My Town Monday: US Olympic Training Center, Chula Vista, CA
I spent BEAUCOUP hours this past weekend on a pool deck with Child #3 in Chula Vista for a swim meet. BEAUCOUP. As in, I'm quite possibly in contention for Mother of the Weekend. :)
Chula Vista means "beautiful view" in Spanish. It's located about 11 miles south and a little bit east of downtown San Diego and about 7 miles north and a little bit west of Tijuana, Mexico. Chula Vista is the 2nd largest city in San Diego County with a population of around 200,000, 50%-ish is hispanic/latino.
Forbes Magazine described Chula Vista as one of the most boring American cities. Ouch.
Anyway, I disagree. Chula Vista is home to OnStage Playhouse, one of my favorite local community theatres. Not to mention a pretty cool nature center, a heritage museum, the Cricket amphitheater, and Knott's Soak City (more of interest to the Summy children than to their mother). No doubt I'll visit a couple of these for future My Town Monday posts.
Today, though, it's all about the US Olympic Training Center. Child #3 and I stopped by here after the meet.
Before I forget, on Tuesday through Saturday, there are tours led by an athlete. Here's the general info: 2800 Olympic Parkway, Chula Vista, CA 91915-6007. 619-656-1500. Okay, onto some info. This facility is for the development of America's Olympians (future and current) in many sports such as, archery, rowing, canoe/kayak, soccer, softball, field hockey, tennis, track & field, bobsledding, luge, rugby, tri-athalon and cycling. About 4,000 athletes train here each year. Apparently, the BMX competition events are super exciting to watch.
The complex is on 150 acres, is open year round and, of course, has our magnificent weather. The center was a gift to the United States Olympic Committee from the San Diego National Sports Training Foundation.
If you look closely (with a mega-strong magnifying glass), you can see a very tired (and cute) swimmer on the left.
I tried to snap a picture of Child #3 swimming the butterfly. But, alas, he was too fast!Click here for links to more My Town Monday posts. Thanks to Travis Erwin for hosting this week. Also, if you're even marginally thinking about writing a My-Town-Monday post, please do! Fair warning, though, it's addictive! Write your post, then leave a comment on the official My Town Monday blog so we can get a link up to you.
sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chula_Vista,_California
http://www.judsbook.com/members/31864/posts/2006/1/249961
http://www.ci.chula-vista.ca.us/Attraction/olympics.asp
http://www.chulavistaconvis.com/olympic-training-center
Posts
Very cool post, Barrie. The more I read your blog, the more I wonder why I am not living in San Diego!
ReplyDeleteTeresa! Ha! I bet if you were writing about your corner of California, we'd want to move there too. ;)Although perhaps the San Diego tourism board should be sending me money!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on Mother of the Weekend! ;)
ReplyDeleteThose are really good pictures to be coming from a cell phone.
Yes, San Diego has a great champion promoter in you, Barrie. I want to visit. And this Olympic Training facility just feels so impressive and American. Wow.
ReplyDeleteThe training center is most impressive, but not as impressive as child #3 swimming fly in that pool :-)
ReplyDeleteI will be there in January and take a look. How impressive.
ReplyDeleteHi there. I'm a new follower and I just hadda' comment when I found this post. Most of my children were born in Chula Vista and I so appreciate seein' the pictures. Thank you for posting 'em.
ReplyDelete~ Yaya