The Baker Circus: Olympic Show jumping

At last it was time for us girls to go to the Olympics! Maggy, Katie, Nora and I left the house at little after 9 in the morning for a 45 minutes drive to Stowmarket where we caught a train to London. I was stressed to be not only the only adult responsible for 3 young girls in London during a major international event but to catch all the right trains and be on time.

Thanks to Josh T we made it without me making any mistakes! He drew up directions, train numbers, platform numbers and even drew me a map! He is a friend of the Barnes and was a real blessing in guiding us to the Games without me having a nervous breakdown.

I don't know how long it took us to get there but it must have been 3 hours. All of that was train changes, train stops and 30 minutes of walking to get to Greenwich Park where the Show Jumping event was held.

Here the girls are outside the gates of security to get into the park. The security was much like airport security with scanners and x-ray machines. We couldn't take in water or liquids and had to dump a bunch of water that Maria gave us to get us through the day.

We got there an hour early.

Time enough for pictures.

We took a long walk to the bathroom and found this guy on the way back.

After finding our seats I discovered that our seats were not together. The girls would have been sitting in a whole other section than I would. Clearly that was not acceptable. I could have sat a row or two behind them, but a whole other section was just not going to happen. An attendant sent us to the ticket resolution office to complain. I knew that if it didn't work out we might not have a place to sit. I wasn't stressed, I knew it would work out. The girls were beside themselves as we stood in line to talk to someone about the tickets. The competion was starting and they weren't in their seats. They had to watch it on the big screen and they were upset with me and not grasping the situation. It all worked out and we got new seats in the 8th row!