Sleep Is Overrated

Last day of the trip began at 4:00am heading to the Costa Rica airport. Chelsea Banis checked her 50+ pound bag, the one that Danny said had a "flat screen t.v. in it" because it was so heavy.


Once boarded, we sat on our plane for 3 hours before we were told to deboard so they could fix a part on our plane. Five hours later we were in the air to Denver airport.
 
If you know the feeling of being past tired, but not in a position to sleep, it's extremely frustrating. I tried the lean back, lean to the side, lean on the tray table, but none seemed to work. So I settled for a Diet Pepsi instead.
 
When we landed in Denver safely but starving we sat for another few hours waiting to get vochures from Frontier for the delay and missed flight for the evening. We were just happy everyone cleared customs this time despite the interrogations through customs. I was just glad Todd remembered where he was born.

We apologize to everyone who was worried about us since we heard the news reported us "lost". I should have also taken a picture of everyone on their cell phones in the Frontier aisle as it's amazing how much we miss this device when it's not available.

Realizing our party was dehydrated from travel and not eating for 10 hours we spent $40 on water. As I walked back to the team and opened up the bag Sarah Balian was so excited until she opened it to see "just water."

Finally Sarah and the rest of us did get dinner and spent the night at the Holiday Inn for what seemend to be an extended nap, (at least we got to lay horizontally), before heading back to the airport once again. Coach Scanson worked his miracles with Anthony Travel and managed to get us all on flights, not easy to do with a party of twenty.

As we flew in over the Highlight Mountains we were all ready to be home. As the saying goes, "all great things come to an end" (except Heaven of course), the trip to Costa Rica is in the books. What an amazing experience with unbelievable people. It reminds me that in every great thing you experience the best part about it is getting to share it with people you care about. I think that's what made this trip so special.

Many thanks to Ellen Kreighbaum, a huge supporter of this program. I am so thankful you were able to experience this trip with us; to Amy Starr for planning this trip & delivering a beautiful baby; Coach Scanson for figuring out colone currency and the travel, Coach Close for having gifts to share with our new Costa Rican friends, Ashley Wilde for getting us through a trip healthy despite some sunburning; Tom Schulz & Justin Scanson for allowing everyone else not with us to experience the trip through our social networking; Joe Bateson, our Administration, Rex Roben, & everyone else who had a part of getting Tish back to us in Costa Rica; Sports Tours &  Emily Bauer and Savanna for putting on the best & most unbelievable tour for a team you can ever imagine; Swiss Travel & Danny & Jamie for hosting us this trip, teaching us so much of your country, getting us everywhere safely, and making it so entertaining and enjoyable; Radolfoe & the Costa Rica National Team for organizing our games, clinics & visit with the kids with Down Syndrome;  Ellen, Dona Wallace, Larry Aesheim & Universal Athletics, Lou and Charline Spain, Tom & Celia OConner and all of our other donors of this trip; and most importantly our team. What an incredible group of individuals that have grown so close, given so much to others, and bring so much enjoyment to the rest of us.

To our parents, I want to thank you for trusting us with your daughters. You have done an incredible job of raising them and would be so proud of all of them. We didn't take for granted or waste one minute of this trip. We may be exhausted but this was an experience of a lifetime.

This year's theme may have to be "Pura Vida!"

Coach Bin