Another Great Day in London

We had another really terrific day in London at the Paralympics. We started by watching a little Track & Field this morning where we got to watch the blind race. That is so amazing to watch. They actually run with a guide. The paralympic (competing) athlete and their guide hold onto a rope to keep them together. Then they race, listening to directions given by their guide as they run. The guides have to be really fast to keep up with the runner. When they get to the finish line, the guide (while still holding on) drops back a little bit. It's a requirement that the competing athlete crosses the finish line first. That was probably one of my favorite events to watch.

After track and field, we went over to take some group pictures before heading over to the Olympic Athletes Village.

Me and Kelli taking a fun, silly picture!!

It was such a privilege that we even got to go in the Village - rights to it are completely exclusive for the competing athletes and their families. To get in, we had to surrender our passports, which we got back on our way out. The Village is just incredible. They have a post office, beauty salon, workout facility, gift shop, a huge dining hall with foods from all over the world, among other things.

So not only did we get to spend some time in the Athletes Village, we also got to eat in the Athlete's Dining Hall. The Dning Hall is only available to the athletes so it was a complete honor to get the chance to experience that. I had some chinese food, pizza and yummy cinnamon coffee cake. Delicious!! At the end of our meal, a few of the Team USA athletes came in and visited with us. One of them, Sam Kavanagh, won the bronze metal in track cycling. He lost his leg in an avalanche in 2005 (his friend died in the avalanche). The avalanche broke his fibula and tibia bones in his leg and then he sat in his tent for 2 days until he was rescued. By that time, he'd lost half of his blood supply, had a terrible infection, and was experiencing kidney problems. He ended up losing his leg, but that didn't stop him. Shortly after recovering, he decided he wanted to become a Paralympian and started training, and now he is a Paralympic medalist.

Sam was a super nice guy. When I went over to get a picture of him with his Bronze medal, I spotted an old-fashioned London taxi pin on his lanyard. I told him that I loved it (I'm totally in love with these old taxi cars), and he gave me the pin. I was so grateful and excited about that one! Definitely my favorite pin yet.....and it came straight from a Paralympian bronze medalist!!!

Sam is in the middle, proudly wearing his Bronze medal.

After lunch, we were free for a few hours so Kelli and I headed to the Tower of London and saw the Crown Jewels. The Queen's crowns are so beautiful. The have a cubic zirconium crown ring here in the gift shop at the hotel. It's 70 Pounds which is like $125. I really wanted it. I even tried it on, but it's too big. So I guess the decision is made - guess I won't be wearing the crown on my finger.

The London Bridge - across from the Tower of London.

We came back after seeing the Crown Jewels and rested for about an hour or so, then headed back out to Olympic Stadium and watched the Women's Sit Volleyball. The USA played China in the Gold medal match. Unfortunately, even though it was a great game, the USA didn't beat China. So Silver it is. Which is still really cool.