#44 & #45 Hopped Off A Plane @ LAX

I hopped off the plane at LAX with a dream to hit #44 & #45...

Shannon, Sean and I are here for Trojan Family Weekend 2013! 

Courtney stayed at home this trip because of her important roles in her Treasures of Weston play. We miss her. We spent our first night at the Georgian Grand Hotel in Santa Monica. After a long day of travel and some biking down Venice Beach a nice dinner we went to bed not too late to prepare for pool #44.

The pool was the Santa Monica Swim Center at Santa Monica College. It was a big outdoor facility with a 25x50m pool with and in addition a separate 25 yard pool. I got there late around 6:45 and it busy with an age group practice, masters practice and other lap swimmers. Outdoor pools are awesome! 3000 meters in an outdoor pool followed by Starbucks is a great way to start the day,

We had some time before we could meet Ryan at USC so we took a leisurely drive down Sunset from PCH to Hollywood. We drove through the Palisades, Brentwood, Bel Air and Beverly Hills before we decided to be tourist in Hollywood. Walking down Hollywood Blvd in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre is quite entertaining. It was fun!

Eventually we made it to USC with Shannon waiting to see her boy and Sean chomping at the bit. The big excitement of the day "seeing Ryan" happened around 2:00 after class. With his long hair, blazer, tie and longboard he clearly looked like a pledge at SC. We had a great time catching up for a bit, meeting bros' on campoos and checking out his dorm. It was then back to class. We all had dinner at the Lab Gastropub with roommate Joe's family. Sean then went for a sleepover with Ryan.

Friday morning I got up early and walked around Alumni Park and then Shannon and I ate at the parents breakfast and bumped into a friend of hers she hasn't seen since college whose daughter goes to school here. Eventually, we caught up with the boys and very happy but tired Sean. 

#45 came at a welcome time in mid-afternoon at the old USC Physical Ed pool. It's an indoor vintage pool with big tiles and high gutters. It's the pool that Olympians; John Naber, Joe Bottom and Bruce Furniss use to train in. Today the water is very warm and it seems to be the teaching pool for international students. Swam only 1500 yards but that was all I needed.

We then had an early dinner at LA Live and then the Beach Boys at Bovard Auditorium. Ryan didn't go but we met up later to drop Sean for another sleepover. A great way to end the evening for game day tomorrow.

Game day USC vs Utah started with a trip to The Row for a brunch at the ATO house. It was great to meet Ryan's friends and to see where he hangs out. We then walked to the historic LA Coliseum for the game. SC won 19 to 3. We had the chance to visit with Billy & Janet Willson at half time and I bumped into an old, old friend from elementary school-Billy Ruth.

 

A long day was capped off with dinner at the original El Chollo with Ryan's friend Otto from Indy.  We are all packed and ready for the flight tomorrow. All in all, it was a great weekend. We really enjoyed seeing Ryan in his new environment and knowing he thriving. It was also fun to see how excited Sean was to hang with his bro.

Looking forward to the family being together at Thanksgiving and onward to pool #46!

#43 Game Day Clemson, South Carolina

Today's pool is the first in a series associated with college football games. A DSM meeting in Greenville, SC in the fall followed by a Clemson football game has become a tradition for our sales management team.  Today's game is a big one Clemson vs Florida State two teams ranked in the top 5. Because it's a big game it starts at 8:00 tonight which gave me time to swim at the Westside Aquatic Center in Greenville. It's a very nice facility that was remodeled a couple years ago. The masters team came in late so I swam solo and came up with my own workout for 3500 yards.

A good workout this morning before an afternoon of tailgating is key. Off to tailgate and the game!

#42 The Big D and my first senior discount...

I'm in Dallas for four nights at an airport hotel for a series of meetings. The view from my room is beautiful-see below.  Fortunately, I'm near a Mexican resturant that I really like Via Real in Los Colinas-already eaten there twice.

I was also able to find a nice pool at the North Lake College Aquatic Center very close to the Four Seasons and Via Real. It was a 50 meter pool under a huge bubble. The pool was very active with a swim team, synchro team, aqua-sizer class and lap swimming. Due to the configuration of the pool it was 27.4 meters long for lap swimming. I had a good swim and was good to get some exercise in a long day sitting through meetings.

My only beef with the experience was that when I went to pay for admission the young lifeguard behind the desk asked how old I was. I said 50 and she said "oh-you can swim for free". I replied "ok but, I would still like to pay".  She said, "you are old enough to swim for free-go". With one last valiant attempt to not let my age get me in free, I said "what would you charge me if I was 35 years old?" Her was reply was, "I'm not telling."

Finally I gave up and swam for free and got my first senior discount-ugh!