State Rowing Championship: Saratoga Regatta

-
We had our first "real" regatta in Saratoga this weekend. On Friday afternoon, Mark and I took our places as chaperones on the boys bus, and all spent a rousing 3 1/2 hours watching Hot Rod, Rambo and Miracle (all movies that are the OPPOSITE of chick flicks). I spent those hours trying to get to my "happy place" via my iPod. It sort of worked, except it was VERY noisy.

Once we arrived at the hotel, it was around 9:30pm, and the kids still needed a briefing about the morning's activities. The coxswains were scheduled to leave for the regatta at 5:30am, and we were to be in the lobby by 6:15 for a 6:30 departure. The day's weather turned out great, sunny and warm, as the kids embarked on their first official rowing adventure. Annalisse went first as she served as coxswain for the novice girls "C" boat (meaning: the least experienced). Her first race didn't go so well, as her boat zigged and zagged it's way to last place out of six boats. BUT, we found out later that she came 16 out of 26 overall, which was not too bad for her first time out, having only been in on-water training for four days before the race.
Cam went next in the novice boys "C" boat. Their boat was met with a couple of real challenges as they had to replace one of the rowers at the last minute, causing the coach to totally reconfigure the boat. With those changes, they came in 5th out of 6 boats, which Coach Wild was very pleased with given the circumstances.

Beyond the races, the time was spent walking around, chatting with other parents, EATING, and helping with food prep or any other job that needed to be done. Sunday started with a 6am departure from the hotel but, because of high winds the race ended early (around 3pm), and we headed home. After a quick dinner at McCardles, we walked through the door to be greeted by our very excited pup at 9pm.

We have the coming weekend "off," then we head to Syracuse for a regatta on Memorial Day, after which we'll be driving to Gloucester, Mass. for the rest of the weekend. Might as well keep the suitcases out!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Last Dance

-
Image
Another milestone alert: last night was the last high school dance for the Bakers. Since Cam did not really do any of that formal dance stuff, we had to get the best bang for our buck out of the second child, and she definitely delivered. It's been four years of fancy dresses, updos and makeup, and walking the dog last night came the realization that "it's over." Here's a retrospective of the "worn only once" dress club: The Long Awaited Much Anticipated Freshman Dance Fall Dance 2011  (Weekend Update) 10th Grade Dance  (Mother's Day Recap) We Survived: Prom 2012 Fall Dance 2012   (It's Hip to be (a) Square (Root)) Cheeky Monkeys Annalisse and her date and great friend, Blake, looked so cute together and were happy to be hanging out for the night. After pictures at our house, we met the kids at a GINORMOUS (and a little bit tacky, truth be told) house outside of Fairport for group pictures. This year certainly featured a lot of ...
Read more

Ride 'Em, Cowgirl

-
Image
My pal Sue is en route from Virginia for our annual girl's weekend - the one weekend (Friday night, really) a year that I actually drink a little beer (and eat a lot of snacks). This year we're heading to 1,000 Acres Ranch outside of Lake George. There will be six of us, and Sue is the only holdout for riding a horse (she claims it's because someone needs to take the picture; I told her that's what the shirtless ranch hands are for). We'll have to see how it goes...I'm sure it will be fun...I hope there aren't too many families with young children around...
Read more

The Long-Awaited-Much-Anticipated Freshman Dance

-
Image
Last weekend Annalisse went to the freshman dance with 18 of her closet friends. Unfortunately, she did not have a date with an actual boy, but that's really a blessing in disguise because, as much as she likes to "talk the talk," she's not ready to "walk the walk" and is very hesitant about boys (Whew! I can relax a little longer on that one!). Anyway, between having her braces off and a new hair-do (combined with a new dress, new jewelry, and new shoes), she was all gussied up and off to a friends house by 5:30pm for group pictures. All the girls looked so nice! The best thing was they had a lot of fun at the dance itself - not always the case as sometimes the prep is funner than the actual event. I'm sure talk will now turn to next year's 10th grade dance, during which the kids will kick it up a notch with gowns, tuxedos and limo rentals. As Nonnie used to say, oh mamma mia!
Read more