I pack up my gear for the Head of the Charles and get the boys luggage ready. Can't fool them! They know they're off for a trip! It takes me until 1am to get everything ready. The boys are going nuts following me from room to room. Finally at bedtime, they're still wound up and have trouble going to sleep.
Thursday
I get up at 5am to teach my BodyPump class. The boys apparently have forgotten that we're going for a ride and want to sleep in. I'm tempted to leave them in bed while I'm at the gym, but apparently they remember and are ready to wake up! When they go downstairs and see their luggage, there is no leaving them at home. I put them in the Forester and we all go to the gym. After class, we change cars and hit the road. We're headed to the office! They seemed to know this was not our fun destination.
But hardly anyone is in the office this week so the boys are with me. I bring their playpen inside so they don't wander. However, the co-workers keep wandering over, so the boys leave my cube and check out the office. My boss brings over a basketball and Poker chases it all over. Not to be left out I give Euchre my coffee can to roll around.
Pretty soon, both are worn out and assume their office positions.
At noon, we hit the road and head to Connecticut. Poker sits in front of course. He has some friends for the ride.
Pretty soon, he's tired and rests on my arm while I'm driving.
Euchre sits or sleeps the entire way.
We make it to Connecticut to Arnie and Sandy's house. Their skin-kids Jeremy and Sara bring their miniature poodle, Canadle, and their bichon.
Euchre, Jazz: Smile!
Here's Arnie with Jazz and me with Canadle.
Their daughter Jessica and her fiance Dan marvel at the seven dogs and seven people in the house. Casey Jones and Max the poodle are on the floor.
Meanwhile, Euchre is quite taken with Sara.
After a long ride and a yummy dinner, we're ready for bed.
Friday
The boys stay over at Arnie and Sandy's for the weekend, and I make my way to Boston. Hmm. A caravan of Yale trailers...I guess I'm headed in the right direction.
The plan was to check into the hotel and then hit the T to my favorite shopping district. But the Prudential is easy enough to find from the freeway, so I find myself taking a detour to Newbury St. I walk around a little bit and find myself at the International Poster Gallery on Newbury St. I find two posters that strike my fancy and next thing I know, they're getting packed up and shipped to me!
Suze (1955) Herbert Leupin
Der Kluge reist im zuge (1959) Hans Thoni
My meter's about to run out, so the gallery people let me park in their spots out back so I can walk around a bit more. It's a rainy day in Boston, so I walk around a little then head to the car to go to the umpires meeting.
I get lost for the first of many (well, really not that many) times. I get there right on time, find a parking spot on the street and all is well. After the meeting Dougie and I get lost trying to go from Cambridge to the hotel in Somerville. We find a nice lady who actually leads us to the hotel by a totally different route. Thank goodness! It's raining really hard and I am done driving for the night.
Doug's brother, Kyle, and his friend Heather come by to take us to dinner. We stop first at this HUGE liquor store.
Then we head to Regina's for pizza. Here's Dougie & Heather enjoying some chicken pesto pizza.
Kyle is enjoying the bleu cheese not so much.
Saturday
5:00am wake up call. I follow the caravan of referees to Cambridge Boat Club and manage to not get lost!!! I get to my post at the MIT boathouse by 6:45am, park in the MIT garage, and get lost walking back to the boathouse. But I eventually make it and onto a wakeless launch to line boats up in bow number order (and only the odd number boats). I stay there until 4:30pm.
I'm a better mommy than Uncle Cedric and Stitch comes along to Boston to see the sights.
More friends. The MIT coach's dog, Orion, hung out on the docks all day.
And more friends. That's Rob, a former BRC coach in the blue boat. Now rowing for Narragansett.
I also saw this lady. Her boat color first caught my eye...then the unitard, then the unitard bottoms... Oh my.
Here's BRC sculling coach Marc Daemen (bow) with his 2x partner, Chuck Windeknecht. Marc is ashamed to be seen in anything other than a BRC uniform.
I missed taking pictures of the men's and women's club 4+s since the 4+s were a mess in the warm-up area! Too bad. The Baltimore women's 4+ came in 2nd! Yaaay! They lost by only 0.74 seconds. Booooo!
Here's the Women's Masters 8+ coxed by Sunil.
The Men's Master's 4+.
Ellen (bow) and Chrissy's Champ 2x.
I'm thirsty and am scared off from leaning on the "bubblah".
So I find some friends and get a beer instead. Here's Lou with his fruity martini. And Mike and Kathy.
Some new ref friends, Ned and Lisa.
I lost Ned and Lisa, or rather they lost me. But I managed to walk down Garden Street from Harvard Square and find my car. And then I get from her house through Harvard Square to the hotel without getting lost. Go me! I wake up the sick Dougie to tell him the good news. He's way excited.
Sunday
5:00am wake up again. This time, have to pack up all the stuff. But now I know how to get to the race course no problem. Here's my new assignment: the finish line. Apparently the volunteer stationed at this post on Saturday fell asleep. So apparently not much excitement here.
Looking right, up the course towards Eliot Bridge.
Looking down the course at the two little Finish triangles. These got knocked over a lot.
Again, I had my assistant Stitch.
And my assistant Nemo (when he wasn't keeping my head warm).
More friends! Referee Jan Stone
My friend Dave's wife Kelly who came in 3rd in the women's light 1x last year. She rows for Riverside. Dave learned to row at BRC before moving to Boston.
Will you be my friend? Adam Holland, a former Olympian.
A women's quad dressed as the Wizard of Oz.
Another quad comes around the last turn and finds themselves in the trees.
Maybe they could have used a coxswain like these crews.
Even a stern-coxed quad would do.
There was a rumor that Matt Damon was going to be rowing a quad. Where's Matt?
We never found him. But I'd take any one of these guys! The Brown University Men's Champ 8+.
Racing over for the day, Dougie and I skip town and meet Kyle in Newton. Of course, we get lost first. Then I continue on to Hartford, and get lost some more, and Arnie talks me through the last 20 minutes of back roads. When I get there, the guys are excited to see me. This is short-lived as they're ready to go to bed soon. Me too.
Poker always blinks on the first picture. This one's better.
This time his eyes are closed on purpose.
The next morning, Arnie and I go to breakfast before I leave. I let him drive. He asked for the hat.
We get back, I pack up the car, and he leads us through the scenic route to the highway.
This is something I'm not used to seeing in New Jersey. Something's missing at this toll plaza. Where are the cars?
And here's the answer to the question: How do I have all this dog hair back there?
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