A Day in the Life

Well, our trip started ten days ago, but we definitely haven't spent the past 240 hours solely eating, sleeping and rowing, so what have we been doing?

We have been enjoying the sun! The weather here has been beautiful all week, and we have taken advantage of it. Our wonderful hosts, the Brassey family, have granted us use of their beautiful house and grounds. Quite often, we will enjoy our lunch and dinner outside in the yard. Mark, occasionally joined by Trevor, Cal, and/or Jen has been swimming in the pool daily. Coachie and Edie have been taking many walks enjoying the numerous footpaths and trails offered by Henley and the surrounding towns. Tucker and Mark have been enjoying some of the local tea shops and have spent some time reading while enjoying tea and pastries. Cal has been relaxing and reading up a storm in the house. And for a little friendly competition, we have all been challenging each other to countless rounds of foosball.



Our Wonderful Cook and company!





A little more about the house. We mostly seclude ourselves to the glassed-in conservatory, which has a few couches and our dinner table. The other room in the house that we frequent is our bedroom, which is essentially the attic, and has enough mattresses for the lot of us.

Monday was our first day on the River. The Thames River is perpetually beautiful. On Monday, we had the river mostly to ourselves, but it has been getting progressively more crowded with other boats as teams have arrived over the course of the week. The boat tent, has slowly filled with both boats and people. We have watched the preparations for the regatta appear up all week. More tents and stands have sprung from the ground every day, and there is barely any uncovered ground left. It is becoming more and more apparent that the regatta is almost here! Boats have begun arriving and claiming mooring spots alongside the course. Today, the queen's magnificently ornate boat, Gloriana, moored itself alongside the course, and we couldn't help but get a picture.



Coachie doing his thing from a perch






Her Majesty The Queen's boat, Gloriana

On Friday, Coachie took us on an excursion through woods and fields, over hills, and across the Thames. After a lunch at the Flower Pot, we returned to the race course to watch the qualifying races.



The Gladiator field (not really, but we like to pretend we were in the movie...)

 

 

Last night, we had a friendly game of whiffle ball at the town park, which was a fun way to spend our Saturday evening.