POLO!
We were alerted by a friend about the polo matches in Newport. Who knew?! We've lived here...what?...a total of 11 years and had no idea. The US team plays a different country's team every Saturday, June-September. People line the field with picnic blankets and tables and make a whole event of it. So of course we had to satisfy our curiosity and make the pilgrimage ourselves. It was great fun. The announcer was hilarious, the field & horses beautiful, the people-watching like a JCrew catalog come to life.
First the horses hold a huddle to work out strategy. Just kidding. I don't know what the horses discussed but they were taking everything very seriously. Lighten up, ponies!
The requisite we-did-too-take-you-places-when-you-were-growing-up photo:
At half time (after the 3rd "chukka") everyone goes out on the field and replaces the divots on the field. We pretended we totally knew what we were doing. Except when we accidentally replaced horse manure in a divot.
More divot dancing.
Then this cute young man spectator got out his bagpipe and played a few tunes. It was awesome. (See what I mean about the JCrew thing?)
Apparently people take their polo spectating very seriously. So seriously that they bring umbrella tables and chairs, full multi-course gourmet picnic fare, crystal glasses.
Don't mind us over here, eating our strawberries off of our paper plates and drinking Fresca from a can. We'll just buy ourselves some hotdogs from the stand.
Afterwards, everyone lines the perimeter with their hands extended and the players ride around the whole circle giving high 5s to all. It was awesome except when I was trying to lift Sam up so he could receive a high five and I almost fell onto the field under the galloping horses. Good times. We've decided that now we need to have a pollo match. As in chickens. (We thought it was funny but maybe you had to be there.)
We ended our night over on the Cliff Walk in Newport. One of my happy places with people I love. August has started just fine.
