Hey Everyone! Well today was the official first day of the Indy Nationals and what can I say about the day...hmm....well let me start from the beginning. So Nikki and I get to the Nat about 5-10 minutes late b/c there is absolutely NO PARKING....lol....We waisted a good 25 minutes looking for parking and finally until we found a spot in the parking garage across the street. At this point I was getting a little nervous, being that this was my first swim meet ever, and not knowing who we would potentially see. We go in, find our seats and the first person we see is another Phelps Phive member Whitney :)This was a relief to see someone else we knew, and another person to share the excitement with. She greeted us with a "Hey Ya'll" (I love her southern accent!) She eventually came and sat with us b/c we had 2 extra seats. It was interesting to see the pool and how it was all set up. I felt like I was at a concert. It really started to get exciting when I get a txt from Kaitlin. She said, "Ryan Lochte is right below us" We looked, and looked until we finally spotted him. Yeah, he is even better looking in person....O_O. No joke. Haha! Anyways...that was the beginning of our sightings. We saw Matt Grevers,Garrett Weber-Gale,Aaron Peirsol....and the list goes on.LOl! I'd have to say the best part was seeing Debbie Phelps sit 2 rows down from us. It was too weird....not in a bad way but just surreal. THEN....We see...the one and only Mike Phelps. I couldn't believe it. We all couldn't believe it! We may or may not have taken pics ;) For not being a morning person, it wasn't so bad. I was able to stay awake. LOL. After the prelims, we went on a really long walk around the city and ate some lunch. It was gorgeous out today. Being downtown in a big city is so different for me, I loved it.We didn't spot any swimmers out and about but that would be ok, that would be made up at the finals. We made our way back to the Nat about 4:15pm and found our seats and waited for the show to start. If you've never been to a meet before, the swimmers during this time are just using the lanes to swim and warm up. When the finals started, that's when it really felt like a concert. We were preoccupied half the time b/c Mike would stand below anytime someone from NBAC swam. The exclusive we brought to PPP (Just kidding ;)) was the news that Mike had cut his hair. Just a note, he had it cut in the time between Prelims and Finals. Haha! Anyways It was an awesome experience. Some of our favs who won and who are going to Rome was: Mark Gangloff, Eric Shanteau, Ryan Lochte...ummmmm...my brain doesn't wanna work now...being 1 am lol...I know I forgot a lot I apologize. Oh! One surprise was seeing Cullen Jones. There was a 4X100 relay and we spotted him right away. MAC one the heat. And when he was walking away and we yelled "YEAH CULLEN!" and he shot us a smile and waved...it was nice. :D Thanks to Cullen for that...it started the good things to happen....LOL! After the finals, we headed back to where the swimmers leave the lower level, from the pool. We saw Mark Gangloff, we all decided we wanted a pic with him. So Nik, Whit and I got a picture with him. Then we had heard Cullen would be coming out soon, well as we waited we see no one other that Mel Monroe Stewart..AKA Gold Medal Mel! It was awesome! He is amazing and super nice. I was kinda freaking out, I think we all were! So thanks to Mark and Mel for taking the time to take a pic with us! We appreciate it so much :D Well I'm sorry if this seems all over the place....I'm beyond tired. But....I'm dedicated to updates and getting you the PPP scoop :D Alrighty, until tomorrow! Have a good one!
~Ambs
Adventures with Amber and Nikki Day 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-6zneNUUc0
Pardon my French in this vid ;)
Adventures with Amber and Nikki Day 2!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXsjMjc3lCo
