Earlier this week, Nina competed in the Virginia state track and field meet down in Lynchburg at Liberty University. The timing worked out well because the kids had off school on Tuesday for a teacher workday, and the meet was held on Tuesday, so we drove down Monday afternoon. We arrived at the hotel in the later part of the afternoon, and Nina met up with one of her teammates and did some accelerations in the parking lot to get the travel out of their legs, then we grabbed dinner and relaxed the rest of the night at the hotel.
The girls section of the meet was held first, and they had to be at the facility at 7am, so it was an early up and out for us. No spectators were allowed, so I had to drop Nina off and then head back to the hotel room to watch the livestream on my computer. It certainly is a bit unconventional, but in this Covid day and age, we’re used to this stuff by now.
Nina competed in high jump and in the 4x200m relay. She finished 6th in high jump, and as the only freshman jumping with seniors taking the top spots, it was a great experience for her and gave her something to shoot for in the years to come. The relay team also took 6th. The girls didn’t have their best time for this race at the state meet, but again, they’re a young group also. With two freshman, one sophomore, and one junior, they’ve got some years ahead of them as well.
It was a great experience for Nina to be a part of the high school track team this winter. She has enjoyed everything about the experience, and we are so happy she had the opportunity to participate. She’ll have about a month before outdoor track tryouts start, and she definitely plans to go out for the outdoor team as well.
On the way home, we were driving past Charlottesville, when on an overpass we looked down and saw this beautiful mural painted along the street. We deliberated for about five minutes if we should get off the highway and try to find it, but after some deliberation we both agreed we had to give it a try. We had no idea where to look actually, but after driving down some random roads and coming to a few dead ends, we actually found it!! My camera phone doesn’t do a great job of showing the detail, and the mural was so big it wrapped around the corner of the street, but I’m so glad we found it. Despite adding 30 minutes onto our trip home, it solidified the memory of the state trip in our minds in a cool way.
Looking up about the mural later, I learned that Charlottesville has a whole series of murals dedicated to different themes/ideas all over the city. I’d actually love to go there and take a trip just touring around the different murals, but below is a photo from their website of the whole mural and what I discovered about the creators of the one we found:
Working with Albemarle High School students, Beloved local muralist Chicho Lorenzo incorporated all the things he loves about the diversity and beauty of Charlottesville into this piece. The self-taught artist and native of Madrid, Spain is widely influenced by the vibrancy and color of the Spanish culture, which is evident in his work.
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