After the girls had got over the initial ‘shock’ / excitement that they were playing in a stadium on ‘Turf’ we got down to business. A 5-6 defeat was certainly a respectable score line. We then moved on to our first set of hosts for the next 2 nights at St. James’s Boarding School. After a morning spent in Arlington Cemetery, we headed back to St. James for our game, again on turf. The opposition proved to be too strong and we lost 4-11. Thursday saw us travel to Baltimore and having visited the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Museum, we arrived at Vincent Pallotti High School. The first half saw us down 6-7 but the team rallied in the second half to come out victorious 18-9.
After the game the parents put on a ‘cook out’ where the girls were able to mix together before going home with their hosts. Friday morning was spent at Baltimore’s Inner Harbour before returning to Pallotti to pick up our hosts and go to support them in their afternoon fixture.
On Saturday we left Baltimore and travelled to Philadelphia, home of the infamous ‘Philly Cheese Steak’ and of course the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Friends Delaware School is much smaller than the others we had played and their lacrosse programme is developing and as a result we won the game 18-0. Sunday was a rest day and the opportunity for the girls to shop in The King of Prussia shopping mall, the second largest in the States! On Monday we travelled to Long Island and our last game of the tour against Friends Academy which was a tough game; at 3-9 down at half time the team really had to dig deep, eventually winning the second half 6-2 but we lost the game 9-11. After supper with our opposition we headed to the ‘Big Apple’ and our Manhattan hotel. Tuesday was a special day: Daisy Cave’s 16th birthday which we celebrated with a cake (thank you Mr and Mrs Horowitz) a moving trip to Ground Zero and a quick final shopping spree before heading to Newark airport and our trip home.
A huge thank you to Miss Kay and Miss Wells for accompanying me and making the trip such a success.