This year, DWWP traveled to San Francisco, CA to soak up some sun, bond, and play some water polo. Thank you to everyone who made this trip possible, especially the Bigley family, who so generously hosted us for the week!
Day 1--Sunday, March 20
Today, the team arrived! PJ and Abby (who had arrived the night before), picked up Aleena, Natalie, and Forest at the airport around noon, and then ventured to In-n-Out for a quick lunch. Emma, Shelley, Caitlin, Hallie, Meghan, and Jessie rolled in to PJ's house later that evening. After hanging out and catching up for a while, jet lag caught up with us and we had an early bedtime to prepare for a morning practice the next day.
Day 2--Monday, March 21
The first day of practice! Today we woke up, ate a quick breakfast, and headed to the pool for a 10am practice, where we were joined by Katherine. It had been a while since many of us had been in the pool, but everyone swam great and played hard. We then had a great lunch at the Bigley's and headed to the movie theater to see "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot". It seemed to be a hit!
We then ran some errands and chilled back out the house for a while until it was time to head to the Flessel's for dinner! A huge thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Flessel, who cooked us delicious baked ziti, caesar salad, and seven-layer bars. As fun as dinner was, it was also bittersweet--we had to say goodbye to both Katherine and Jessie, who are about to take off to Morocco and Prague for their off terms. We'll miss you!
After dinner, we returned again to PJ's house and watched "The Princess Diaries"--an old classic for many of us. Looking forward to another fun day tomorrow!
Day 3--Tuesday, March 22
Today we started the day off with a nice sunny practice at Sacred Heart (special shoutout to those at PJ and Katherine's alma mater who made these practices possible!). We actually succeeded in all jumping in the pool at the same time, and got a great picture of us doing it, to boot!
After practice, we hung out at PJ's house, ate lunch, and started watching "The Princess Diaries II", a fitting successor to the movie from the night before. We then headed to the Stanford Mall, walked around a bit, and then drove to Stanford to (try) to see Dartmouth Softball's 5pm game--little did we know, the game was at 5pm ET, 2pm California time! We caught them post-game, right after defeating Stanford 4-1--way to go, ladies!
After returning from our adventures in Palo Alto, we ate an absolutely delicious Mexican food dinner and finished our movie. Training trip continues to be great!
Day 4--Wednesday, March 23
Today, we woke up knowing that we had a big day in store for us. We headed to the pool an hour earlier than usual, practiced hard for 2 hours, and then changed quickly, jumped in the cars, and headed off! As an added plus, we got to see Cat Donahoe '15 at SHP. Practices have been getting tougher and tougher, as we seem to lose a teammate every day as they go off to their respective adventures for next term. However, those of us who are still here have been making noticeable improvements in both our swimming and water polo, which is great! We were all sad to leave PJ at her house to do an interview in the afternoon, but we wished her luck and got ready for a great time on the other side of the Bay.
After a drive over the Golden Gate on a beautiful clear day with blue skies, we stopped at Vista Point to take some pictures. We then headed to Tennessee Valley for an afternoon of hiking. We saw some beautiful views from up high, and from the beach, took some more pictures, and had a blast. Meghan and Emma both know the Marin area very well, and it was fun to watch them show us around such a beautiful area!
After our hike, we hopped back in the cars and headed to the Christies' house for a yummy taco dinner! Unfortunately, Meghan's brother wasn't around, but thank you to Kate, Kendall, and Mr. and Mrs. Christie for the delicious food and hospitality! After dinner, we took a pitstop at Fairfax Scoop (YUM). So much good food, all the time!
Finally, we were treated by Emma and Meghan to an absolutely incredible view from what felt like the top of the world. It was a perfectly clear night with a gorgeous, almost-full moon, and we sat on top of a hill right above the Golden Gate, looking out over the entire city, for a while--definitely unforgettable and a highlight of the trip so far.
We got back to PJ's exhausted and ready to sleep. Yay for gr8 days and gr8 food!
Day 5--Thursday, March 24
Another big day today! We started the day off with our final practice at SHP. We swam great, with tougher intervals than we were maybe used to, and did a lot of shooting and drills focusing on driving to set and drawing fouls. After practice, we (as per usual) hopped in the cars and headed to our adventure of the day--Santa Cruz!
Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to Meghan after the morning's practice until later this spring--good luck in Ecuador, Meg, we'll miss you!
It was another absolutely perfect and clear day, and we spent the afternoon chilling at the Boardwalk, eating lunch at the Wharf, and sitting on the beach. A few of us splashed in the water for a bit, which was refreshing but so much fun! After a very relaxing afternoon, we headed back to PJ's for a lasagna dinner and decadent chocolate cake (gluten-free, yay!). More goodbyes had to happen after Santa Cruz, too--Emma left for her off-term in Argentina in the evening. Everyone, stop leaving us!
Day 6--Friday, March 25
Last day of practice! Today was a slower day than usual out of the pool, although in the pool we killed it. Because it was Easter weekend, we weren't able to practice at SHP, so instead we headed to PCC, the Bigley's athletic club, for a swim set. Thank you to everyone there who made that possible for us! It was the longest set of the season, an hour and a half of straight swimming, but everyone at practice not only made all the set times but looked great doing them. When we got back to the Bigley's house for the afternoon, we were tired but also felt good about what we had accomplished.
This afternoon was different from the rest in that there were very few of us so we decided to just hang out, watch a movie, and soak up our last full day of beautiful California weather. We watched "Sisters" and laughed a lot, PJ sat in the sunlight all the while trying to avoid the sunlight, and ate an absolutely delicious waffle and quiche brunch. The perfect way to wind down from training trip!
In the evening, we ate another yummy meal--Chili and cornbread, cooked by the amazing Mrs. Bigley yet again, and chocolate covered strawberries afterwards. It's going to be so hard to come back to Dartmouth after eating this well! After dinner, the remaining team members at the house went upstairs for some bonding and we said goodbye to Natalie, who was leaving on a very early flight the next morning.
Day 7--Saturday, March 26
Last day! This morning, we woke up and ate breakfast slowly, did some packing and cleaning, and then Aleena, PJ, Hallie, and Abby headed out for a 5ish mile hike in Wunderlich. We got back, hung out for the afternoon, had burgers for dinner, and then headed to the airport for our red-eye back.
TRAINING TRIP 2016, OVER AND OUT!
