Connections

 Sunday was a day of connections.

It started out in the morning when we arrived at the Australian Whale Boat Races down on the Hopkins River. We were there to cheer on the Deakin Uni teams, but just as we walked up the announcer said that in this heat, the Deakin team would be rowing against the Golden State Rowers. It turns out there is a Warrnambool-Bay Area rowing connection where they have been attending each other's rowing events for a few years. Andy was wearing his Chico State t-shirt; one woman saw it and said, "Woo, Chico State! I lived in Chico for a while!" All of the five rowers came from teams around the San Francisco area.

We were a little conflicted about who to cheer for, but Deakin loyalties prevailed, especially because they beat the Cali team.

Heat One: Deakin Pirates in the foreground, Golden State in red

Golden State Rowers coming in from the race

Holy Cow! The country veterinary team wearing their colors

Mayor Neoh was hanging out in the USA tent. On the right is one of the CA rowers.

Andy and Councilor Askew who was making sausages for the Lyons Club

After a few hours of whale boat racing, we grabbed lunch and then were off to baseball! The Warrnambool Angels are a group of men (and boys) who are very enthusiastic about being a team but haven't yet played a whole game. We watched their practice a day after they worked out with the Geelong Bay Cats. (Geelong - pop. 175,000 - is about 2.5 hours away.) Apparently the Bay Cats gave them lots of coaching, played a few innings with them, and sent them home with a car load of equipment. It is so fun to see these guys so excited about playing baseball. 

Marko, team captain, with his international fan base

The afternoon ended with drinks by the ocean with a long lost friend of a friend. Not long ago, our friend Marge from Chico told us she had found a letter from someone she worked with in a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand in the early 80's. Marge noticed the return address was Warrnambool, so of course, we asked our local contacts - the ones who know EVERYONE - and there you have it! Aneeta lives in Darwin now, but was home visiting her parents this weekend and we caught up over coffee and pictures from the "old days."

Darwin is just about as far north as you can get from us, six hours by plane. Now we're trying to figure out how to fit that into the travel schedule...