Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Dragon Boat Festival 2012

This year's dragon boat festival was last weekend and it was a blast, as usual.




Australia had a team this year.  Their tent was one over from ours.  I loved their accents.  They kept calling each other "mate", which was a hoot.


They had this little guy hanging off of their tent. SO cute. I wanted to take him home.


The team gathering up to warm up



Getting in postion to que up for the race


I really wanted to try this stretch but it was kind of vetoed by the rest of the team..lol.


Paddles and vest for loan. They really accomodate people who want to try paddling and participate in the races.  No need to buy your own equipment, just show up.




Go Blazing Paddles!


They have some fun entertainment acts. I don't get to watch too many of them because of our race schedules. I happened to catch this one on my way back from a race.




Every year some of the teams try to out do each other with the hats that the callers/and or steersman wear during the races.  I think this was a good one. There was a team of engineers that had a ruler and a protractor on their hat, which was pretty funny too but I didn't get a picture because I was in the boat at when I saw it.



We did pretty well in one race, placing 5th among 8 boats.  We got one of our best times ever, so that was cool.








Future paddlers






Spectators





Team Panda was there again, of course.  They have two teams. One is named "Orange Chicken" and the other is "Broccoli Beef".  Hilarious.



Joe injured his knee doing jumping jacks.  Here he is  fashionably rocking his ice pack. It didn't stop him from paddling in four races.  There's no "I" in Team!   :)



Chilling in the tent




I paddled in five races this year.  It's a bit more than I have paddled in over the last two years and I am a bit sore.
  
I was not scheduled to race in the last race on Sunday, but a player had to drop out suddenly so they put me back in. I was fine with that. I just do whatever they need me to do and I don't complain.  I think that's why they like Joe and me so much, because they know we are dependable and we just go with the flow. No drama, no complaints.


I have been a member of this team for six years.  Being on this team has helped me through a lot of hard times.  Even though we aren't adopting from China anymore, I have been assured that we will always have a place on this team.

A small group of us are talking about meeting year round to paddle, maybe once or twice a month.  Mostly just those who have older girls who can paddle. We hope to throw some ideas around and hammer out the details because I would love to continue to practice throughout the year, even if just for an extra couple of months when the weather is nice.

Another successful dragon boat season has come to an end.  Once again I loved every minute of it.

1 comment:

Jenna said...

I am glad that you guys had a great time! 5th place is pretty awesome! So cool that you guys have improved!!!! I hope you guys are able to get together to practice in off season, I know how much you love it!