After the session, we headed home, but became a bit antsy when the trip seemed to take a little longer than usual. It turned out we were making a detour to head towards the only Starbucks in town. However, once we arrived there, we didn't stop, just made a U turn. Yes, this was our manager's idea of an April fools joke. Overall, I would give his effort a C-, mostly because the drive took about an hour.

On each of these trips to and from the stadium, and on the coffee detour, we have our usual police motorcycle escorts. Also, as a side note, I noticed today (although most people had already noticed yesterday) that we are also followed by an ambulance escort. I think this is a first.

After finally getting back from practice, we had lunch and a quick meeting, and then the rest of the afternoon was off. For the most part, this down time was spent getting treatment and generally lounging around the hotel. There was a Champions League game on television, so we watched that. Then, we wandered around the gym and pool areas, as well as the souvenir shop in the hotel. Then we watched more television.

Rhian and D watched some of the British TV show Absolutely Fabulous, and then Kara and Amy came over to watch a show called Extras All of this was of course, very productive. And, after our strenuous afternoon, it was soon time for dinner, followed by another meeting.

However, in between these two events, we each received a gift bag from CONCACAF and the province of Chihuahua. Included in this gift bag was a white polo shirt, and we all decided to wear this to the meeting, instead of our usual Canada gear. Somehow, it was also decided that we would all sport side-pony tails. I think we ended up looking pretty good, and such things tend to happen when the team is kept locked up.

This was about it for the day. After the evening meeting we pretty much all headed our separate ways before bed. The feeling I get from the squad is that we are all feeling relaxed, but at the same time excited for the game tomorrow.