Sunday, July 6, 2008

Wimbledon

Federer warming up

Nan enjoying our Pitcher of Pimms

S. Williams won the coin toss against Mauresmo

Nan's friends from Alaska (Casino and Amy)


Tennis is a big part of our family, and we have many fond memories of at Nan and Jeanne's (our great aunt and cousin, respectively) house in Texas to watch the Wimbledon finals. So, TO ACTUALLY BE AT WIMBLEDON WAS A VERY BIG DEAL! We felt a bit like the paparazzi, stopping to take pictures of famous tennis players (such as Mauresmo and others). We scouted tout our seats at Centre Court, then split a pitcher of Pimms. Pimms is a gin based drink that is like a gin lemonade, roughly.

After an 1 1/2 rain delay, we had the privledge of watching Rodger Federer, the number one player in the world defeat someone!!!!! Nan snapped 9,000 photos of him, and Laura was a little more rational, only snapping 6,000. Then came the CLASH OF THE TITANS, as Nan so fondly dubbed it. Amelie Mauresmo and Serena Williams battled it out. Though Mauresmo was clearly the crowd favorite (even we were rooting for her, as it will more than likely be her last Wimbledon). That U.S. gal came out on top, winning a VERY CLOSE 1st. set. P.S.: we sat very close to Venus Williams and the girls' dad, Richard. He took as many pictures of Serena as we did of Federer!!!!!! To be given the opportunity to watch, in person, the people we've watched for years on t.v. was a wonderful feeling we find difficult to 'chalk up' into a couple of paragraphs.

After an INCREDIBLE Wimbledon experience, we hopped on our beloved Tube and Headed back into London. Later that night, we met up with Nan's friends Amy and Casino, who just recently moved from Alaska to London. After our mini Alaska reuinion, we moved the party to Leicester square (pronounced Less-ter for all you Americans who have as much difficulty pronouncing British words as we do!), where we met Tim (the friend we'll be staying with in Liverpool) for drinks and loads of interesting people watching. We capped the night off with a memorable 'human-drawn carriage ride' through Green Park, since the Tube was closed.

The only way to take on the next day's events and trick ourselves into thinking 'it would be no big deal to bike 26 miles on 5 hours of sleep', was to go about our London trip as we already had!!!! Denial and cramming a lot into a day and night. And this concluded our week in London.

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