I apologize to those who will get two posts in one day, but I felt like I had to split this up.  So yesterday I spent part of the morning in Cambria trying not to freeze on the foggy coast, and then the rest of the afternoon/evening trying to stay cool at the Mid-State Fair.  So while the Central Coast has been a destination for my family since I was young, I can say that I had never been to this fair.  And after last nights visit, I know why.  We went to go see Don Henley in concert.  We had seen the Eagles in the last year and so my hubby and I were pretty stoked to go.  I had not been feeling well that day, and at one point my hubby asked if I wanted to go home.  I told him no.  If I had made it this far, I was going to see the concert.  Since we had been in Cambria earlier in the day, enjoying the cool coast, when we got to Paso Robles we melted.  It was a good 30 degrees hotter, and all of the walkways at the fair were in the sun.  We were able to find some chairs inside, got cooled down and drank some water. All this helped to get me to a place where I was good.  It was then that I got excited about the concert, and was ready and eager to go in when the gates opened.

That is when I was greeted by the view in our seats:

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Now I don’t mind being on the side of the stage.  I knew that when I bought the tickets, but pop up tents that completely block the whole thing….That is just not right.  As you can see by the fence, we were right at the edge of the seats and we asked if the tents could be taken down.  Someone yelled up that they were trying, but since they never came down, they didn’t try very hard.  You can see in the picture below that there was a screen that was somewhat visible on the other side of the venue, but because of angle and the state of my eyes it was useless.  The people around us were all pretty funny, we were all annoyed, but what can you do?  Before the concert started we thought “hey, at least we can get a good pic as they go on the stage”, well that was before the security started yelling up at us to put away our camera’s.

IMG_4259My hubby got a couple of shots before being yelled at, and that was fine, he put the camera away and settled in to hear the show.  While the sound was good, the view
was worthless.  Unfortunately I was paying for the sound and the view.  What I wanted was to see you perform live, but that was not to be.  So there was a lot of money wasted listening to what I could have listened to at home.  And yes, the music I have at home was PAID for!  Was the night a total loss?  No.  Like I said the people around us were all pretty funny and we had a good time joking around with everyone.  We then were cracking up watching the security detail shut down anyone taking pictures during the concert.  It was ridiculous!  Really?  I am all for keeping phones away, but at the beginning of a concert, where you want to just do a quick FB upload what is the big deal?  they were more of a distraction than any cell phone.  They prowled the aisles and it was comical, pouncing on people any time they saw a phone.  Who does that?  Well, I guess Don Henley.   If someone is taping the whole thing, or holding up a phone in front of someone, that is of course a different case all together.  That is not what was happening last night though.  I am not sure what the message he was trying to give, but it was not a good one.

I might have been more disappointed in the night if it hadn’t been for the people we met around us.  There was a gal that was sitting in our section at the beginning, and she  came up to me after a bit and she was hot.  It was pretty funny listening to her rant but there was a lot of truth in it, and I couldn’t help but agree.   She was a photographer and was at the Hollywood Vampire show the night before, that had no photo restrictions.  She was a crack up and had a few choice words for the star of the night.  There was also the lady in the striped dress that started dancing on song number two, till security made her stop.  We saw her as we were walking out and we all shared a good laugh.  These people were fun.  These are the people who made my night.  I am laughing as I sit here writing this.  We spent how much?  Jeez.  It sucks when you look at it that way, but when I think of the actual people I spent the night with?  It doesn’t seem like such a loss.