Dragon Boat Races Day Two

I am sore.  I am sunburned.  I am exhausted.  

Everything is as it should be after the second day of races.  :)

The weather started out weird this morning.  We woke to cloudy skies and quite a bit of rain on the ground.  Not normal at for us this time of year.  Thankfully the rain seemed to have passed in the night .  Although it remained overcast the rest of the day we only had about a half an hour of rain and it wasn't considerable. It was actually during warm up and we were hot so it actually felt good.

Someone donated a bunch of money and we had brand new boats for the races this year.  They were so pretty.

I pulled out the big guns in terms of hats today to keep from being sunburned further.

Getting ready to head out for the race

Warming up

On deck

Waiting.  There is a lot of "hurry up and wait" right before your race starts

 Caller's seat and Drum

Loading the boat for the race

Keeping the boat steady.  Kind of important when you are loading.

Other teams getting ready to head out

Paddling out to the start

Not last again today!  Woo hoo! 

We came in 6th out of 7.  But we were very close behind the 5th place team.

Keep in mind we usually come in last.  We have kids in our boat and the other teams have all adults. The fact that you can even see other teams in the same picture as our boat at the end is pretty amazing.  LOL.

 I think if we practiced year round (or even 6 months like other teams) our mixed team could do quite well.

This afternoon when we got home I took a shower and laid down on my bed to read my Kindle for a bit.  The next thing I know Joe is shaking me awake and asking if I want dinner.  It was 6:30 and I had been asleep for 3 hours! That's what happens to me when I am in the sun too much.  

I am dehydrated and sunburned and every muscle in my body hurts.

In other words, it was a great weekend.     :)

I almost shed a few tears when we were packing up getting ready to head home.  I will miss it so.

Joe and I might have found a way to help us continue with our love of paddling for the time being.  I'll keep you posted on that.

Dragon Boat Races 2011

Day one of the Dragon Boat Races was a blast, as usual.  I am tired, sunburned and sore and will be heading to bed soon.  We race in two races tomorrow.  If I can still move after today.

This will be picture heavy and short and sweet on words.  I am exhausted.

Me with our spiffy new team banner

Mixed team, first race

Joe resting after his first race

I love to go around and check out the other team's names.  Some of them are funny.

This was written on on of the other team's boards.  Funny.

One of the vendors

Chilling in our tent between races

Girls playing a mean game of cards

Poor little guy was worn out.  His mom pulled him into the shade after this

Women's team, second race

As you can see, I am rocking a pretty good sunburn on my face by the end of the day.  

Must reapply sunscreen more regularly tomorrow!

Men's team race two

Look!  They aren't in last place!  :)

Kind of blurry but they are still ahead!  They placed 4th out of 7 teams and we were thrilled.  We don't usually do better than 5th or 6th. Not bad for a team that only practices for 11 weeks out of the year!

Our picture in the program 

The clouds were awesome in the afternoon.

The future paddlers playing on the beach.  They can hardly wait to turn 8 so they can paddle with us.

Little paddlers cheering us on.  So cute.

That's it for now.  I'm hitting the sack.