San Diego and Denver Summer of 2015

I have been ignoring Camels and Tacos for several months. Apologies to my followers. I originally started Camels and Tacos for family and friends as a space to post stories and photos of our life overseas. When my dad passed last summer, I really didn’t fell like posting anymore. I came to the realization the blog was mostly for him. He was my number one fan and if I didn’t post often he would remind me during our weekly phone call.

The name Camels and Tacos is derived from: Camels=Egypt and Tacos= Tijuana street tacos-the ones you find in carts on the corner. Our favorites are the row of stands that take up an entire city block near the former Plaza de Toros (Bull Ring). Ana and I both like tacos. We thought the blog was aptly titled for our new overseas teaching adventure.

In 2013 when we moved to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to work at another school. The intention was to create a new blog: Tibs Tummy: Tibs: think Ethiopian fajitas and Tummy: what happens if you eat too many oily tibs. Long story short, an executive decision was made to transfer posts from Tibs Tummy to Camels and Tacos. So our Ethiopian adventures are posted here.

Last winter our former school in Egypt expressed they wanted us to return and since the feelings were mutual we struck a deal. We are back in the land of Camels and Tacos. 

Below are scenes from the summer of 2015. 

A two-month old Ximena sporting her favorite beer shop onesie. 

2 days after getting off the plane, it was time for some punk rock.  

Slaughter and the Dogs! 

Spouting naughty English humor. 

Rock and roll! 

Didn't get much surf time in this summer, but I lived vicariously through these dudes.

Waiting for tacos in IB.

She looks cartoonish. 

Tia Monica came to San Diego to steal Ximena. 

Guess who showed up at our door looking for votes? 

President Donald Trump invited all his latino friends over to our place for a fund raiser. 

Davey Frantix gifted me his work vest. I bet punk rock pilots are stoked to see someone sporting the bars on the tarmac.

The house where "My Dad's A Fuckin' Alcoholic" was recorded.  Davey with his mom Big Sal who hosted bands such as the Circle Jerks, TSOL, etc. 

Being a good son. 

Free Samples tapes. I flew into Denver on two separate occasions this summer and it looks like the same amount from the first trip. I have a feeling these might end up in a taxi cab in Africa.   

Typical Denver July weather: flooding and a two tornado afternoon. 

And there is Bart aka Jet from back in the day enjoying a bloody mary and asking the waitress to marry him.  

Bart and I rode to see Jen at her dog grooming shop. 

It was cool to see an array of breeds have a face off the clippers. 

My buddy Shawn brought in his pup as well.

Matt and I hanging out with Tony Adolescents.  

The Weirdos.

Rikk Agnew acting normal.

Tony and Steve! 

Kids of the Black Hole. 

Stopped in Fort Collins to taste beer and see Ana's boss, Michael plus an old friend Brian who I last saw in 1994. Check out his tunes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhDpSaq47IA

Another friend (K8+8) we worked with in Ethiopia was in Denver. 

Denver Botanical Gardens is lovely.

K8+8 also tried to snatch Ximena. 

Audery and Ximena! 

They keep sending me to Barcelona!

My school is nice, I was sent to Barcelona for professional development. Ana joined me a week later. During my time away from the wife I got to do all sorts of fun stuff like explore galleries, museums, book stores, parks, watch a punk rock show, etc. I'm trying to put a proposal together to take a group of students to Barcelona next year for an art trip that works into their studies, so I spent many hours doing the legwork to make sure this happens. The next 4-5 posts document my time with and away form Ana. 

Try this at home.

We ran into a parade of giants. 

There were lots of them, but more gawkers armed with cameras. 

I'm not sure why, but I do like this image. 

I like a serious lady. I mean a queen with olive earrings.

Hot, hot, hot!

The jealous spouse of hot, hot, hot. 

Getting down to the serious characters, the giant in front looks like the man who cut and sold me a 100 grams of Jamón ibérico. 

Checking out the buns on Papa Smurf. Hubba hubba.

Even Catalonian Pan and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark worshippers get to participate.  

Traditional handholding circle dance. To join in just pick a spot near a non-grumpy old man. 

I/we use airbnb for most of our accommodations, I stayed with this guy Donato and he showed me how to defrost a frozen fish.

A Sunday afternoon after several days of sitting in hotel room for a conference. 

I stayed near Park Güell, it was mandatory to go at least once to get a good view of Barcelona. The sad thing now, if you want to see all the cool Gaudi parts in the park, you now have to buy a ticket. Even worse, are the rails they put in, totally ruin the aesthetics of the park. LAME-O. Blame the government. 

The case ocupada (squat) near Park Güell has security cameras, the fine people at the squat fixed them with a little bit of spray paint. Now if people would do that to cameras elsewhere. 

The Catalonia National Museum occupies a nice piece of prime real estate with some cool religious art hiding inside. 

I stopped at the botanical gardens solely for the bee hotel, at least that is what they call it. If I were a bee this is where I would want to be. he-he.

Bee sighting.

Non-bee sighting, but some nice looking flowers.

Skate and Destroy MACBA. 

Olympic Park Barcelona. 

Olympic Park Barcelona with Chem Trails. Enjoy. 

Parc de L'Espanya Industrial (Spain Industrial Park) near Sants Station, near my conference. When my workshop was boring, at least this was outside. 

Agbar Tower and friends.

A friend. 

Fostering Arts and Design Barcelona

Jenga Barcelona 

Rite of passage Barcelona.

Your new home.

Stopped by the Side Car Factory to check the Cumbia/Punk/Electronic music of Los Ganglios. You can visit the band's site here. 

Across town in Badalona was a nice street punk/oi show at Estraperlo. The line was: The Business, Red Alert and The Destructors. 

Some arty Red Alert. Oi!

Old skinheads never die, they just get sanskrit tattoos. 

It is nice when you're the singer and your band is half your age. 

Getting down to business with The Business.

Damn straight. 

In our last days of Barcelona, our host told us "we need to go see gypsy music" at this down-and-out local bar. He was from the south of Spain so he knows his Flamenco. He said that we wouldn't be disappointed, he was correct. 

The space was small and maybe held 30 people who sat on plastic beer crates. 

In contrast to flamenco and all the way from San Francisco was Mark Kozelek/Sun Kil Moon. The show was classic. He told the Spaniards they didn't know how to box like Americans, told the dudes who were texting during his set to meet him outside after the show, told audience members that he was bummed that mostly guys like his music, called someone bald, talked about getting laid...as you can see, it was a great time.