We warmed up to the cinco on Sunday by going to El Rodeo on Hillsborough. Probably a good time to go, since when we passed by on Monday, the line was out the door.

This marked the first weekday of my retirement, so I took the opportunity to sleep in. The first practice today wasn’t until 12:15, so I enjoyed my rest. That was probably a good idea, since we watched the novice women, varsity women, and varsity men practice in a row, meaning we were out in the launch for 6 hours.

All of the boats looked really good, they were stronger that I’d seen them earlier in the semester, and it means great things for Dad Vail (the largest college race in the country, and effectively the championship for club-level teams). Also learned a really cool new drill. Will saw it done by one of the crews at SIRA, I’ll have to draw a diagram and post it or something; unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of it.

Honestly I can’t imagine a better first day of retirement than that. Then it just got better. A bunch of us went to the new greek place on Hillsborough, where we happened to run into rowers old and new. Then we headed back to Brian and Ben’s to play Mario Kart and watch another couple episodes of Happy Tree Friends. I don’t even know how to describe HTF… except to say that it’s like Itchy and Scratchy, but somehow even more appalling. Apparently it aired on TV in Europe; I can only imagine what that did to the preconceived notions those televiewers already had about violence in America.

Since I don’t have any pictures to post from today, I’ll appease my conscience about my blog-negligence by posting some highlights of the Berlin trip.

The first thing we see after leaving the airport:

the finish tower and grandstand of a beautiful 2k course.

Potzdamer Platz: Past meets present.

Berliner Dom Cathedral, where we attended a Saturday Vesper and Organ concert.

The Pergamon museum, home to an ancient Greek altar and this large promenade with lions in relief:

And a large collection of Islamic artifacts, such as this prayer niche:

Quite possibly the best beer I have ever tasted:

Mom and Kristina at Einstein coffee shop on Unter den Linden:

The Brandenburg Gate:

Parliament:

A citadel that has been a fortress since the 12th century. Built as it currently stands in the 1700s, and remarkably similar to the one in St. Augustine that me, Donny, Rob, Greg, and Meredith visited last Spring Break.

The Fernseheturm obscured by the fog.

One of the many subway stations:

The relatively new holocaust monument with a great museum underneath:

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, destroyed during WWII.

For Donny:

Me and Kristina in front of Angela Merkel’s house:

The Rowing Club. But it’s actually a club. And doesn’t seem to have anything to do with rowing. Also, I hope those guys are enjoying rowing their triple.

We even got some sunshine:

The synagogue over the skyline:

So far day two of retirement has featured 2 practices at Lake Wheeler, and a visit to the cloud chamber at the art museum.

Both practices went extremely well; the difference between coaching college varsity and high school novice quickly becomes apparent. We worked on some good drills that will hopefully get the boat to find a bit of extra length in each stroke, both at the catch and the finish ends of the stroke.

Will coaching:

In order to emphasize connection between the footplate and the blade we had the girls do the “stand up” drill. Here’s a picture of stern power lifting off of the seat.

Post-practice Will and I played some Wii Mario Kart, then took a nap to make up for the 2 hours of sleep we got the night before.

Saturday, 5/3

As you can tell, I’ve been very delinquent in my blog updates. Which is not for lack of things to write about; since my last post I’ve taken a trip to Berlin, coached the better part of a season of High School Rowing, and had my last forays into my government career at the USPTO.
Hopefully, over the next few weeks, I’ll be able to devote a little bit of time to each of those topics and more.

This blog is, for the time being, becoming “Ben’s Retirement Blog” at Donny’s suggestion. Hopefully it will chronicle my quotidian pursuits from now until I leave for my long summer trip, the topic of yet another day, I’m sure.

For now I am in Raleigh, I drove down after a phenomenal regatta day at the Ted Phoenix Regatta, the championship regatta for my Novice Men’s crew. By far the best I have seen my rowers perform, and a race they can be proud of. I hope it will give them the inspiration to train hard over the summer to come back even faster next year.

Tomorrow will probably consist of a lot of time at Lake Wheeler helping the NCSU boats prepare for their championship, the Dad Vail regatta.

Topics to come:
Berlin
Coaching
Separation
Summer Travel
Future Plans