Season Recap

November 25, 2008- Who knew people read this thing!! I will try to do a better job of posting, especially next year when I am overseas.

So we just wrapped the first year of the E&B era of Wayzata swimming, that's Elizabeth and Beth for those who did not catch that:) We had a very successful first season and are in the process of downloading all of the info so we can sound knowledgeable about all the great things that happened for our banquet next week. Here are the quick highlights:

• 8-1 dual meet season


• 9-0 junior varsity dual meet season
  
• True Team Section Champs
  
• 3rd at True Team State
  
• Section 5AA Champions (we had 31 out of 32 possible swims in the top 8!)
  
• Qualified someone in every single event at the state meet
  
• 10th place at the state meet
  
• 497 season best swims throughout the season, and this does not count the first time they swam any event!!

Overall Elizabeth and I could not be prouder of the girls. We are most impressed about the level of commitment and discipline they showed all season long. They are a great bunch of young women and we are lucky to coach them. We laughed every day and hopefully made the girls laugh once or twice along the way. Hopefully we taught them something about life and swimming at some point as well.

We were very nervous about running a taper on our own, but we can say that we think we nailed it!! We raced so well at Sections and again at State. Our JV section team also dropped time and we saw many season and lifetime best swims at the end of the season.

So final thoughts. What can we say, we loved every minute of this season. There were ups and downs, but we learned a lot and hope that we can make each season better than the last. We are a young team and are certain that we will only better with age.... sounds like something else that is near and dear to my heart.....

Thanks for checking in.. check back soon for pics of the fam over the holidays!!

Ciao!!

Nov. 2, 2008- I finally made it to Italy!! Let me walk you through my day, oh wait, day and a half of travels to make it here. I arrived at the airport in Melbourne 5 hours early so I could avoid the "middle seat" fiasco that I encountered on my flight over here. Only they didn't start checking people in until 3 1/2 hours prior to the flight, so I got to sit for an hour and a half. I should have noticed the sitting theme... From there I got an aisle seat and boarded the plane for Singapore, a 7 1/2 hour flight. I slept zero hours as it was the middle of the day and I wanted to try and stay on some form of a schedule, don't ask me why!

So we get to Singapore and have a 40 minute layover while they clean and refuel the plane. So I walked around for a couple minutes, then sat some more. By this time is was about 2:30am in my world. We reboarded and headed for London, a 13 1/2 hour flight. I passed out and slept for the first 6 hours!! Which is impressive for me since I can't sleep on planes, maybe if I was 5' 2" or something, but as you all know I am not. I guess mind over matter works sometimes. We landed in London at 5:30am their time, don't even ask me what time it was in my world, I lost track after the multiple time zone changes. From there I hung out for 3 hours before boarding my final flight to Milan, a 1 hour 40 minute flight.

So in all, 35 hours later, I arrived at my hotel. Trying to be a trooper I made my self shower and go out walking to scout out the area. I found an awesome Italian joint for some good pizza and a Coke, then proceeded to walk abother 15 minutes before I could not take it anymore. I was alseep by 8pm and up at 4:30am.

Today was a great day. I walked to the Duomo Cathedral. I got there right as the lift was opening to go to the roof so I bought my ticket for the ride up.

It was early so the streets were dead and the sun was hitting the buildings beautifully. I got some amazing pictures. After a long walk this morning I found a park next to my hotel and went for a little run. It is a gorgeous park with tons of trees, a pond, fountains and more. I'll go back and take pictures before I come home.

So tomorrow I head to the EICMA show for set-up and then 2 days of press attendees. Should be a couple fun days and then heading back home on Thursday. I am very ready to be home. This has been an amazing trip and I have a ton more pictures to show everyone when I am home.

Wrapping up Australia Leg...

Day Four- October 29, 2008- We arrived in the city of Lorne last night about 6pm. It was a 3 hour ride and the last hour was along the Australian south coast, absolutely breathtaking. This morning I was up early so went for a walk on the beach right after sunrise. I got some amazing pictures and think some will definitely make it onto my walls back home.

From there we rode for an hour further up the coast before we cut through a mountain. It was by far the most technical ride I have ever done, sharp corners and a lot of them. I felt very comfortable and it was a great learning experience. I went a little faster today than yesterday on the straightaways, but I won't say how fast since mom might get mad:) But as always, I was as safe as I could be.

From there we ended up back at the office. We rode for about 3 1/2 hours and my rear end was ready to get off the bike!!

Before we headed back to Melbourne, we stopped at an animal park. We got to feed kangaroos and pet a koala bear. It was so amazing to see and pet these animals.

They were smaller than most normal kangaroos, but that we ok with me.

I learned that if you are holding the bag of food, you are an easy target!!

But we all had fun and it was amazing to see these animals up close.

Today we are going to the Melbourne Motorcycle show and an awards dinner tonight. Then one more day for me before I jump on a flight, which I just found out will take me 24 hours to get to London.... I'm a little sad about that. But I will have an extra day in Milan before I have to start setting up for the show. I will have some time to recover so all will be great.

Thanks for checking in and hope all are well stateside. Miss you all and will be home very soon!