The Walter Blog: Day 11 - Canoeing and the rain

We’ve been extremely lucky with the weather on our trip and despite our little rain storm today, I’d say we’re still on a good streak. Our adventure today began in our little “Closet” as we like to call it. After we had breakfast we headed to the Lee Valley Whitewater Center to watch Canoe Slalom. We ended up having to take a train to one station, a second train and then a third train to where we got to walk. From the final train station to the event entrance, it was probably a 25 minute walk through a field along a lake. It was actually a pretty walk but it seemed longer than it should have been. Along the way was a giant chair where we got a picture of Jarret sitting on it. Once we got to the event, we had pretty good seats. It was a little far from where they finish but you could still see all the action on one of the 2 giant TV’s. It’s pretty amazing how those guys can maneuver a kayak or canoe around a series of gates without touching them. The US participant didn’t make it out of the rounds yesterday so we had to root for Great Britain. As Great Britain’s racer came up, the crowd cheered the whole way. Unfortunately, he didn’t make the second cut and couldn’t race for a medal. The winner was from France and he has won it for the last 3 Olympics, I think. 12 men started in the first round and it was cut down to the top 8. From there it was basically a sudden death situation, the fastest one down the course wins. You get one run, winner takes it all.

Right after the race was over and before the Victory Ceremony began, the rain started. First it was just spitting a little bit and then all of a sudden it started to downpour. Up went the umbrellas and on went the raincoats. After about 10 minutes, it slowed down and then stopped. We stayed mostly dry, all except Rylee who got her pants wet and we had to listen to her wanting to go and change them at the hotel for another couple hours. You’d think with her AP bio class she’d learn that wet things eventually dry….oh well.

One of the nice things about this event was that it was a medal event. Because of this, we got to see the Gold, Silver and Bronze medals awarded after the race was over. It is always neat to see the flags raised for the three winners as the national anthem for the winner is played. Even if your country isn’t on the stand, it’s very special.

We headed back home along the long walk with the throngs of people all moving in the same direction. There was a helicopter above use hovering, I’m guessing taking some pictures. It would have made for a good picture to see a string of people probably a mile and a half long.

There have been tons of volunteers and they’re always happy, laughing and keeping the crowd in a good mood. I’m not sure they all know what’s going on however. We’ve asked a number of questions from being able to get tickets to the Olympic Park to transportation questions. The more I ask, the more I have the feeling that I should just get the information on the internet and trust what I learn. They mean well but they don’t always give you the correct answer. We did get to our event and get home with their help so it can’t be too bad.

As we were heading home, we tried to stop at a ticket office by the Olympic Park only to find out they don’t sell tickets. They just issue them from people that buy them over the internet. You can’t get into the Olympic Park unless you either have a ticket for an event there or a ticket for just the Olympic Park. Since both are hard to get now, Jill and Rylee may end up at the mall that’s just by the Olympic Park while Jarret and I go to the swimming event tomorrow. I’m not giving up hope but it’s looking more and more like that will be the plan. One thing we haven’t seen is people selling tickets at the venue. It sounds like there can be a pretty big fine if they do so they must be selling them some other way. Either way, I think it’s going to be hard for us to pick up a couple at this late date.

We headed back to the hotel with just enough time to send KHQ some pictures for a Skype session we were going to do. We found a place right by the hotel that is a dock area for boats and houseboats that is attached to the river Thames. It’s a really quaint area that is very nice even though it used to be very run down. We got a recommendation from someone telling us we should go to the Grapes Pub. Apparently Sir Ian McKellan is part owner of it. We thought was a great idea so we walked in with the kids and all heads turned to us. It turns out this establishment doesn’t have a license to allow anyone under 18 years old. It was a little odd but we went on our way. As we were walking back, there was an area where a couple bike paths come together. So we looked right and left and right and still almost got hit by a couple of bikes. At one other point a bicyclist had to veer off his path so he wouldn’t run into us. I just yelled “American In The Road”, I heard him laugh as he rode on so it must not have been that bad. We finished up with dinner at an Indian Italian restaurant. We just ordered some appetizers for all of us to split. When they brought finger bowls for us to use, the kids didn’t believe us. The waiter also put Rylee’s napkin on her lap for her. The look on her face was priceless. During the meal at one point in the discussion, Rylee turned to Jarret and in a half joking manner said “It makes me sad when you plug your ears when I talk to you”, and in a split instant Jarret lays out “ Well, it makes me happy when you’re sad” That’s kind of how this trip has gone. They needle each other quite a bit but in the end, they can laugh about it.

The last excitement for the night was at 11:00 PM, I’m writing the blog, Jarret is almost asleep, Jill’s almost ready for bed and Rylee is just getting out of the shower and all of a sudden the hotel alarm goes off. Rylee comes out of the shower in a towel and says let’s go! I tell Rylee she has time to put on some clothes, Jill and Jarret get dressed quick and I grab the backpack with all our info in it. The hotel can burn to the ground but I’m going to make sure we can get to our next event. Jill poked her head out into the hallway, as did several other guests. No one was running for the stairs. A call to the front desk allayed our fears that no, the hotel was not burning down. A guest accidentally pushed the alarm. Needless to say, we’re having a good time laughing about it. Rylee said she’s never gotten ready so quickly…..maybe tomorrow we’ll have them set off a fire alarm about the time that we want to leave. Rylee might just be ready on time for once…. Oh well, it was just a false alarm. Hopefully it won’t happen again tonight as we’re sleeping.