Living The Beach Life

Mini-vacation!  Last weekend I had the opportunity to head down to LA for NCAA Championships and it turned out to be a great time overall.  I woke up at 3:25am Friday morning (so gross), was at Alex's house by 4am, and on highway 101 not long after that.  For it being so early in the morning, we were pretty energetic.  We played music and kept the mood up as the sun rose and found ourselves a few hours into the trip before we stopped at Denny's for breakfast.  I was a little stressed about making it to the competition on time so I rushed it a little, but it at least gave us a chance to get out of the car and stretch our legs.  Alex drove the rest of the way to Woodward West where I dropped him off for a fun-filled weekend of coaching kids and then quickly continued on my way.  I made it to the UCLA campus with about 45 minutes to spare...perfect timing!

Stanford had a really rough showing in their prelim session and it was a little difficult to watch.  Their season ended on a somewhat somber note and all we can hope for at this point is that they'll take what they learned from the experience and use it as fuel/apply it next year.  After the meet the alumnae that were there went back to the hotel, changed, and went out to a sushi dinner.  Funny thing about the hotel was that the original one we were booked to stay in actually didn't have room for us so they sent us to another one and paid for it all!  We lucked out with a really great, free room right on the beach...how awesome!  After dinner and a little bit of shopping I went back and crashed (such a long day for me) while some of the others stayed up talking at the bar.

The next morning we all got up, rented bikes from the hotel (again, free!), and rode along the beach.  It was great to cruise along the boardwalk and I felt very Southern California  :)  We ate breakfast at a little beach shack, played around at Muscle Beach, and stopped off at the boardwalk on the pier.  Afterwards we returned the bikes and went down to the water.  We saw dolphins, threw the football, and just enjoyed the sun and the company.

After showering we went back to UCLA to watch Super 6.  Even though Stanford wasn't in the competition, it was still a great meet to watch.  There was so much good quality gymnastics going on all at once and we were actually able to watch history being made; Florida finally broke in and became the 5th team to win the title.  It's been four teams for so long now, but hopefully the door has been opened and more teams will be able to challenge for the top spot.  After the meet was over we drove through Westwood and over to dinner at the Shapiro's house.  Their daughter, Sami, is a former national team member and current sophomore on the Stanford team and they live about 20 minutes from the UCLA campus.  They had a great setup going on and were very welcoming to all the team members, coaches, alumnae, parents, and fans that were present.  It was nice to spend some time with Kristen, Swiz, Tabby, and Allan and get there take on everything.  After getting our fill of amazing food and yummy desserts, those of us at the beach hotel went back with the intention of going out together but we ended up staying in the room just talking about anything and everything.  The weekend served as a great reminder of why I love the SWG program and of the fact that we really were and always will be a family first and foremost.

Sunday morning we walked to brunch but I had to take mine to-go so that I could get on the road in a timely manner.  I made my way back up to Tehachapi, picked up an exhausted and starving Alex off the side of the road, and continued up along I-5 for what felt like an eternity before arriving back in Menlo Park.  All the driving was definitely worth it for the experience and good times we had.  I'm looking forward to other SWG reunions coming up and also can't wait (on another note) to take my last trip this weekend and end the optional season in style!  I leave for Las Vegas Saturday morning, have four sessions to complete, and then I'll finally be reminded of what it's like to spend a weekend at home!!  There is so much to look forward to upon the conclusion of this competition and as summer approaches, woohoo!  Let the good times roll...I'm ready!