While Chelsea Football Club's visit to Northern California was brief, die-hard CFC fans gathered for the start of the US Summer tour in Palo Alto for some good old fashioned bonding over pints & footy. For myself, the excitement began the day before on Thursday the 12^th. I met with Jon over at Stanford Stadium where I was extremely fortunate enough to be escorted inside and shown where our special Chelsea section would be and where we might be able to hang our banners and flags. Even more cool was getting to walk on the actual pitch itself just knowing that the Chelsea boys would be on that very field in just 2 days time! On Friday the 13^th my day started with a Mad Mark & Del Boy pick up from San Jose Airport, Chelsea legends who kicked off their Summer Tour from Las Vegas of all places! After showing the boys the scenic tour of a very "posh" Palo Alto we ended up at the Rose & Crown/ Chelsea Central in the heart of downtown PA. Slowly but surely the Chelsea fans trickled in and painted the Rose Blue. Flags were hung with care and comradery was strong and evident in the growing excitement of Saturday's match against Club America as we warmed up our vocal chords with renditions of Ten Men Went to Mow, and more.

Saturday morning started early with a handful of Chelsea fans meeting for breakfast across from the Rose at the Peninsula Creamery. Stuffed with flapjacks and the like we made our way across the Bay to Emeryville and home of one of the most groundbreaking animation studios, PIXAR. One of our own just happens to be a very kind Stephen Schaeffer who has the coolest job in the world as a film editor for PIXAR. After initially extending an offer to give a tour of the studios to Chelsea, he was put in contact with Beth Wild who suggested some of the fans would gladly take him up on his generous offer. And that we did. Along for the ride were Andy and Matthew Burbidge, Teri and Aurora, Kevin Walker, Mark Reid and Steve Azar, both of whom brought their lovely families along. The tour was brilliant and simply amazing. It was great to see the whole process, and the fantastic working environment that even included a bar and band stage complete with instruments in the animation wing! Not to mention the full-sized soccer pitch adjacent to the studios!

A very loud and very BLUE Rose & Crown pub awaited us back in Palo Alto. The Chelsea faithful had arrived in mass for the game and wasted no time filling the pub with the sweet sounds of Celery! On a personal note, to see my little pub that I’ve frequented for years go from sometimes a "red" bar to blue everywhere I turned was absolutely beautiful, and it is a memory that I will not soon forget. Before long, it was time to make the walk over to a newly renovated and lovely Stanford Stadium. Andy led the pack and sung his heart out as we garnered quite a bit of attention walking down University Avenue as if we were in the heart of London town on the Fullham Road.

The time had finally come to see the Chelsea boys kick some Club America bum! I was still in awe of my front row seat when 4 minutes in the Mexican league team scored! (Not a pretty sight from 6 yards away!) In a strange display of celebration the opposing team's fans, on the second level balcony, began to set off numerous fireworks that continued for most of the game. While the boys in blue tried to come back during the first half, we were treated to Drogba, Essien, Carvalho, SWP, Kalou, Cudicini and many more warming up for the second half, right in front of us. The second 45 minutes were definitely much more enjoyable for everyone, especially once JT nailed that great header in to give us the win! After the game Cudicini walked up to our section and threw his jersey into the crowd where some lucky Chelsea fan went home with the real star "23" jersey. The night would end with choruses of Carefree, and the like, at the Rose. The Summer Tour had officially began. Time to bring on LA and Becks...