Good First Day

It seems like today was the day that wouldn't end. Sort of a carryover from last night. Fran and I both arrived in Ft. Lauderdale within an hour of each other and met at the Hertz counter to start our hour drive to West Palm. Everything went like clock work, and we made it to our hotel, settled in and had a great night's sleep. Long story short, we ended up changing hotels this morning after we discovered we were about 13 miles from where we wanted to be. Found a closer hotel, with breakfast, MUCH cheaper. All that was done before 9:30 this morning.

On to the courts for a hit before my 1:00 match. It was strange to not be all bundled up while hitting...it was a balmy 83 degrees here today...so nice! BallenIsles is a beautiful facility. Lush landscaping, tropical plants galore and a huge, state of the art clubhouse. Very chic. We as players are very limited as to where we can go and what we can do on site, but it is a lovely place to be playing tennis. I'll try to throw in some pictures over the next few days.

My singles match went on a little early. I fought through some butterflys and nerves the first few games, but settled in to win easily 6-0, 6-1. Our doubles wasn't scheduled until 4:30 because of a scheduling accomodation for a local player who couldn't play her singles match before three, due to her work schedule. Unfortunately it was her opponent that we had to wait for to finish before we could play our doubles. As Murphy's law would have it, they split sets and played for almost three and a half hours! We finally got on to play doubles tonight around 7:00. Much past our feeding time, and closer to our bed time. Playing under the lights is not my favorite thing to do, but we perservered and won 6-0, 6-1. We quickly turned in our score and left in search of dinner, which we found at an Italian pasta and pizza restaurant. Scarfed down dinner, then headed to the grocery store for water, gatorade, etc...All things we would have liked to have done at more of a leisurely pace, rather than rushed and tired from a long day of waiting. Oh well. Day one is finally in the books and it's official. I'm back playing.

I know nothing about my opponent in singles or doubles tomorrow. Good for me. All I have to do is go out, play and have fun. In West Palm Beach. In 80 degree, sunny weather. I can handle that.