Titans USA Tour 2023

“Running to the gate is my cardio.” Unknown                   

Our leisurely mornings were just a distant memory this morning, with a 7.00am departure from our hotel raising our poppets early from their accustomed slumber. While we may have been departing in the wee hours, we all made sure we allowed enough time to have our supplied breakfast (we’ve become quite accustomed to our cooked start to the day, not sure how we’ll adapt when we get home).

As it had been a few days since our last dalliance with the airport, we were a bit out of tune. As a result, we hit a few snags with bag checks at security and may have had to sacrifice quite a few aerosol deodorants and bottles of perfume (we’re going to have to make sure we don’t sweat, otherwise we’ll be recreating the old TWC sweating and shining adage!)

Some of the lads filled in the time until boarding by rediscovering their childhood and having a little play. They had a great time but the little kids were getting a little restless waiting for the big kids to finish on the playground.

Once on board, Cayde loved the special announcement over the speaker to celebrate his birthday. Did he? Did he? After the short flight we landed in Sacramento and made a lightning quick stop at our hotel before getting back on the bus for the two hour trip to San Francisco - we’re off to the NBA! This is where the boy’s excitement levels really started to pick up (none more so than our very own Matt Sutton) they even walked faster, well speedier than normal, hard to believe but true. 

It was like Christmas had come early for Matt - the Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry number one fan - we haven’t seen him that excited since we told him didn’t have to sit next to Anthony any more :)

While our seats might have not been courtside, we were there and had the chance to experience the Golden State Warriors take on the Portland Trail Blazers at Chase Center. It was a slow start but the kids (and Matt) really got into in the second half when Steph put on a show and scored the game winning three pointer in the dying seconds.

Our euphoria carried us to the bus but quickly subsided as tiredness hit for our two hour return journey to Sacramento.

After arriving back at the hotel just after at midnight it was straight to bed to get as much rest as possible before we start the basketball tournaments at Antelope and Center High School and head off for the homestays experience.

Sacramento….you don’t say!

• Sacramento hasn’t always been California’s capital. Monterey, San Jose, Vallejo, and Benicia all served as capital cities until Sacramento was chosen as the capital in 1852. San Francisco took that title in 1862 before giving it back to the City of Trees in 1869.
• Sacramento is older than the state of California itself. The city was officially incorporated on February 27, 1850, while the Golden State didn’t join the Union until September 9, 1850 — making it California’s oldest incorporated city as well.
• The rice grown in the Sacramento Valley is used in almost every sushi roll in America, according to the California Rice Commission.
• There’s a network of tunnels beneath Old Sacramento that traces the history of the original city before it was “jacked up" to a higher elevation in the 1860s-70s in an effort to avoid flooding.

The Flag!

We had the shortest flag winner in history today, Poppy Venn held the flag in her hands (begrudgingly and while issuing verbal threats)  for all of five minutes. In a nutshell, Poppy won the flag for making the statement, while folding her washing, that she mustn’t forget to go and get the washing (just to be clear, the washing she was folding!)

However, it came to light after voting had ceased, that members of Team Tan had been keeping tight-lipped on a certain incident within their ranks. And it was such a corker that voting was reopened and after a unanimous vote, the flag was reissued.

So, while we may not have given the birthday boy a gift for his big day, we did give him the flag. Could it have worked out any better? Congratulations Cayde Watson, you’re now a seventeen year old who is also member of flag royalty. And speaking of royalty, he is joined by now back-to-back-to-back winner, Mackye Baron who is up for his third stint. He’s on his way to flag history! We’re going to have to rename the flag if this keeps up. 

It seems last night, Cayde and Mackye decided a tub of ice cream each would be a good idea. They were having a great bonding experience, until …… the sugar rush hit. Then the bonding really started, they decided it was a good idea to wrestle. They have some good ideas don’t they? But not only did they decide to wrestle, they decided to create their own wrestling costumes. Now it was somewhere in between the suplex and the half Nelson, that the boys somehow ended up in the corridor. And that’s when their room mate Finn did the best move of all time. He locked the door. Well played Finn, well played.

There was a lot of panicked scurrying around as they tried to find refuge. Every now and again, Finn would open the door and just as our wrestling duo got close, he’d slam it again. Other tour participants could not hold back the laughter when they saw the duos little heads peaking around the corner pleading for anyone to open the door and let them in. In the end the boys “tapped out” and conceded Finn was the champion of Wrestlemania 2023 and he let them back in the room. We’re all thankful we’ve yet to see video proof of this one (although I’m sure it’s out there)

Footnote: In true Team Tan style we turned on each other today. After wrestlemania came to light and the boys were decreed winners, Mackye decided that Cayde would be the one to don the flag (surely he must be getting sick of it by now). However, the boys were not in the same corner for this and consequently Cayde enlightened us that Mackye had not had the flag in his possession for the entirety of yesterday. So now, Cayde has the flag and Mackye has Cosmo to carry and nurture. However, after dropping a few wrestling moves on our baby, Cosmo, it has been decided that anything Mackye does to Cosmo we can do to him. This should get interesting….