This November, our rowers brought us to Chattanooga, TN for the annual Head of the Hooch regatta. It's one of the largest regattas in the world! Over 2000 boats race during the weekend, representing over 200 organizations. It's a grand event that brings more tourists to Chattanooga than almost any other event in the city.
Chattanooga is located on Tennessee River and thus will always look better in my eyes than Raleigh:) We need a river here!
Finally, I have to tell you about Mark's very unique tennis experience. He was participating in the Doubles tournament with a boy he had met playing in Raleigh (who lives in TN). The boy had asked Mark in September if he wanted to play doubles with him, so when we learned there was a doubles tournament in November in TN on the same weekend as the regatta we contacted him and registered. But we had to register for the 12 and Under category because no one else was registering for 10 and Under (Mark's category). To make a long story short, the boys were playing these 11-12 year olds and were losing. They lost the first set 3:6 and were in the middle of the second set at 0:3 when Mark's partner got really frustrated and slammed his racket on the floor. His parents were sitting next to me and immediately shouted a quick warning to the boy. When it happened again a few points later, they simply beckoned him and told him to pack up his bag. Mark wasn't quite sure at first what was happening as this was the first time he encountered this. Basically, the parents made a decision to withdraw the boy from the match because of his behavior. The mom was very sad with tears in her eyes, but they said they HAD to do it. I told them that they were doing the right thing and that it's better to teach him now than later, although it was really hard (and unfair to Mark) to pull him out.
So Mark's partner withdrew and they automatically lost the match. The problem was that that was their only match to play that counted towards points. After a lunch break, the boy and his parents came back and the boy apologized to me for behaving disrespectfully and to Mark for convincing him one time that the ball was out although Mark saw that it was in (basically cheating to tell his opponents they lost a point). In any case, it was a very interesting experience! This boy's older brother is a tennis player as well, who is thirteen and is playing national tournaments all over the states (and is top 150 in the US). So these parents know what they are talking about... Our day was very informative as we sat and talked to the parents and the boy's older brother about the details on how he trains and what his goals are. His grandparents have a tennis court AND they own a plane, so they fly to all the tournaments. He is also homeschooled so he can play 4-5 hours of tennis a day. How could we ever compete with that? Unsure...
We hope we get to go back to Chattanooga someday as it looked like a very pretty city. It was a bit of a drive (7 hours that became 8 with traffic) but still doable.
Lyana.
Chattanooga is located on Tennessee River and thus will always look better in my eyes than Raleigh:) We need a river here!
Downtown itself was very quaint and walkable--reminded me a little of Europe. We didn't get to see much of Chattanooga, unfortunately. Alex didn't race, actually--he came as part of the support team from the Watson family. Katya coxed two boats. Oh, and Mark participated in a tennis doubles tournament on Saturday. I'll tell you about it in a sec.
A bit of a foggy start, so all races were delayed for a while.
Robert was the main rowing parent for the weekend as he stayed at the rivert most of the time. He was able to take a lot of fun pictures too.
Oars everywhere.
Boats everywhere.
Katya, the favorite coxswain, the only one who has to wear a coat.
Tent time waiting for the race to start while eating food and playing games is the best.
On Sunday, the races continued, so Robert and Katya had to get out there early. Alex, Mark and I drove over to the church building near by and went to a part of their stake conference:). In the meantime, Robert situated himself on the bridge and survived almost two hours of "hanging" there in the frigid windy weather to get some shots.
Katya's boat. We even have a quick video of them passing under the bridge and her coaching the team.
Oh yes! And one of the big parts of our weekend was seeing our friends back from when we worked at the Senior MTC near BYU. Robert and I both knew Erka, she came to our wedding reception and everything. It was almost twenty years ago! Erka and Paul were kind enough to let us stay with them and get to know them and their daughters better. They are a very sweet family. Erka is from Albania originally. And her husband is a dentist, so we all had a lot to talk about:)
Finally, I have to tell you about Mark's very unique tennis experience. He was participating in the Doubles tournament with a boy he had met playing in Raleigh (who lives in TN). The boy had asked Mark in September if he wanted to play doubles with him, so when we learned there was a doubles tournament in November in TN on the same weekend as the regatta we contacted him and registered. But we had to register for the 12 and Under category because no one else was registering for 10 and Under (Mark's category). To make a long story short, the boys were playing these 11-12 year olds and were losing. They lost the first set 3:6 and were in the middle of the second set at 0:3 when Mark's partner got really frustrated and slammed his racket on the floor. His parents were sitting next to me and immediately shouted a quick warning to the boy. When it happened again a few points later, they simply beckoned him and told him to pack up his bag. Mark wasn't quite sure at first what was happening as this was the first time he encountered this. Basically, the parents made a decision to withdraw the boy from the match because of his behavior. The mom was very sad with tears in her eyes, but they said they HAD to do it. I told them that they were doing the right thing and that it's better to teach him now than later, although it was really hard (and unfair to Mark) to pull him out.
So Mark's partner withdrew and they automatically lost the match. The problem was that that was their only match to play that counted towards points. After a lunch break, the boy and his parents came back and the boy apologized to me for behaving disrespectfully and to Mark for convincing him one time that the ball was out although Mark saw that it was in (basically cheating to tell his opponents they lost a point). In any case, it was a very interesting experience! This boy's older brother is a tennis player as well, who is thirteen and is playing national tournaments all over the states (and is top 150 in the US). So these parents know what they are talking about... Our day was very informative as we sat and talked to the parents and the boy's older brother about the details on how he trains and what his goals are. His grandparents have a tennis court AND they own a plane, so they fly to all the tournaments. He is also homeschooled so he can play 4-5 hours of tennis a day. How could we ever compete with that? Unsure...
We hope we get to go back to Chattanooga someday as it looked like a very pretty city. It was a bit of a drive (7 hours that became 8 with traffic) but still doable.
Lyana.
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