Jan. 19, 2012
SEATTLE - Due to a career-ending injury, senior Anna Epps from the UW Gymnastics team is not able to compete this year but still travels with the team and has embraced her student coaching position. Epps will blog during the road trips to give fans a behind the scenes view into the team. For last week's trip we were off to Boise to compete against Boise State. The trip went very smoothly and was 10 times easier than the first all the way to Michigan. Our flight wasn't until Thursday night so we all got to attend classes Thursday during the day - lucky us :) which will definitely help in the long run. It's always nice when we don't have to make up work after being gone for trips. After classes we had time for a quick session of yoga in our gym before we were off to the airport. We drove our white vans to the airport and got through check-in quickly. After we were all checked in and had gone through security we had time for a quick bite to eat before we boarded the plane. The plane ride was super short, especially in comparison to our last adventure. We arrived at the Boise airport, received our bags without a problem, loaded into the vans, and were off to the hotel which was only five miles away. When we got to the hotel we had a quick team meeting where we went over line-ups and team goals then it was time for bed. After a good night's sleep we all got up and had a fantastic breakfast at the hotel. We got ready for a quick outing and we went to the Old Idaho Penitentiary which is now used a historic museum. We went on an extremely interesting tour and had a wonderful tour guide who shared some fascinating stories. After the visit we had a team lunch and the place we went to was fantastic! They had everyone's lunch pre-packaged and ready to go when we got there. After lunch it was back to the hotel and it was already time to get ready for the meet. We had a slightly more time to get ready before this meet so the getting ready process was a bit more relaxed this time around which is always a good thing. After everyone was ready off to the meet we went. Halfway to the arena we received a phone call from Amanda (Cline) and Pheebs (Phoebe Tham)... turns out we didn't quite have everyone... woops! We quickly turned around and did a quick drive by, picked them up, and off to the meet we went without any more surprises! Good news the arena was only two miles away so even after the small mishap we weren't even running late. Once we arrived, we got our minds settled, ready for competition, and it was meet time baby!! We are obviously still learning how to compete and which lineups to use but overall we are growing together as a team and enjoying the experience. It was only the second meet of the year and we improved our score from the first meet! After the meet it was dinner time at the RAM. Often times after home meets we like to go to the RAM located in Seattle, so going to the RAM in Boise made it feel a bit more like home. Several of the girls' families attended the meet so they got to sit with their families at dinner then hang out with them for the rest of the night - a little family time is always a good thing :) After dinner we spent a little time in the hot tub and went across the street to get some frozen yogurt - a well-deserved treat! After the nights activities we went to sleep and got ready for an early morning. An uneventful flight back to Seattle bright and early allowed us to arrive back at Alaska Airlines arena before 11 a.m. meeting we had almost all day Saturday and Sunday off. A full weekend of rest of recovery was just what everyone needed. Thank you to all the DAWG fans that continue to support us! Check back next week to hear all about Stanford on Sunday! Anna |
