Wild, Wild West Blog: Day 2
Wednesday (5/26) 9:48 pm PST
By: Maria McDevitt'10
Video from today.
So where did we leave the rest of the world off last night?
Well, for those you following us on our ventures, we eventually hitched up a caravan and made it to the hotel. Let me tell you, the NCAA knows how to take care of their athletes. Our rooms can be compared to Mediterranean villas with verandas leading to a tropical oasis…aka a pool.
We awoke from our comfortable slumbers to be greeted with probably the world’s best complimentary breakfast. I’m talking about made to order omelets, crispy hash browns, French toast…YOU CALL IT!
Following breakfast most of us fell into a food coma. However,
we got ourselves together and made our way to the race course for
the first time on this trip. Our course, Lake Natoma, is as
beautiful as we left it two years ago. Kara Knox, a rower sitting 3
seat of the varsity 8, likes to describe the surroundings as,
“Vast, rolling, golden hills stretching as far as the eyes
can see.” Mara Dondero, coxswain for the V8, has a more down
to earth view of the race course. She describes it as,
“Nothing. It’s a straight course with nothing.”
Poetic. 
One of the interesting aspects of the race course is that it’s not your typical dock. In fact, there’s no dock. You simply walk in the water with your boat and hop in. Technical term is wet dock.
After our V4, V8 and pair took a practice row on the course we descended back to our vans. However, we acquired a fan club consisting of one person. His name is James, he stands at about 25 inches tall and probably is no older than 18 months. He sent us off by blowing kisses as we shut the doors and trailed off. Charming.
Our evening ended with a quaint meal at a local Mexican restaurant. Tomorrow we will have several practice rows then attend the annual NCAA banquet. Oh one more note, we love snacks. Our team survives on snacks. Snacks.
SHOUT OUTS: Dr. Spinelli- keep the faith alive! Cait Conners- Keep on keepin’ on! And to the Philadelphia Phillies, COME ON!!!
Goodnight,
Maria
