So, now that we are on the countdown to May 09 - who is coming and what do you plan to swim?
This will be my first US Master's National meet, and it happens to be happening in my back yard (at least very close to where I grew up and swam USA club). Over is San Luis Obispo now, but it's a short hop, skip, and jump over the foothills to Clovis!
Fresno might not be most people's idea of a vacation destination, but as others have mentioned it puts you in striking distance to plenty of places that are (lots of NPs, etc.). How much can you really do other than swim during the meet anyway? And really it's not difficult to get to from the East Coast. No, you're probably not going to get a direct flight, but you should probably be able to get there with a single connection. Since the meet is "Nationals" you can't expect it to be within driving distance for you very often.
I think that those of you on the West Coast under-estimate just how difficult and expensive it is to get to Fresno from the Northeast.
A quick look at flights for next May shows me that I can get from Boston to Fresno with one stop if I want to spend $566. There are flights for $463 if I want to make two stops. Most of these trips take between 8-10 hours. (I did not include the 1.5 it takes me to get to Boston. If I wanted to fly out of a closer airport, I could get to PR with one stop but could NOT get to Fresno with one stop.)
I can get to Puerto Rico from Boston with one stop for only $323. It also takes several fewer hours and does not have a big time change.
Clovis is far, far away from here.
And of course I understand that the world does not revolve around those in the Northeast. There are going to be difficulties getting to any venue for those in various parts of the country. I just thought I'd toss out that information for those of you out west who think it's not that hard to get to Clovis.
Fresno might not be most people's idea of a vacation destination, but as others have mentioned it puts you in striking distance to plenty of places that are (lots of NPs, etc.). How much can you really do other than swim during the meet anyway? And really it's not difficult to get to from the East Coast. No, you're probably not going to get a direct flight, but you should probably be able to get there with a single connection. Since the meet is "Nationals" you can't expect it to be within driving distance for you very often.
I think that those of you on the West Coast under-estimate just how difficult and expensive it is to get to Fresno from the Northeast.
A quick look at flights for next May shows me that I can get from Boston to Fresno with one stop if I want to spend $566. There are flights for $463 if I want to make two stops. Most of these trips take between 8-10 hours. (I did not include the 1.5 it takes me to get to Boston. If I wanted to fly out of a closer airport, I could get to PR with one stop but could NOT get to Fresno with one stop.)
I can get to Puerto Rico from Boston with one stop for only $323. It also takes several fewer hours and does not have a big time change.
Clovis is far, far away from here.
And of course I understand that the world does not revolve around those in the Northeast. There are going to be difficulties getting to any venue for those in various parts of the country. I just thought I'd toss out that information for those of you out west who think it's not that hard to get to Clovis.
