cto
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Okay, I know it’s a few days late, but I didn’t get home until yesterday morning, and I’ve been a bit busy dealing with storm damage. So here goes.
First some background. I was without power after Sandy for nine days until last Tuesday afternoon. I also had some very serious storm damage to my house. I was supposed to fly to San Diego on Thursday, but they were forecasting a bad snow storm here then, so I changed my flight to Wednesday morning and asked SU to change my hotel reservation to Wednesday. However, after I changed my flight to Wednesday, the game was changed from Friday to Sunday. And I got an email from SU saying the hotel would probably change because the original hotel could not accommodate the change in dates – and I was told to check back with them after I arrived in San Diego.
So I leave for San Diego at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, leaving behind a badly damaged house … and not knowing where I am going. When I arrive in San Diego, I check in with SU and am told we are now staying at the Marriott, so I go there. The clerk at the Marriott says there is no record of SU staying there, but he finds me a room anyhow.
My roommate Barbara Boeheim arrives as scheduled on Thursday (no snow storm in DC). After doing some sightseeing on Thursday and Friday, we hook up with some guys from the LA Alumni Club on Friday night and await the arrival of the team. The team, however, does not arrive anywhere near the appointed time…. because of an unscheduled re-fueling stop in Phoenix due to “unusual headwinds.” But they are staying at the Marriott, so at least we are in the right hotel.
Saturday we attended practice, the SU press conference and did more sightseeing, including several hours on the Midway -- which was a unique experience. The “docents” on the ship…. at every conceivable station… were volunteer retired Navy personnel who had served on the Midway or other carriers. They gave wonderful explanations of how planes were launched and “captured” when they returned. Just fascinating. If you ever get to San Diego, I recommend at least a half-day on the ship.
Then there was the game. If you saw it, you know what a spectacular venue it was. However, I cannot overstate the wind. It was very brisk. Fortunately, our game plan eschewed 3-point shots, while SDSU insisted on throwing them up and shot something like 1/18. In addition to the wind, there was the sun. Shooting at our basket meant shooting into the sun. Fortunately, in the first half we were shooting at the other basket, and we were able to build a comfortable lead which we didn’t’ surrender after we had the “sun” basket in the second half.
A nice touch… and don’t know whether this was picked up on TV… was that the SDSU band played the SU fight song (“Down the Field”) at a couple of points during the afternoon. I thought that was pretty cool.
What am I forgetting… a lot of partying with the LA Alumni Club guys.. really good people who did a nice job setting up a great post-game “tail-gate” thing as well as a game-watching party for the Louisville football game. Also, on Monday, Barb and I went back to the sight-seeing mode … visiting the San Diego Zoo (cool place), taking in the sunset in La Jolla, and having dinner at Del Coronado – the famous old hotel that is definitely worth a stop if you are in San Diego.
Oh, yes, my flight home was delayed … because the in-coming fight had to make an unscheduled refueling stop due to “unusual headwinds,” and I returned home to see the remains of the 10 inches of snow that fell here after I left .. as well as to deal with my damage from the hurricane. But the trip was well worth it, even though it didn’t always go exactly as planned. We won the game, and it was a truly memorable experience.
Given that the two other carrier games this weekend both got cancelled (one in totality, the other at half time), our game will probably be the last one ever played on a carrier. And we won it. And I was there.
First some background. I was without power after Sandy for nine days until last Tuesday afternoon. I also had some very serious storm damage to my house. I was supposed to fly to San Diego on Thursday, but they were forecasting a bad snow storm here then, so I changed my flight to Wednesday morning and asked SU to change my hotel reservation to Wednesday. However, after I changed my flight to Wednesday, the game was changed from Friday to Sunday. And I got an email from SU saying the hotel would probably change because the original hotel could not accommodate the change in dates – and I was told to check back with them after I arrived in San Diego.
So I leave for San Diego at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, leaving behind a badly damaged house … and not knowing where I am going. When I arrive in San Diego, I check in with SU and am told we are now staying at the Marriott, so I go there. The clerk at the Marriott says there is no record of SU staying there, but he finds me a room anyhow.
My roommate Barbara Boeheim arrives as scheduled on Thursday (no snow storm in DC). After doing some sightseeing on Thursday and Friday, we hook up with some guys from the LA Alumni Club on Friday night and await the arrival of the team. The team, however, does not arrive anywhere near the appointed time…. because of an unscheduled re-fueling stop in Phoenix due to “unusual headwinds.” But they are staying at the Marriott, so at least we are in the right hotel.
Saturday we attended practice, the SU press conference and did more sightseeing, including several hours on the Midway -- which was a unique experience. The “docents” on the ship…. at every conceivable station… were volunteer retired Navy personnel who had served on the Midway or other carriers. They gave wonderful explanations of how planes were launched and “captured” when they returned. Just fascinating. If you ever get to San Diego, I recommend at least a half-day on the ship.
Then there was the game. If you saw it, you know what a spectacular venue it was. However, I cannot overstate the wind. It was very brisk. Fortunately, our game plan eschewed 3-point shots, while SDSU insisted on throwing them up and shot something like 1/18. In addition to the wind, there was the sun. Shooting at our basket meant shooting into the sun. Fortunately, in the first half we were shooting at the other basket, and we were able to build a comfortable lead which we didn’t’ surrender after we had the “sun” basket in the second half.
A nice touch… and don’t know whether this was picked up on TV… was that the SDSU band played the SU fight song (“Down the Field”) at a couple of points during the afternoon. I thought that was pretty cool.
What am I forgetting… a lot of partying with the LA Alumni Club guys.. really good people who did a nice job setting up a great post-game “tail-gate” thing as well as a game-watching party for the Louisville football game. Also, on Monday, Barb and I went back to the sight-seeing mode … visiting the San Diego Zoo (cool place), taking in the sunset in La Jolla, and having dinner at Del Coronado – the famous old hotel that is definitely worth a stop if you are in San Diego.
Oh, yes, my flight home was delayed … because the in-coming fight had to make an unscheduled refueling stop due to “unusual headwinds,” and I returned home to see the remains of the 10 inches of snow that fell here after I left .. as well as to deal with my damage from the hurricane. But the trip was well worth it, even though it didn’t always go exactly as planned. We won the game, and it was a truly memorable experience.
Given that the two other carrier games this weekend both got cancelled (one in totality, the other at half time), our game will probably be the last one ever played on a carrier. And we won it. And I was there.
