Ross's club ultimate (frisbee) team, Pike, squeaked into the national tournament in Sarasota, FL, coming in as the 16th seed. Kathy & Ben decided to fly down and surprised Ross at the fields. Pike played three games Thursday, then we arrived and saw two games on Friday and two on Saturday. Pike won their second game on Friday, but lost the rest, most of them by close scores. So they left the tournament in the same position they entered, but Ross was very happy that he was able to compete at this level, and Pike was also happy with his performance: they voted to give him the "spirit of the game" award for the team.
Friday evening Ben and Kathy hit the Satasota Bayfront, arriving in time to catch a beautiful sunset. We then met Ross & Pike in Siesta Key for the team dinner. Very pleasant. Saturday after the games we hit the beach at Siesta Key and soaked in the Gulf waters for a couple of hours before meeting up with Ross for dinner. He was exhausted after all the games he'd played, especially as he was fighting a cold, but surf & turf and a couple of ibuprofen set him back on his feet.
Sunday Ben and Kathy hit the road up to Gainesville to visit old friends Coleen & David and their son, Benjamin. We walked around their neighborhood a little, admiring the beautiful flora, then we all drove over to a conservation area where we walked through the woods to a prairie and enjoyed the sunset. We saw some large spiders who had spun their webs high across the path. We were happy they didn't decide to drop down on us suddenly.
Only a few stills from the ultimate tournament are shown below. More can be found at http://www.blkk.com/pike/photo_album and http://www.blkk.com/pike/videos.