Bottlerock Weekend Part 2...

Festival Day 2!

Same routine as the day before...coffee...pastries...bubbly and of course Day 2 Outfit and Family Portrait:

First up of course is grub!

Making Libby jealous

I wouldn't normally do sushi at a festival but this was gourmet shit.  And Oh. My. God.

Taylor got a burrito but the man devoured it too quickly for me to get a shot.

Kimchee Burger from Morimoto.  Seriously. Probably my favorite over the whole weekend.  The patty was wrapped in Panko and the flavorful juices trapped inside.  I died. I fucking died.

We then split off - Taylor was off to Skydeck and T and I went to check out Rose's Pawn Shop.  The banjo/guitar player - John Kraus - is one of the ridiculously talented musicians that play with us for the ADolts Only Xmas Pageant at Stages.  I would love to see them again.  They are so much fun and quite folksy which of course I love.  Also - all of them - super hot.  Seriously.  Like HAWT.

Hi John Krause!!!!! 

Hawt.  Every damn one.

Random Dr. Suess thing.

Next up we headed over to check out The Joy Formidable.  We found a nice spot in the VIP tent area.  Saturday was the hottest day.  It was like Coachella hot.  So shady spots were defiantly ideal. They were super fun and super cute.  Very peppy and rad as I expected.

She's so damn cute

T got some Popcorn chicken and dumplings

After Joy was The Pharcyde.  I had wanted to check out at least part of their set.  I mean hello high school memories!  There's a few hip hop groups I like and they were fun but I had got wind of a newly added special show that I need to run off too.  Um...Franti...in the teeny VIP tent.  So I just caught a few of The Pharcyde's set.  I was now also on my own!

So...being by myself...I thought maybe I could score a good spot.  I headed over to the tent and it was already pretty full with people waiting for Franti.  I found a little spot to the side of the stage and it ended up being perfect.  Aside from a drunk couple and a group of "pretty" snooty girls, my area was golden.  And sure enough - there he was.  He and his guitarist Jay Bowman.  RIGHT. THERE!!!!!
I died.  I have giant crushes on both of these beautiful men.  They put on such a great show!  The energy in the tent was fantastic!!!!  They are both so friggin happy and awesome and you know they love what they do!!!  The show was only about half hour but it was one of the best half hours of my life!!!  I loooooooooooooooooooved them!!!! 

Michael Franti and Jay..right there.

RIGHT THERE!

*almost faints*

The crowd in the tent was RIDICULOUS!

I almost threw my panties....

I wanted to stay and hug them and take a picture with them but I got a little self conscious around the pretty girls so I headed over to Ziggy Marley.  More like I floated.  Seriously - those boys put me on cloud nine.  Such an incredibly intimate show!!!

Ziggy was back over at the Midway Stage and he was so awesome!  I cannot get over how much he looks like his dad.  He was so great!  The crowd was bouncing and loving every second.  Ziggy was on it and wonderful and happy and so much fun.  I did maybe get a contact high in that crowd...

Ziggy!!!!!

Also right before Ziggy I ran into my adorably rad co-worker Cristina!

I left Ziggy's set part way through to hit Death Cab for Cutie back at the Skydeck.  Bummer was...I wish I stayed at Ziggy.  Death Cab was probably the biggest disappointment of the weekend.  They were quite boring actually.  The music was kinda muddled and I just wasn't into them at all.  The cool thing though, Terri ran into a HS buddy of hers, Albert, and his friend Maya and they were super cool and sweet  - so yay new friends!

New friends!

Before they finished I thought...you know what....I could eat again.  So - I tried out the VIP pass through walk way that we didn't know about until today - and - um - RAD.  So I took a few shots and got myself another pork sandwich.  It wasn't as good as the Mustards Grill one but it was hella good.

Why did we not find this until Saturday!

After this - back to Skydeck for Florence and the Machine.  Holy. Shit. She was amazing!!!!  She was perfectly on pitch, you could tell she was so excited to be performing in front of the ridiculous crowd, she was energetic, beautiful, and a brilliantly wonderful performer!  I loved loved loved her so much!!!!  And it was so obvious the crowd loved her too!!

She ran into the crowd and climbed up on this thing!

Both Fri and tonight we waited until after the main portion of the insane crowds cleared out before we made our way out into walk home which was a very smart move on our part I must say!  Tonight though...the TJ Dog lady was out there!!!!  Any of your concert goers know who the TJ Dog lady is.  T got herself some late night yummies.  I took a bite and yup....straight out of LA man.  So delish!

Gangsta Taylor

Last Day of the Festival!!!!  Last outfit and last family portrait.  This time Taylor suggested we also do an "Amish" version.  I kind of love it.

We are awesome

Now...this day Jami was not doing well.  I actually had a moment where I wasn't sure I was going to make it back to the festival.  I got no sleep the night before, maybe over did it on the drinking/eating the day before and let's be honest - I'm 40.  I am not the rockstar I used to be.  Sunday morning was WORK.  But...we planned to go in a bit later.  I napped as best I could.  Kept on the Advil and water and Tums and rallied!  On our walk over this time we noticed one of the houses along the walkway and right by the festival made the best of it.  They were out there with bubbles one day but today - water balloons!!  I love cool people!

Once into the Festival we hit the food again.  I was feeling human again and ready to eat!

GET IN MAH BELLY!!!!

We ate in the VIP Lounge and enjoyed the acoustic loveliness of Jamie N Commons.  He wrote a song for The Walking Dead!!  He was lovely.

First stop was the Culinary Stage where they were doing a cooking demo with Taylor Hawkins from Foo and Chad Smith from Chili Peppers.  I mean we had to see that!!!  They were awesome!!  The Williams Somona Stage peeps build drum kids out of pots and pans and cutting boards!  Super Rad!

I heart him

Terri & I then slummed it in the GA for X Ambassadors.  As much as I loved the VIP lounge the sound was actually better in GA.

 Back to Skydeck for one of my all time favorites Gogol Bordello.
Unfortunaley they were having major sound issues.  They put on a great entertaining show as they always do but this wasn't their best.  I've seen them 4 or 5 times now and I love them so much.  They still rocked the house despite the issues and I will always love them!!!  If you have never seen them, check them out.  They are always friggin amazing!!!

Seriously.  Love them so!

I always wanted to be one of these girls!

This was last visit and drink for me and T.  Taylor was going to stay and watch the rest of the Mainstage bands but T & I were spending the rest of the day at the other parts of the venues catching other bands.  Red Hot Chili Peppers were headlining that night and we'd both seen them and weren't super impressed so one last visit and a few last free drinks and we left Taylor to watch his non negotiables while we headed to ours.  That's another cool thing about Festivals - you don't always have to stick together.  You see the bands you want!

Bye SkyDeck!!!!!

Next up was what is now a new favorite band.  We had heard these kats playing on the car ride up and I was IN.  People make yourself familiar with Pimps of Joytime!  If you like funk.  If you like talented musicianship.  If you want to hear some damn good tunes - check these folks out.  AMAZING!  Plus - they have a gal percussionist/singer.  She was like Sheila E but better.  That's right I said it.  She fucking rocked!!!!  I danced my ass off!!!  We watched their whole set and I'm in love!

Stank face

White girl dancing

Random super hot roadie that T and both about tackled

New girl crush

Little photo op on the way back...The LOVE sign was clear...new profile pic??

Hippie for life!

After this we headed back over for some Ozomatli!  I love them.  I've seen them and I love them so damn much.  My funky bone was so being tickled by this point.  I was still on a high from Pimps and now I'm grooving to Ozo!  This is why I love music so damn much!  T & I chilled in the VIP lounge for his set and loved all of it!!  Then - after his show - they totally marched through our section New Orleans style!!!!  I was ecstatic!!!  So awesome!!!!!!!!

Um...hi guys!

So cool!!!!!

After this we stayed and watched Rodrigo & Gabriela.  Now - they had a good turn out, but later in their set most people were heading off to Chili Peppers.  This worked out awesomely for us!  They were fantastic!!!!!  First of all Gabriela has to not be human.  That womans hands move over her guitar like nothing I have ever seen in my life!!!!!  She was incredible!!!!  They played a rad set and I'm so happy we stayed for the entire thing.  Seriously - they were brilliant.  Also - um Robert Trujillo from Metallica came and played a few songs with them!!!!  WHAT!?  So fucking rad!!!!!  They were the shiz-nit!

I waited longer than I've ever waited for anything for these dumplings.  They were so worth it.

What's up Robert!

After this T and I headed over to Langhorne Slim.  On the bitty stage so it was so rad!!!!  Plus - again - most people at Chili Peppers so super chill and super cool!  I loved him!  He's fun and funky and folksy!!  All the F's I love!  Also around this time we got the text from Taylor.  He was peacing out of Chili Peppers because it got too nutty.  So I guess Skydeck did get a bit nuts at one point!  Makes sense on the last band of the festival.  I'm glad we didn't experience the craziness.

Now back with Taylor, we did one last sweep to check the venue out with all the nighttime lights and I'm so glad we did!  It was beautiful!!!

The T's!

Team TJ!

Silent Disco at night

Off we went for our final walk home. And guess what...we were hungry.  So we stopped at Compadres which is actually right across from our condo.  Libby and I had talked about stopping there but never did.  Totally delicious legit Mexican food!

Biggest Burrito I've ever seen

And he finished.  This is why we're friends.

Next day we slowly rolled out of bed and packed up for our head home.  I didn't want to go.

But we had to.  So I had us pose for our last family portrait.  A bit sad this time.

We don't want to leave!

We hit the road.  Not nearly as bad of traffic as we dreaded for it being the Memorial Day Holiday.  We did hit a few snafus but got home in a reasonable time.

This was the best festival I have ever been too.  I love Doheny.  I enjoyed Coachella back in the day but this was right up my alley.  Yes - we did it VIP style but it was worth every penny.  The food.  The wine.  The music.  The venue.  The organizers.  Napa.  My two rad comrades (The T's).  This could not have been a more fantastic weekend!  I love love love me some Bottlerock!!!!!!!!  I hope to return.  It's a hit on the pocket but something I certainly want to try to repeat.  Thank you Taylor and Terri for joining me on this awesome adventure in my most favorite place in the world!  I had a perfectly wonderful weekend!!!!