Ready.....Row: How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Actually I didn't take a summer vacation, but given school is starting here in a few days, it sounded like a good title.

First off there was rowing. Our rowing season is broken into two parts - sprint racing in the summer and Head racing in the fall. This year we entered two sprint races. The first was the Occoquan Masters Sprint (OMS) held on our home water of the Occoquan Reservoir. It's hosted by the Occoquan Boat Club, also known as OBC. One of the highlights of this season is that Daughter#1 is coaching our Competitive Women. Here she gives final instructions to her "A" Boat before they head off to the start line.

They got a Silver Medal in their race. Nice job ladies.

I raced in an "8" and a Quad. We didn't medal. Here we are taking the "8" down to be launched.

Down to the dock.

Pushing off. I'm in 2 seat.

After OMS, there was Diamond States. That was an away regatta so there was boats to unrig.

And to strap down unto the trailer.

And boats to load onto the trailer.

It was a full trailer in the end.

Once the trailer arrived onsite in Middleton, DE, the boats had to be rigged and readied for racing.

And the racing begins being piped along to the finish like. I hurt my knee getting our mixed "8" out of the water and back to our trailer. I could hardly walk so I didn't managed to get any more pictures.

I also attended a Washington Nationals game vs the NY Mets. Daughter#1's husband is a Mets fan so it's the game we picked to go to. We got there early so we could look around the park. This is a view from the Red Porch in center field before the game

I was there with these guys - Ann, Daughter#1 and her Husband Matt shown here in the Red Porch.

We had some decent seats behind home plate from which we got to see the Nats win in the bottom of the ninth. Exciting ending.

We also have a National's farm team right down the road from us. Less then 5 miles actually. It's their High "A" club - the Potomac Nationals. The Nationals phenom Stephen Strasburg showed up for a rehab start recovering from Tommy John surgery. The stadium, such as it is (it has to be the worst "A" stadium in existence) holds 6,200. Almost 9,000 showed up to watch him pitch 3 innings. He didn't disappoint. He struck out 5 and gave up only two weak infield hits. What struck me about him is how big he is. He was easily the biggest player there. After Stephen left, The PNats held on to win. So nice finish all the way around.