San Diego

Our time in Chula Vista is at its end for this season. People have headed back to their own places in Boston, D.C. and Princeton, somewhat thankful to be returning to their own beds, their own cars, friends and loved ones. The OTC in Chula Vista is a great place to meet new people, relax, and focus on training but at times can be somewhat socially and culturally limiting to a large group of young people who are stuck in close-quarters for long periods of time.

I heard recently that Lake Carnegie was open for skating in Princeton. Weather reports tell me that temperatures have been hovering in the 30s, and that for the most part, it’s been a pretty standard Jersey winter. Normally I would wilt at the thought of ice, snow, antifreeze and high heating bills, but instead I write this gleefully from the dining hall of the Arco Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California, where the weather report remains stable: 65 and sunny. So while my friends and cohorts on the men’s team rekindle their relationships with the ergometers in Princeton, I am enjoying warm, rose-colored sunsets over dusty desert hills, where families of small, furry bunnies scamper playfully to and fro amid the twilight-silhouetted palm trees.

How many out there remember the first time they had the toe in their coxless boats? We've started our starboard stroked matrix and yesterday we did our first set of racing. Needless to say, things got a little intersting. On the first piece we almost hit the shore. However, by the second piece we were going straight enough to pull off a win. I'm getting better every day, but it is still a humbling experience to know just what everyone on port side already knows.

We just wrapped up a nice weekend. It all started off with a nice hard workout on saturday morning. After a quick brunch me and Walsh headed in to PB to the ZLAC rowing club where we were treated very well. But, by the end of our little talk we were quite famished. So... we headed down to Taco Surf to grab some dinner. It was pretty crowded and after tasting some of those fish tacos I can tell why. From there we headed downtown to say goodbye to some navy friends who are shipping out pretty soon. Man were they going after it. It is a shame that we had practice the next morning, otherwise we could have done some damage.

In the recent poll, 52% of people thought San Diego was the best place for winter training. I wonder if the vote was taken today if it would be the same? Steve, don't you wish you were back in Princeton? We've been having very pleasant weather in the 50's, no complaints here! And when we are on the water, we don't have to watch out for plane wake (Scott).