Muhlenberg College Athletics

I think it’s a fair assumption to say that most college students aren’t particularly fond of waking up for an 8:00 a.m. class. I also think it’s a fair assumption to say that most college students would absolutely abhor waking up at 3:00 a.m. to get to an airport for a flight.

At the Newark Airport on August 6 at 4:45 a.m., however, this was not the case. Whether it was the excitement of the soon-to-be taking off of our airplane to the Pacific Northwest, or the excitement of seeing friends and teammates for the first time since the school year ended, Gate 12 at the airport was buzzing at the early hours of

"Look for my bags over there!"

On our six-hour trek westward to Vancouver, there was plenty of laughing, sleeping, iPod listening and movie watching. But the highlight of our trip was the beautiful scenery and landscape outside of our cabin window: snow-capped mountains, serpentine-like rivers and vast, open fields in between. It was definitely worth the motion sickness that plagued me after we landed at the Vancouver airport.

Once there, we picked up our luggage and waited a bit as Coach Bissinger’s bags were nowhere to be seen. Once they made their to an inpatient Coach B, we were greeted by our tour guide, Alex, and escorted to our bus that would take us to the Cascadia Hotel.

Vancouver looked absolutely beautiful: a city on an island surrounded by snow-capped mountains and the wilderness. As this imagery came into focus on the bus, I think everyone knew the fun that lied ahead of us.

After checkin and some time to get settled, we took the bus out of the city to a park for a quick practice to shake off some rust off of our lacrosse skills. Although it was hot, it was much cooler than Allentown and the rest of the Northeast. After we arrived back in our hotel, we had the rest of the night to ourselves. Many of us explored around the city and enjoyed many great restaurants and entertainment options. Currently, there is a huge fireworks show over the city that is making the sky light up and filled with booming noise. I’m sure many of the guys and their families are enjoying this unbelievable scene.

Tomorrow we will be playing two games, so it is time to get some sleep after this long, but great, day. This is going to be a very special trip for both the team and their families!