An awesome 4th of July and riding The Bull at Old Pro
With the 4th of July blessing us with an extended weekend, Stephanie and I packed in all kinds of stuff into what turned out to be an amazing few days out here in California. We hope that all of you had an amazing weekend as well - here’s a quick look at what all we got into:
Friday, July 4th:We headed to Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, CA for some 4th of July fun. Our friends who live down the street camped out there to make sure that they snagged a few tables for the 4th of July festivities. I think that they made it there at like 4am and just crashed there until the sun came up. Troopers, I know. We hung out on the beach, grilled up some tasty meat and saw an amazing sunset, which then led to the fireworks show. I love 4th of July.
Saturday, July 5th:On Saturday we headed to a friend’s cottage to hang out at the pool for the afternoon, which was amazing. A little bit of much needed relaxation and sun-soaking is just what the doctor ordered.
After that we cleaned up and headed out to a restaurant that we haven’t checked out yet here in Palo Alto called Mango Caribbean. It was delicious and there was a guy rocking out the steel drums to songs that ranged from Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry to Kansas’ Dust in the Wind.
Finally, for our grand finale, we headed over to a popular bar called Old Pro in Palo Alto, where we enjoyed some tasty brew from a BEERZOOKA and we FINALLY had a chance to ride the famous mechanical bull. All of us gave it a ride and you can check out how we handled the mechanical beast below or over here on YouTube. So, how was your weekend? 
Introducing the first Hup and Steph Quickie: Rock, Paper, Scissors
After Stephanie and I had an amazing time at a house party here in Palo Alto, CA and after realizing that I had taken a couple amazing clips of the fun, I have decided to come up with a way for you all to see these clips that might not necessarily make it into a full-fledged Hup and Steph video.
I have used my amazing creativity and marketing wizardry and have decided to call these new videos ‘Hup and Steph Quickies‘. Nothing like a good, old fashioned play on words, right? If Bart(Stephanie’s dad) is reading this allow me to emphasize, it’s just a play on words.
So, here is the first official Hup and Steph Quickie, which was taken last night when a questionable call during beer pong was settled by some rock, paper and scissors action. Please remember two things while you watch this video:
1. We are screaming that loud outside on a balcony
2. The cops were called on us and showed up about 15 minutes after this video was recorded. Coincidence? I think not.
Check out the video below or over here on YouTube and be sure to let us know what you think about the new Hup and Steph Quickies!
Teacher Stephanie graduates her class of 2008
Last weekend, Stephanie officially graduated her first class of California preschoolers here in Palo Alto. It was my first time seeing her school, meeting her fellow teachers and of course seeing all of the crazy kids that she deals with every day of the week.
Let me simply say that I have a whole new respect for her and for what she does each day while teaching at that preschool. The kids are awesome and hilarious, but it takes a special type of person to teach them every single day. Isn’t she awesome?
Of course I couldn’t miss out on getting some video of the sweet graduation action. Check out the video below or over here on YouTube when you get a chance and be sure to leave a comment and tell Stephanie congratulations!
A San Francisco reunion with Rev Peyton and his Big Damn Band
It’s kind of funny how as life goes on and as you get exposed to more and more exciting things your tolerance for this excitement seems to go up just the same way that your tolerance for cheep beer goes up in college. If you have been following this blog for it’s seemingly short-lived life, Steph and I have done some things that have just blown us both away. Things that afterwards we say to ourselves, “Damn, this might be hard to top…”. Well, somehow, someway we always seem to top whatever it was and end up with some amazing footage/pics/stories to prove it.
But, getting back to what I was first saying, even though we keep on trumping one amazing experience after another, the bar of awesomeness that is required to get us both super excited about doing something keeps on rising even higher and higher. So, it has been our mission to keep on finding these things that seem to always give us those little butterflies that pop up in your stomach when you are about to do something that you are truly excited for.
Lucky for us, the butterflies are basically built into the adventure that we’re taking on tonight. I mean, we’re going to see the Rev in San Francisco, California and when I say the Rev, I mean The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band. The same Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band that is from our home of Indianapolis, IN. The same Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band that makes people go insane(and sometimes naked) at their shows. The same Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band that has been traveling all over the freakin’ place in a van spreading some Big Damn Love. The same Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band that features Breezy, a crazed, washboard-shredding, facial-expression-rocking woman(who also happens to be the Rev’s lovely wife). Oh and yes, the same Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band that is led by the one and only Rev Peyton, whose guitar playing and screaming is second only to his brother, Jayme, who keeps the Rev on beat with a barrage of some ridiculously fast-paced drumming.
Did I mention how excited that Steph and I are for this show?
Anyways, here are the details on the show, if you happen to read this blog before the show tonight shoot me an email at ryan.hupfer@gmail.com and we’ll get crazy at the show together.
Where: 12 Galaxies in south San Francisco
When: Doors open at 8pm with Ha-Ha Tonka opening up at 9pm and the Rev following, probably around 10pm
How Much: Tickets are $10 online, but we’ll probably buy ours the old fashioned way - at the door when we get there.
One more thing - here is a video that I wanted to dig out of the archives for everyone to see. It’s when the Rev and crew were selling all of their stuff so that they could hit the road for good. Man, I can’t wait to see these guys.
Stephanie’s roomie gets hitched, are we next?!?
Now as far as I know, I haven’t popped the question yet to Stephanie, but according to the results of the bouquet and garter belt toss at her old college roomie’s wedding reception last weekend, it shouldn’t be long. Yep, Stephanie caught the bouquet AND I caught the garter belt. What are the odds of that, right?
Of course I got the entire thing on video, along with some other things that caught my eye and if you’d like to check out how everything went down feel free to click here to check out it out on YouTube or watch it below now. More posts and pics coming in the next couple of posts - talk to you all soon!
The evidence of the Bay to Breakers madness
As Stephanie and I have continued our California journey together there have been many things happen along the way that I would call ‘crazy’ or ‘wild’ or even going as far as ‘pretty nuts’. However, there hasn’t been anything that has even come close to the madness that was the Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco that we joined in on a couple of weekends ago.
We saw crazy people, we saw people doing crazy things and of course, we saw naked people. The race was 12Ks of pure insanity and for some unknown reason I waited until now to create and post the masterpiece of a video that you can watch below or over here on YouTube.
Let me know what you think about the crazy day that we had in San Francisco and be sure to enter in your email in the subscription box that’s located at the top of the column to the right. It’s the best way to keep up with what we’re doing out here in California - you know you want to keep up with us!
Heading to the mountains on the coast
What do you do on a Saturday afternoon in Palo Alto, CA when you have some time to hang out? Well, you drive over the mountains and go hang at the beach, silly. Duh. Check out our video from when we went and checked out San Gregorio Beach that’s located just over the Santa Cruz Mountains. Awesomeness.
Thanks to my man, Jeff.
So the last piece of furniture that Stephanie and I needed to buy is probably the first one that most people get - a bed. We had some time to spare due to the fact that we have a couch that has a bed inside of it, but I think that both of us are pretty much over sleeping on a fold-out-bed in our living room.
Today was the day to go and get our bed and thankfully my man Jeff, whom I will be working with out here in Palo Alto, was up for the challenge of basically driving through the ghetto to go pick it up - not to mention he was taking time out of his day to do so. Well, after 4 hours, a strapped down mattress that would make any hillbilly proud and many, many stops in places Jeff wasn’t too excited to stop in, we had the mattress back at our cottage. It wasn’t really easy and definitely not the most efficient way to do it, but God knows that we all have a story to tell all of the newspapers and magazines once we are all millionaires a few months from now.
As a way to thank Jeff I felt like I needed to show my appreciation in a way that clearly showed how thankful I was for him helping us out today when I know he had many other better things to do. I also wanted to have some fun with his East Coast mindset when it comes to a guy from Indiana coming out to the ‘big city’. Watch the video below or check it out over here on YouTube.
Thanks again Jeff, Stephanie and I both truly appreciate your help today.
Getting settled in
I know that it’s barely been 3 days since we’ve been here in out new home in Palo Alto, but we have had to do so much and everything is so new that it seems like we’ve been here a month already. Between getting used to our new cottage(which is AWESOME), getting new furniture, meeting awesome new people and getting prepared for new jobs - there is definitely plenty to be done.
Yesterday Stephanie and I decided to take a trip to IKEA so that we could get a few pieces of furniture that would make our cottage feel a little more like home and make it a little more useful (check out pics from the adventure over here on Facebook). It’s pretty amazing how you never realize how important the things are in your life that you tend to get so used to, such as coffee tables, tables with chairs, beds, etc. You know, the things that everyone has to get at one time or another.
It’s also funny how this same feeling can be applied to some friends and family that I had to leave when I decided to take this crazy adventure out west. I think that I have officially talked to my brother more the last month than I have the last 3 years of my life due to the fact that we’re now 2,000+ miles away. It’s funny how when we were only 10 miles apart that we didn’t really chat much at all, but now that I’m in Palo Alto we feel like we need to talk more than ever. But hey, I’m not complaining and I could definitely get used to it.
I am hoping that this blog will help all of you keep up with everything that we’re doing out here in Palo Alto and I’m also hoping that it will also convince most of you to come out and visit us sometime soon. Very soon…
Also, since we rocked out IKEA yesterday, I figure that it’s only appropriate to post this video of Stephanie and I visiting the furniture paradise when we came out here last January. Have you ever been to IKEA? If not, you’re in for quite an experience.
Palo Alto adventures: Eating at Plutos
We have officially made it to our new home in Palo Alto, CA and in fact - I am typing this from the living room of our new cottage. I have a couple of videos to post from the last day and a half of driving, but I wanted to go ahead and give you all a glimpse of what Palo Alto is all about.
Stephanie and I headed to a place called Plutos today, which is located right on the main strip (University Avenue). Although they yelled at me a few times to put away my camera, I still somehow came away with some sweet footage of this awesome and very tasty place to get your grub on. Check out the video below or click here to enjoy it over here on YouTube
More videos coming soon and once we get settled in you’ll be hearing a lot more from us here on the Internets..enjoy!