The Final Chapter Of The Softball Team's Trip Hawaii
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March 13, 2005
HONOLULU –
March 9
Once again we had a team breakfast in the hotel at 9:00 a.m. and by this time the $2.99 special was getting a little old. We had some time to spare before our game against Campbell at 3:00 p.m. so we mostly just lounged around the hotel. Since all the hotel TV stations were island channels for tourists (TBS was our only saving grace), some of us watched Lilo & Stitch on Brian’s (Friscia) computer. We also made our daily trip to the ABC store for snacks (we all became slightly addicted to the ABC stores since there is one on every corner).
We had a tough loss to Campbell, watched a few innings of the next game, got our $10 from Coach and were on our own for dinner. A bunch of us raided the nearby Sheraton Hotel and ate some Round Table Pizza out by their really nice beachfront pool. There was even some live entertainment and we felt very high class! Dinner was followed with a typical Baskin Robbins run (Brooke (Sorber) was addicted to the triple shakes there). And with two games ahead of us the next day, we all went to bed.
March 10
The day started out with two more tough losses to Notre Dame (3-1) and Nevada (7-6). However, our bats seemed to wake up scoring six runs on 13 hits in the second game. After driving around in circles for a while, we had a good team dinner at TGI Friday’s (Jackie (Greer) was craving it). The funny thing was the restaurant was only several blocks from our hotel! One van had to take Lindsey (Preuss) and Kat (Mirras) to see the University of Hawaii’s team doctor. Kat got cleated on her arm while diving into second base (she was safe by the way) and had to have her puncture wound on her arm looked at while Lindsey ended up having some virus and was upset because all they could give her was generic benadryl. Back at the hotel, first years had to do laundry for the team, which was pretty funny to see, and before we knew it, another day in Hawaii was over.
March 11
We finally got to sleep in some! Most of the team loaded up in the vans to go see the North Shore. The waves weren’t all that huge that day but they got to see a surf competition. I chose to lounge around the more elegant neighboring hotel’s pool with Brooke and get some studying done. I had a great lunch with the Sorber’s at the hotel’s restaurant right on the beach and ate some fish tacos (something you definitely won’t find in Virginia). I jumped in the Pacific Ocean for the last time until I’m home in May and even persuaded Brooke to go in for a bit. Then we rested up for the game against Hawaii at 7:00 p.m. We really stepped it up and played a great game and finally earned a win!! We were very excited and had a victory meal at Denny’s (it was the only restaurant still open). Then we had to shower, pack, and get some sleep for an early rise for a game at 9:00 a.m., and a long day ahead.
March 12
Swollen eyed and groggy, we were all up for breakfast at 6:00 a.m. It was still dark out, but we could see the rain pouring down. We all continued to get game-ready and headed to the field only to find the field crew packing things up and the Nevada coach show up in her pajamas. We definitely couldn’t play at our scheduled 9:00 a.m. start and we were put on delay for a proposed noon game time. So we headed back to the hotel for some serious napping and waited to hear from the tournament director. Around 10:00 a.m. Coach informed us that the tournament was canceled. So we hung around our rooms until check-out time at noon. We grabbed some lunch and walked around the same stores we had been in a hundred times over all week. At 3:00 p.m. we packed all our bags into the vans, this time being a little smarter so that we could actually fit ourselves in the vans too. Then we had some more time to spare until dinner at 6:30. I went back to the nice neighboring hotel’s pool with Sara and studied, well, attempted to study. Crosswords can sure be distracting. A few girls changed and went to the beach in attempt to soak in as much sun as possible before leaving for chilly Virginia. We ate at Cheeseburger Waikiki for dinner, said our goodbyes to all the parents and Hawaii and headed for the airport. No one wanted to leave the island and we tried to convince CJ (Cathy Johnson Evans) to just hi-jack the van and let us stay. But unfortunately, our awesome trip to paradise was over.
Most of us passed out on our red-eye flight to Los Angeles. The flights went pretty smoothly, but our bodies were all sorts of thrown off from being sleep deprived and traveling through 5 time zones. We weren’t sure what day or time it was! But we finally made it back to good old Charlottesville, sad that spring break had come to an end and already missing Hawaii!