Wimbledon

To start off the insane amount of catch-up blogging, we're going with the most recent stuff because it's fresh in our memory and mostly because Brent already wrote it out (nice of him to do the hard work for me, right?). So here it is, our Wimbledon experience with a slideshow of pics at the end. Keep in mind as you're reading that this is something Brent has wanted to do since he was a little boy and walked around all day like a kid at Disneyland for the first time. It was awesome.

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We woke up at 5am, left the house at 5:30, took two buses, and arrived at Wimbledon about 6:30. We found the end of the 'The Queue' as it is officially named at 6:40 and they handed us official numbered queue cards. We were numbers 799 & 800. We sat on our blanket until about 7:10 when they began condensing the line and moving us closer to the gates. We began in one of the car parks and wound our way through the edge of a golf course. We bought some breakfast sandwiches and ate them in line. Then it began to rain about 7:45. There was a bit of tree cover but we had to hide under our blanket to stay dry since we hadn't brought any umbrellas. Luckily it began to clear up after 45 minutes or so and we didn't get too soaked as we worried we might.

At about 8:00 they had gone through from the front handing out wristbands for Centre Court and Courts 1 & 2, the top show courts. We amazingly still had a shot at a choice of any of those. We selected Court 2 because it appeared more interesting for the day. Centre Court and Court 1 had 2 matches each of the Women's singles quarterfinals. But that meant each had a Williams sister and we didn't know the others and weren't too interested. Besides it was £62 and £74 each for 1 or Centre Court and it didn't seem worth it. Had it been Wendesday it would have because it would have been Federer, Murray and the other top men playing. But alas the timing didn't work out. However we both agreed had it been Wednesday we would not have been that close in line arriving at 6:40 and it would not have been likely that Centre Court would be available even if we were 800 in line because the 1st 500 people would surely have taken them all. People were already there queueing/camping over 24 hrs in advance!

So anyway, we chose the £35 Court 2 tickets which seemed a bigger bang for buck and it was. At about 8:45 they began moving us through the metal detector security check and then up to the ticket booths and then up to a holding area just outside the park. At 9:30 they let us in a bit further to where we could get programmes for the day and wander through a few shops until 10:30 when they officially opened and let us go anywhere. We first went to Henman Hill and laid our blanket out to dry and sat for 45 minutes or so taking in the view over Wimbledon and planning our day a bit. So at 11:15 we began making our way over to Court 2. We passed a few of the courts where some boys and girls had begun their matches at 11. It was surreal the first few we saw as we felt so close and that it wasn't real. We made it to Court 2 about 11:45 and at 12 the players came out and warmed up and then it began. We watched mixed doubles first and cheered on a Brazilian and his partner from Taipei but they lost. It was a fun match. In between that match and the next, we walked out and caught a few games of an American boy playing a Brazilian boy. They were probably 16 years old or so but still really good. The Brazilian was ranked so he was beating the American pretty good but it was fun to sit literally on the front row, 10 feet or so from the court. Then we saw men's doubles back in our Court 2 seats (which by the way were assigned, meaning we could come and go all day as we pleased, the other courts 5-19 we could walk by and get seats if they were available but no seats are assigned and so are up for grabs.) and that match was really good because it was the guy that had beat Roddick in singles the day before and his partner against the guy that had lost to Federer in singles the day before and his partner. So they were really really good serving at 100-125 mph and hitting some amazing shots while we sat 15-20 feet away.

After that 2nd match we took a break because the sun was out and really really hot. We had forgotten how intense the sun is this time of year as up here we are closer to it. We got some strawberries and cream (free because we picked up a coupon from our bank that happens to be the sponsor!). Then after wandering in a few other shops we found a bench in the shade of Court 1 and got a Wimbledon Sundae (strawberries & cream and chocolate ice creams with burnt almonds and waffle cone pieces topped with lots of hot fudge) and then Emily laid down and fell asleep for about a half hour or so while I checked scores of other matches.

By this time it was about 17:30 and so went and bought some dinner and ate it near Court 2 where we could see a few of the smaller courts where there was some girls doubles matches going on. Then we went into Court 2 for the final match that started about 18:25. It was the ladies invitational doubles. We watched Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova (both recent former players) take on much older former British players who I had never heard of: Anne Hobbs and Samantha Smith. Of course the younger pair easily one but it lasted about an hour as the older pair fought hard and made a bit of a run at the end but then fell short.

So we left about 7:35pm and caught a bus back to Richmond and then decided to walk home from there. Got home about 9 and were showered and asleep by 10.

An exhausting day but very fun to experience Wimbledon.