I don't like the term, "bucket list." It seems morbid to have a list of things to do before the cold hand of death grips you. I prefer, "achieving a life's dream," wordy, I know, but I achieved one on this trip. I have wanted to go to Wimbledon since I was 12 years old, and since my tennis skills were never going to get me there, I knew it meant someday getting a ticket to the tournament.
I took the tour of the grounds in 2010, but now it was time to actually see a match. My friend Joe and I had been plotting this trip for a few months. Joe was scouting tickets on StubHub but they were completely out of our league (I can't think of anything I'd pay $1,800 to see), so that meant just showing up and joining the infamous 'queue.'
Joe came in from Liverpool yesterday and met me here in London and we made a plan to head to the tennis grounds at 6am. We joined the queue just before 7 and stood with a couple thousand others for over three hours - but it paid off when we got tickets to the matches on Court #2, but more importantly, those tickets got us onto the grounds. So we watched the ladies doubles quarter-finals on Court #2 where the American Abigail Spears and her Polish partner, Alicja Roslska, beat two French women, and then we spend the rest of the day on Henman Hill soaking up the sun while watching the men's quarter-finals on the big screen. It was a spectacular day.
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