The Savannah Story

Advance apologies for the length of this post — a lot happened! –Krishen
So what about my weekend at the Savannah Memorial Day hat Ultimate tournament?
Well, it was a good time: I did a lot of the same things as last year. Maui Teriyaki in Gainesville Friday night; The Condo on Tybee Island (with a great dinner Saturday night); Sunday evening at The Crab Shack. And of course casual, fun, Ultimate play on both days. It could turn into something of a tradition.
But there were many new things too.

F’rinstance, this time I carpooled up with Cam and Melissa (last year I was with Mankow, Cherie and Woody). Eric J and Sonia drove up with us this time too (they’d never been before). Friday night Cam, Melissa and I stayed at a Super 8 in Jacksonville, rather than crashing on the floor at a relative of Woody’s.
Cam and I ended up sneaking out shortly after checking into that motel in an attempt to get a photograph of the blue arc that cuts across the Jacksonville city skyline as you drive in on the I-95. Our first attempt at locating a spot ended in failure: downtown Jacksonville is a maze of one-way streets, and unfortunately none of them led us to our destination (we did find a Baptist children’s hospital, however). After some searching, we located the perfect location: smack under the I-95 bridge. Shortly thereafter we headed home and were in bed by 1:30am.
After a 5:30am wakeup call and breakfast at Crackerbarrel, Melissa expertly transported Cam and I from Jacksonville to Savannah, which gave Cam and I a little time to get some rest. We were well on-time this year, thanks to Melissa’s lead foot. Forsyth Park was a beautiful as ever, with two sets of lush, green fields surrounded by oak trees dripping of Spanish Moss and split by a 20-foot wide concrete walkway, a gigantic fountain, and statues of civil-war heroes gone by.
I was on Team Iris (light blue), which meant I was on the same field pretty much all day. Cam was on Team B (light yellow); we ended up playing each other in the first game. My team ended up squeaking a 14-12 victory. 🙂 Iris’ record by the end of the day was 2-2. Lovely!
Ran into a bunch of faces I recognized from last year, including old teammates Kelli and Eddie. Kelli was helping out the tournament director (Heidi) hand out shirts at registration. Eddie drove down from Chicago. It’s a 15 hour drive — woo, now that’s some enthusiasm. Kinda contagious actually. Speaking of attendance from far away, I was lucky enough to have Dave from Los Angeles on my team. He flew all the way to the East coast for this tournament. Crazy! His nickname was “Hollywood” after the first game.
Dinner at the condo Saturday night was put together in its entirety by Woody and his significant other Jenny. Last year we had a pasta dish; this year it was seafood paeiya (not sure how you spell it), and wow was it awesome. Jenny and Woody must have been in the kitchen for 3 hours continously preparing it.
We all watched the Calgary–Tampa game on Saturday night; Melissa broke out her brand new Flames jersey. She didn’t make many friends that way, I guarantee you that. 🙂
I got to sleep in a room at the condo this year! No more slummin’ it in the living-room. As a matter of fact, it was the same room as Heike and David, Cam and Melissa, and Susan. Cam and Melissa lent me one of their cots.
Everyone was up by 9am Sunday morning, to the smells of coffee and tastes of first-class omlettes by Woody. Bree-in (Brian) and Alex were on the scene shortly thereafter drinking a beer. Gotta hydrate yourself for the beach; that sun’s hot!
And damn was it ever. I could barely stand in a place on the sand for longer than 10 seconds without charring my feet to a crisp. In order to prevent this, I donned socks after the first game and that made my feet feel so much better. Would have helped prevent some of the blisters on my feet now too, methinks. Socks next year. Definitely.
One of my teammates, Toby, worked at the Cold Stone Creamery, and brought us all ice cream, which we consumed in our team beach tent after our first game. There was a lemon sorbet that was just incredible. Do check it out if you ever find yourself in said establishment, you won’t regret it.
Sunday’s games were long and hard-fought. We really stretched them out, winning the first one 13-12, and losing the second 11-13. But after that it was fun-time! Cam’s team already had a one-game headstart, getting knocked out in the first round. Fun time consisted of drinking beer (provided) and heckling the teams which were still playing. That, and well, of course — no Savannah hat would be complete without a game or two of “walking beer Ultimate”. The rules are simple: it’s just like regular Ultimate, except: (1) You have to have an alcoholic beverage in your hand; (2) You can’t run, ever; (3) You can’t spill your beer, or it’s a foul; and (3) You must take a drink before you throw. Superfun, and I found a pretty good way of making people forget they had to drink first: just start calling off the stall counts loudly as soon as you meet your check. They’ll get nervous and throw the disc without thinking twice about their beverage, and voila — instant turnover. 🙂
I stuck around the beach for a little while after the games ended, and lo! …what should appear, but a trio of girls holding (a) whipped cream (b) apple juice (c) cinnamon and (d) vodka. This of course adds to but one thing… apple pie shooters! They were pouring them directly into people’s mouths; I had a couple, mmm, hit the spot. 🙂
Dinner that night was at The Crab Shack just down the road; it was my second time there in two years and it was still just as fun as ever. It was rammed full of people at 7pm and it only got busier as the night went on. Cam, Melissa, Daks and myself split one of the sampler dishes; $40 for the biggest plate of seafood you’ve ever seen. Crab, lobster, shrimp, sausage potatoes and corn. Mmm, definitely the place to be. We were back to the hotel shortly after 10pm; from there it was to the bar beside the hotel. There I hung out with Cam, David and Heike for a bit, ended up dancing to Cast Iron Filter, who were performing that night. Check out Schmakt’s site for a few songs and even a couple videos of their live performances (click on the “Cast Iron Filter” on the left-hand side).
Shortly thereafter I wound up back at the condo, to my surprise it was 11:45pm and there was nobody home! Cam and Melissa had gone out for a walk on the beach; I had no idea where anyone else was at. But ten minutes later, just as I was about to leave again to go hang out on the beach, nearly the whole crew arrived and the party continued.
The hours thereafter were certainly the most interesting of the trip. I can’t really elaborate here — ask me by email or im though and I might tell you. 😀 Fell asleep at 7:30am, was back up up at 9:30 and out of the house by 10am. All the rushing was somewhat anticlimactic, though, as we spent the next hour waiting for our breakfast at a tiny little place about 400 metres from the condo. Heh.
Met a ton of wonderful people during the trip. Thanks especially go out to Cam and Melissa who drove me there and back (and put up with me the whole way too!). I’m hoping to do it again next year for sure.
Update, 1:31pm — Pics are now up, enjoy! Tip: Use the Slideshow feature for easier viewing (click the “[slideshow]” link on the upper right).

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