Travel Day & Day Zero

 Well everyone, we made it to Houston. Instead of just writing about all of our experiences, we've been attempting to document every moment of our trip through pictures.  So, let's start with this one, the seniors last day of Power Rack EVER.  Jenny, needless to say, was super excited for it to be done with.  

The next day we totally had to show off our new half zips that the parents graciously purchased for us! :) 

Must say, they look super snazzy and are super warm.  Naturally, we had to have a photoshoot and postpone practice a little bit... Ooppss... Coach was thrilled.

Anyways, that day, taper really decided to hit, and we were all SUPER hyper.  So Kats decided to push Teebs around in the laundry bin. 

That takes us to travel day.  We arrived safely at the Pittsburgh Airport, and thankfully made it through TSA without a thorough pat down.  It was the first time Kats had flown domestically, so this was a big deal.  This picture is just us on the tram.  

So, we boarded the plane to this.....

Who doesn't love what Kats calls "Snail" -- aka snow hail??  I mean, I personally was sad to see it go.. I hope everyone picked up on the sarcasm there...  Anyways, we landed to this...

It was 8 PM and 85 degrees out.  I think that is a pretty fair trade!  So, we landed and were starving and taking selfies.  

Naturally, we had to go to Texas Road House.  Bilko learned the difference between a biscuit and a roll, and  all was well in the world.  Freshman.

This little guy was staring at us the entire time.

Scary man.

So, we arrived at La Quinta, and our luggage lady Lu was ready to throw our luggage out of the massive bus.

Now onto Day Zero, where absolutely no competing occurred and we putzed around all day.  

Kats and I woke up early to keep with our sleep schedule (Go Us!) and we found out that not everything is bigger in Texas.

But no worries, they had killer waffles--that we didn't eat ... Because apparently we were going to Panera to rack up points for Tammy's My Panera card.  She will have so much free food by the end of this.  I wish I had my card....

After a successful breakfast at Panera, we arrived at the HIGH SCHOOL that the meet is at.... This is the entrance... CRAZY RIGHT??

And here is a panoramic view of the pool... pretty sweet huh?

A pool this sweet needs to have great signs, too.  This particular one tells us that there are some things we shouldn't share, i.e. poop, germs, dirt.  Life lessons.

We also got our gifts... as neatly portrayed here....  we secretly hope there will be clothes or something.  But hey, free stuff is free stuff.

After warm up, we headed out to Panera.... AGAIN.  But, hey, good food is good food.  And it's not Hicks.  Sorry guys.  Coach would much rather us go to Five Guys or Steak and Shake.  I would prefer not to eat junk before a meet.  On the way to grocery shopping, we saw this lovely sign... 

Apparently, Gastric Banding is a cool thing to do around here?  Weird.

whatever floats your boat I guess.  Lu, Teebs, and I took the annual large stuffed animal picture.  Walmart has quality purchases.  Note that we are wearing Tshirts and shorts.  Be jealous.

We got back to the hotel to find that the cleaning lady just knew that our puppies are best friends... too bad Paul--Ange's puppy-- couldn't be with them.  She left him at home.

To top off the day, we attended the banquet.  It was so nice outside we had to take a picture.

And one with the coaches.  There was an absurd wait for food, so we were just snapping a ton of pictures while we waited.

Another gorgeous one from the chicas.

Oh. And did we mention there was a mechanical bull at the banquet?  For photo opps only.. what a shame.

Another cool point of the banquet was that Laura Wilkinson--an olympic gold medalist in platform diving-- was our guest speaker!  It was so cool to hear about her experiences at trials and the games!

We came back to the hotel to find that our doors were decorated!

Overall, it has been a pretty swell week so far!  And we have Jenny's 200 IM, Ange's 50 Free, and the 200 Medley Relay tomorrow!  Fast times are ahead, I can feel it.

Until tomorrow,  Wolverine Love,

Reese