Let the Games begin

(Chuck at finish line)

Today was the first day of competition at rowing. They had 25 heat races, each 2000 meters. Women's singles, Men's singles, women's double, etc. There are several days of heat races before the medal races.

(Monaco's Raymond Mathias after men's single heat race)

There were a few decent photos but the most exciting thing was a generator caught fire and burned the building that housed it. We moved some photos from that and a small story. Apparently the BBC picked up on it and later in the evening we were called and asked to check out a rumor that there was and explosion at our venue. Kirsty covered training for slalom, Kevork was at the start line, I was at the finish line, and Greg was either on a truck that followed the race or at the start or finish line. We would shoot each race and drop our photos into our laptop which copied the files to Bertrand, who edited everything.

(Fire at rowing venue)

Dinner was very nice, except for the interruption when we had to check out the rumor of an explosion. Kirsty ordered algae and it was actually pretty good. It tasted like garlic but had a seaweed texture. No Peking duck this time!

(Kirsty tries algae)

The restaurant was on the third floor of a building. Each level had a nicer restaurant and we were escorted to a private dining room. As we left we met a man who wanted his photo with us. His name was Mr. Lee and he was a noodle maker for the restaurant.

(From left, Dan, Kevork, Bertrand, Mr. Lee, and Kirsty)

The first day of the Games was long and hot, but a lot of fun.