job it is to lean against a piece of equipment and smoke. This is that guy. I would also like to confess that I shamelessly used my youngest daughter to get a pic with Colin Edwards. No one can resist a baby!