Sports...with water?

I come from the land of football. And basketball. I now find myself in the season and geography for things like regattas, lacrosse matches, and the Frozen Four, which helps me better understand why baseball is widely considered the sports tie that binds this great nation. It really is everywhere with at least a general public understanding of the sport. Granted, my favorite part of a baseball game is the food and beverage (perfectly legitimate reason to indulge in hot dogs and beer!) and not necessarily the sport itself, but that's beside the point.

This land I come from, this land of football and basketball known as West Texas, also happens to be remarkably lacking in bodies of water. I still get a thrill driving across bridges here and probably will continue to do so for the rest of my life - I mean, there's water actually flowing down there. With waves. I may have seen spotty patches of murky "water" in the Canadian River during my youth, but I certainly don't recall ever seeing that water actually go in any direction. Unless there happened to be some freak flash flooding. Hence the crazy water passings and flood markers in Palo Duro Canyon. I'm guessing no one's ever taken in a sculling match at Lake Meredith, either.

Anyway, this minor fascination I have with water combined with a general interest in sports and finding things to do here other than the usual led me to the edge of the Potomac to take in some of the action at the George Washington Invitational Regatta. Well, the aforementioned things and the fact that I think it's fun to say "regatta." Let me just mention that the entire experience might have been a little more enjoyable if the sun had decided to peek out and relieve us of the rain and general chill in the air, but I'm not sure if that would have helped much. It just wasn't that exciting. I mean, it was cool to watch people haul these ridiculously long rowboats around and listen to the crew leaders bark out commands through their headsets, but then they take off down the river and...well...just kinda disappear for a while. I think I'll stick with my Olympics viewing where they have strategically placed cameras and some commentator banter.

I did witness a near collision between the MIT gals and the Cal guys, which could have been interesting.


However, they made it out of and into the water with no major incidents.



And they're passing under the Key Bridge! Go, tiny-far-away-can't-tell-who-you-are rowers, go!


I salvaged the rainy day and somewhat disappointing sports outing with some retail therapy. Borders and Sur la Table and Cole Haan rarely let me down. My next book and awesome new knives and way-on-sale flats (thank you, Carolyn!!) make any day better.

I think I'm ready for football season to roll around. And it's going to feel really wrong living in Redskins country.