The people demanded it

March 22nd, 2020 was a slow moving Saturday.  My family and I should have been on a beach in Aruba.  I should be about 5 strawberry daiquiris into the first full day of my vacation but COVID-19, Coronavirus happened.  Aruba closed its borders and now everyone wants to participate in social isolation.

I was uncertain if I would write a blog this spring break or not.  There was public demand for some content and this blog does represent a collection of the most impactful moments for our family so I had no choice but to do at least a little writing. 

I think the tone of the session might be a little different.  I have some plans but this may be a little more of a review and a little more philosophical than usual.  We will see where my stream of consciousness takes us.

Our Sunday started EARLY.  In our neighborhood we have had a little suspicious activity as I f late.  There has been a neighborhood text chain that Kari is involved with that details the suspicious activity.  We discussed the details about these incidents and both felt comfortable that they were not a big deal.

Well at 3 AM I woke up to a click.  Nothing major but I sat up and saw Molly sitting at the top of the stairs a position she takes when she wants to go out at night.  Being the incredibly sensitive and doting husband that I am I thought I would let her out.  I head down the stairs to let her out.  I hit the first landing and told Molly to come on and let’s go.  I turned to look at the door and saw a figure.  Was this figure an attempt to break in? Was that the click of them popping the lock?

I yelled “Hey, who the #%* are you!!! GET THE &@$? OUT MY HOUSE !!!”  I basically jumped down the last set of steps.  It was at that point that Kari threw of the blanket she was wrapped in and yelled..”It’s me!!!! It’s me!!!”.  I looked at her like what are you doing.  She looked at me like what are you doing.  Molly went out the open door to pee.  We stood there looking at each other for what seemed like forever then Ashley came out of her room.  “What’s all the yelling?”  Kari explained that I thought she was an intruder. Ashley shrugged her shoulders let out a slow “Ooohhh” turned and went back to bed without another word.  Kari had a lot harder time going back to sleep.

After catching some sleep I was up and caught a 45 minute live ride on the Peleton with Hannah.  It was great and it got me moving the rest of the day.  

Yesterday, in the evening the neighbors practiced a little social distancing with beer at the park.

Today I finished my quest to delete all duplicate images in our IPhoto.  I still can’t get all the images off the cloud and down to our iMac.  It is starting to make me crazy.  If an Apple expert showed up covered in Coronavirus but agreed to fix my photo and cloud issues and if I hugged him while wearing a speedo I would do it.

We kicked it around the house.  Ashley watched TV.  Katie slept a lot and Gracie made art.

Art projects created at Casa de Anseth.  I am pretty sure Katie did the tree, Ashley the sunset and Gracie the geometric shapes.

Grace did an online dribbling clinic.  At 4:00, I rode my bike to Lake Riley for a little social distancing with the boys 

Scott Dennin took the pick, CP, ScottyRob and Me.  Almost looks like a 90s boy band cover.

After we got home we ordered some food from Yum! It was great - Miso Salmon and Tuffle 🍟.  It was delicious and felt good to support a great local restaurant.

This makes it a little better 

After dinner we played Scattergories.  It was a great time.  One person in our family needs to relax the game is not life or death.  We laughed a lot and argued a little pretty typical for an Anseth game night.

I am gonna steal a little bit from my main man Charley during this blog session.  So here goes....

Watch: Inside Bill’s Brain on Netflix 

Listen: Podcast Conversation with Tyler —Reid Hoffman 1/15/2020 where you get your podcast

Follow: @tedgioia music writer always has a daily suggestion of music to try.

Read: Band of Brothers.. Stephen Ambrose.  If you need inspiration to do what you must this is it.

Hardships will come and go but somethings are deep and more meaningful in our lives family, friends, love, purpose and faith. They will provide a firm foundation for us.

Little combo with Instagram this time around.  I will be putting up pictures from the past and if you read this then you should vote on the one you like best.

Let’s get another glass of wine cause tomorrow is a new day!!!!

She Believes

March 10th, 2020 is a Tuesday. I took Grace Anseth to Dallas with our friends ScottyRob and his daughter, Avery.  The plan was to come in Tuesday night, see the US Women’s National team play on Wednesday and get home Thursday by 2.  This seems like a fun plan to see some awesome athletes do their thing.  It got a little more stressful with COVID-19 becoming a more significant issue around the world.

We hit MSP at maybe 10, walked through security and were at our gate in 20 minutes.  During that time we applied roughly 2 pounds of hand sanitizer.

Our flight was uneventful from MSP to DFW.  We took an Uber up to Frisco and checked in without issue.

We checked in at the Marriott at Legacy Town Center. It is a beautiful hotel in this funky neighborhood where you can walk to different shops.

After checking in, I took an elevator ride with Mallory Pugh and Kelly O’Hara.  They were very nice.

ScottyRob and I talked the girls into this food hall about 10 min away at the most.

The girls getting ready for a little pasta.  We ended up getting some orange chicken too, which was killer.

#itis5o’clocksomewhere.

We did stop and take a couple of photos.  The shadow is there on purpose so the girls don’t get their retinas burned out by the setting sun.

These two are pumped to see the US Women’s National team.

After the food hall, we walked the boulevard for a little bit and found a very nice sushi 🍣 restaurant.

This Toro was as good as it gets.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel.  I thought the girls might try to get a couple of autographs but I think they were too nervous.  This did lead me to follow Carli Lloyd  through the lobby telling her that she may be one of the best footballers of all time and asking if she remembers scoring 3 goals within like 16 minutes during the first half of the the 2015 Women’s World Cup.  She smiled pleasantly and nodded acknowledging that I was there but too crazy to stop and talk too.

We went to bed after that. On Wednesday March 11th, 2020, we all got up and met at the Starbucks in the hotel.  Nothing keeps Coronavirus away like a hot chocolate and a chocolate croissant 🥐.  The girls hit the pool for a little bit and then we decided to try TopGolf for lunch.

Doesn’t matter how nice it is sometimes you just need to cruise cyberspace.

We banged balls at TopGolf for about 1 and 1/2 hours. We played some fun games.  We ate a little lunch and we had a few Diet Pepsi’s.

Hit it straight Youngblood. Lord know the dads can’t 

After cleaning up at the hotel we headed to Toyota Stadium for the US vs Japan Game.  We had the opportunity to tour the Soccer Hall of Fame first. 

Outside Toyota stadium.

The Soccer Hall of Fame is amazing and super interactive.  Grace, Avery, ScottyRob and I each created our best US Women’s National team of all time.  I was in the 91st percentile.  I did a US Men’s National team as well.  I was in the 97th percentile.  The strikers are pretty easy with legendary players Clint Dempsey (Come on you Spurs) and Landon Donovan.  We of course had Christian Pulisic in the midfield.

You should definitely check this place out if you get to Frisco, Texas.  After the HOF, we checked out the media spaces at Toyota Stadium.

Grace and Avery working on handling post match questions.

We also had the opportunity to see the US Women’s National team locker room before the match.  We broke things down with the head equipment manager, Jake.  Who goes through boots the fastest?  How do you handle all the gear?  Is anyone particularly superstitious?  It was amazing.  Jake is a little OCD so the jerseys have to be in numerical order.

Here we go.

Legends

Megan in the middle.

These are Carli Lloyd’s boots and shin guards.  This is the most baller thing I have ever seen.


The girls with Jake after the locker room tour.

After the tour we had the opportunity to watch the women head to the locker room.  Grace has the video on her phone.  Most were business-like preparing for the match but Megan Rapinoe gave the girls a little 🤙🏻 and Rose Lavelle gave them a little 👋.

After, we killed a little time till the US Women would take the field for warmups.

I can’t count real high but I can get to 4 World Cups.

We were able to get down on the edge of the field for warm ups.  It wan a beautiful night in Texas and the girls loved every minute of it.

Waiting for the US Women to hit the pitch.

One picture with your dad.

Avery and ScottyRob 

Ali Krieger and Kelly O’Hara

Becky Sauerburnn.  We love her at the Anseth house.  Signed Gracie’s jersey in 2015. 

Kelly O’Hara

Julie Ertz leading the warmup.

After warmups m, we head to our seats.  Amazing seats, you could see the game develop in front of us.  We also had prime time seats for Rapinoe’s sick free kick for the first goal and Christen Press’s ridiculous chip for the second goal.  That chip was so good we needed some salsa.


The girls are 100 percent into this game.

The field.

A little game action.

Once the game was over it was back to the Marriott.  I thought the girls might want to stay up and see if the US Women’s team was going to show but they were tired and went to bed.

Kate Markgraf, the US women’s team manager stopped by the lobby bar for 1 second and was gone.

It was an amazing experience with great friends.  In the morning it was Starbucks, DFW airport, hand sanitizer and home.  Turns out this was the last major sporting event held before everything went sideways.

For me this was a great way to end socializing and begin social isolation.

The Ups and Downs of Valparaíso

Sunday, January 5th was technically our last day of vacation.  The boat docked in San Antonio, Chile early in the morning.  TB, Lara and the girls had a different departure time from the airport so they booked a separate tour for the day leaving Kari, Lance, Mary and the girls to keep me on my best behavior.

We said goodbye to TB, Lara and the girls around 7:30 AM.  They gave us about an hour to get organized.  At 8:30 we departed the boat for a final time.  It was a cool and overcast day in San Antonio.

The enthusiasm for leaving and flying home was already palpable.

Once through security we found our guide waiting for us.  The EP Butners and the Anseth’s loaded up a ridiculous number of bags and boarded our bus.  How are we going to kill 12 hours until our plane leaves from Santiago.  Our guide decided we should see the beautiful and historic city of Valparaiso which is on the coast of Chile overlooking the Pacific.

On our way to Valparaíso we stopped at the Sanctuary of Our Lady Purísima de lo Vásquez.

The Sanctuary 

Inside the Sanctuary.  It was Sunday so people we’re actually going to church.

The Sanctuary and the courtyard 

Every December 8th people from both Valparaíso and Santiago complete a pilgrimage here  The journey is typically on foot and can take a couple of days.

The Virgin

We finally made it to Valparaíso.  Valparaíso is a beautiful city that rises right from the Pacific Ocean.  The climb up the city is incredibly steep.  The roads are filled with switchbacks as you climb from the ocean.

Grandma 🎩 and Ashley above Valparaíso.

According to our guide this is a relatively famous attraction in the older district of Valparaíso.

Valparaíso is marked by many colorful streets covered with murals created by local artist.  It makes the steep walk a lot more entertaining.

Butseths are not hippies but we are happy to be off the boat and headed home.

This one is for Grandma Eva... we found a Lutheran Church in Valparaíso, Chile.

Colorful murals.  This is one of many that we enjoyed during our walk.

Love the streets in this old section of town.  Colorful and narrow with cobblestone.  So much character.

Looking back at the Lutheran Church and the hills of Valparaíso.

These are the famous elevators of Valparaíso.  Basically they are little boxcars on rails that ascend and descend the steep hillsides of Valparaíso.  These elevators were first built in 1911.  Over the years they fell in various states of disrepair but thanks to the World Monument Fund they have been restored.  A unique solution to the problems facing this city in the early 1900s

So many elevators.


The cable room where the pulley moves the car up and down the hillside.  Do you trust 1911 technology?  I guess I do?

This is my number through the turnstiles for my ride down the elevator.


Kari and the girls in one of the elevators ready to descend.  I have a great video of my ride but still can’t import it directly from my phone to BlogTouch.



At the bottom of our ride.  What do you think of this infrastructure, does it need to be updated?  There are like a thousand wires running to this pole.  Looks like my dorm room plugin back in 1991 with 2 splitters plugin to it.

We made it to the Plaza at the base of the hill where we nervously waited for our ride.  We were surrounded by graffiti from the recent protest in Chile.  We were also at times surround by packs of roving dogs.  These dogs seemed just friendly enough not to attack us.  They circled Casey, Sadie and Grace for awhile but eventually wandered  off to eat garbage.  No one was happier to see our driver than this group of teenage girls.

We grabbed lunch at a local restaurant.  We thought it was pasta but it was a thick cheese soup.  Which was not what I was looking for.  Luckily they have beer in Valparaíso so that made things a little better.


Beer.......

After lunch we stopped by this museum in Valparaíso which has an idol from Easter Island.  Supposedly this is the only one outside of Easter island.  Not sure how true that statement is.

The Anseth girls and the Idol

The Butner girls and the idol.
After that we started to head back to Santiago.  We did stop at a winery for a little refreshment.  It was beautiful.  The wine was OK.  The older wineries are south of Santiago not west like this one.

This photo is so artsy.  

From the winery we headed to the Santiago airport to wait.  We waited patiently.  Well, nobody waited patiently if you were a teenage girl, you complained about the line, the WiFi, the lack of seating and the people.  If you are the only 2 dudes with this group you leave them behind go to the restaurant above checkin and pay $20 for 2 beers and get the restaurant to change the TV to the Vikings/Saints game.  These same 2 dudes enjoyed about 7 minutes of Zen.  Then the check in line started moving and they were texted incessantly by their family to move the mountains of luggage these girls had packed.  The luggage was checked  and the Vikings won.  Everyone made it through security and eventually to our gate.  After some McDonalds, we said our goodbyes and took our flights back to the USA.  Amazing trip with amazing views and lots of amazing stories.