Princess Grace Wine Tasting Fundraiser!

Join us on Saturday, April 21, from 7:00-10:00p, for a spring evening of wine by the river at our beautiful and historic Vesper boathouse on Kelly Drive. We know some of you are reading from afar, but others who can make it, we invite you! Bring your friends and family to the historic mecca of American Rowing and enjoy good company and good wine, lead by wine expert and Vesper Member Kirk Beckman.

Proceeds of this event will be directed towards our women’s 4 competing at Women’s Henley Regatta, and the Royal Henley Regatta. In the spirit of the fundraiser, tasters are encouraged to wear Henley-style sunhats, if they are so inclined!

Check out our event page on the Vesper site here for tickets!

Florida, part 2

By: Nicole

Let me start this off with a couple of my favorite quotes.

“We just saw a sea cow! And it wasn’t us!” (Grace, only moments after our first manatee spotting, as it surfaced like a whale just outside the channel!)

“On a scale of 1 to Adele, how mournful are you right now?” (Bryn right before launching on another windy, wavy row)

“I’m making you a Naan pizza” (Sydney the incredible roommate-chef, right around lunchtime)

While Florida gave new meaning to things like waves, wind, and (for some of us) chafing, it was a great way to get away from work and focus solely on rowing. It was my first time to Florida, and I gotta say, the warm breeze and sunshine was pretty incredible from the moment we got off the plane. Also, EVERYONE HAS A POOL! How awesome is that. incredibly awesome.

During the second half of the trip we had some great technical rows, plenty of distance, and a lot experience in dealing with choppy water and head/tail winds. In our last few days, we packed up the trailer at Sarasota crew and spent the rest of the trip at the new Nathan Benderson park, a developing world class race course (check it out: http://www.worldclassrowing.com/). The course was still under construction (it is shy of 2k by about 200m), and we’ve heard they’ve had a few gator problems (!), but the venue has pretty awesome plans, including a large warm-up area where you can’t wake the course! In my short visit, I sensed a theme from Florida. Everything is bigger and built for comfort. I think this rowing venue will be pretty cush.

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Our practices at Nathan Benderson were slightly less windy, and we got in some great race rate, 1000m pieces, scrimmaging the other boats on our team. It was a good way to finish up the week, knowing that we had made some good improvements that we could apply to race rates.

Again, as Sydney mentioned, our host families were absolutely wonderful. We never could have made the trip without them, and I heard and experienced so many ways in which our families went over the top to help us out. The meals were delicious, and I’ve now learned how incredibly relaxing it is to watch golf on TV, and  it was great to chat and get to know some families I would never would have met otherwise.  I’d like to give a shout out to Baxter (my host-dog)’s back in hopes that his herniated disc is getting better and of course to Kate for all her aspirations in rowing!

Now that we’re back in Philly and back to work and I miss the mid-day naps, but every now and then I sit on the couch and turn on the Arnold Palmer Invitational or something, relax a little and dream of one day making my own caesar salad dressing. Thanks, Florida!

(A sidenote from Grace: Included in the slideshow are pictures from our one outing to the beach, when we had enough energy to go! Also, a seat at the table to celebrate my birthday dinner. Delicious. Thank you Crab and Fin!)

Boston to Sarasota!

By: Sydney

As Vicky described, we had a lot of fun in Boston.  I particularly enjoyed it as my parents came all way from Florida to watch this race.  I don’t get home to Florida too often so races are a prime time for family bonding. I was really happy they were able to see me take a step forward in the world of erging.  I was even more happy when the race was over and we will able to hang out without the pre-race nerves!

There was a Cheesecake Factory right across the street from our hotel so after leaving the arena my parents and I went out to celebrate.  I planned on getting a delicious cheesecake after this race for a while (contingent on a successful performance).  But, it turns out I fell asleep before I could eat it.  Anyone who knows me knows I would NEVER pick sleep over cheesecake in my right mind.  But, my parents and I had to get up at 4am the next morning to fly to Florida.  Yes, I got to go back to my home state for a week of training with the team!

I flew into Tampa with my parents.  I had about 2 hours to go hug my dogs and see my hometown before Vicky and Grace arrived.  Vicky is quite the foodie and had mentioned that she loved the bread and large portions of Carrabba’s restaurant.  When my mom heard about her need, she was happy to help.  During dinner, my boatmates and parents shared stories about yours truly and became fast friends (apparently what happens in yoga, does NOT stay in yoga. Thanks, guys).  After sharing some desserts we hit the road and headed to Sarasota for a week of hard work!

The first thing that comes to mind when I think back to this trip is hospitality.  We had a truly wonderful host family.  In fact, our whole team stayed with host families associated with the Sarasota rowing community.  Nicole and I stayed together with a family from Sarasota Crew (very successful HS program, check it out:Sarasota Crew).  They lived very close to the rowing site and Nicole and I biked to most of our practices.  Not only that, but they were basically professional chefs and I am still not over the homemade ceasar dressing that changed my life…but back to training…

I really appreciated getting away for a while. When not on a special training trip we all have to get off the water and head right to work or school.  But for one week we got to slow down for a bit and really focus on rowing.  Not having to rush off the water gave us time to focus on the small technical changes that will make us faster.  We also got to row in the sunshine and during the day, which helped us log those extra meters.  Here on the Schuylkill we have a pretty long loop of rowing before we need to stop and turn the boat around. However, in Sarasota we were able to row until the Earth’s end, and one day we almost did.  As the boat’s official time keeper I miscalculated and had us out on the water for an extra long workout for an afternoon session.  After that day we started bringing extra drinks and GUs (energy!) in the boat just in case… Oh, well.  We only got stronger and we saw a a stingray!  Ultimately, I think the trip was very productive for us.  For a week we got to live “the dream”, that is, all we had to do was work hard and go fast.  No complaints there!

Our super bow seat, Nicole, will be providing a summary of the training trip as well.  High five to Nicole for steering us through waves and channel markers like a pro!