Trip to a whole bunch of places

We went surfing on Thursday and played a Lacrosse game on Saturday! It is my cross-training. Today we got ready to go to San Francisco and loaded boats and packed. I have a big couple weeks: I go to San Francisco, then the Gorge in Oregon for the West Coast Championships, then to the Pacific  Coast Championships in San Pedro. (Whew) 

Home, home at last

Today I am at home and we had a nice flight home. At the airport we bought a Belgium comic and some chocolate as gifts and a t-shirt for Quinn and myself. The flight was so crowded that my mom and I had to sit in different rows. When we got off the plane we had to wait a long time for the luggage. We ate at Chipolte and it was tasty after we had a 10 hour flight. When we got home there was a big sign saying "welcome home champ." :{)    

Amsterdam Day 4

We took a long bike ride out into the country along the Amstel River.  It was amazing that it looks just like the Dutch paintings we saw in the museum. We couldn't find a breakfast place open on Sunday, so we missed breakfast and rode back into town and found a crepe restaurant open for lunch. After turning in our bikes, we walked across town and did a little souvenir shopping.  We're getting ready to head home tomorrow morning.

Day three Amsterdam

This morning we got breakfast at a place where they have every thing organic and also went to a bakery. We ate by the river on a bench. We visited the Anne Frank house where she stayed in hiding two years during WWII.  Then we climbed the highest tower in the town. After lunch we met Malcolm from my sailing team and went to the Van Gogh museum.  My favorite painting was a skeleton smoking a cigarette!! We ate dinner at a Thai  restaurant that was really goooooooooooood!!!! Then we went on a canal ride. That was fun. We came home and went to sleep:) 

Amsterdam Facts

Did you know that.... There are about 600,000 bikes in Amsterdam? There are 1,281 bridges that cross the canals?  There are more than 2,500 houseboats on the Amstel River?  Amsterdam is 6.7 Meters below sea level? The total length of the canals stretches to 100 kilometer?

Amsterdam

We took our car back to the rental place, then took a canal tour. We rented bikes and rode around the canals and got lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe where  we watched people play on a life size chess board. We rode our bikes to the Rijks Museum and saw paintings by Dutch painters like Vermeer and Rembrandt.  It was so cool.  Then we rode bikes to our hotel and watched "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in French.....just kidding, in English ha ha!

Drive to Amsterdam

We went to a World War I and World War II bunker built by the Germans along the Atlantic Coast.  It was awesome.  We saw all the old guns and barriers they were built.  There were also scenes of the soldiers on how they lived.  We drove to Amsterdam and....got lost trying to find our hotel.  We finally made it and checked in, ordered room service and went to bed.

Last Day of Sailing

Today was light winds and choppy so we did not get any races in.  We started a race but it was abandoned due to not enough wind.  There has to be a lot of wind to make up for the strong current. When we got in, Christopher Williford and I had a huge water fight with our bailers.  Then we packed up our boats and turned them back to the charter. We had a team dinner then played on the sand dunes next to our hotel.  We played hide and seek and had a sand dune jumping contest.  We got gelato, played in the hall of the hotel and made a facebook account with my friends.  

Photos from the regatta

Sailing Day 4

The wind stayed the same as yesterday and picked up a little later.  I had a great day.  The fleet was divided into gold and silver. I'm in the silver fleet now.  I had two fifth place finishes today. When we got back to the boat ramp and pulled our boats out it was low tide and the place was completely muddy and stinky.  In the morning after I launched my boat, I realized I forgot my rudder and centerboard in the car.  Mom ran to get them.