I saw whales today!  A whole pod of them!  From the balcony of our room overlooking the ocean.  But let me get caught up on other news first.  All the competitors met yesterday afternoon at the Good Hope Shooting Range to have their rifles inspected, opening ceremony for the competition, and a wonderful dinner hosted by the South African team (lamb chops, chicken kabobs, and a traditional local sausage (don't know the name of it).  The reason for the rifle inspection is that all accessories to the rifle (sling, sights, cheek rests, etc) have to be authentic to the 1800's period.  And the rifle itself has to be either an original or an exact reproduction of an original.  Everyone on the US Team passed!  Today was practice day so the competitors could get their sight elevations for 300, 500, 600, 800, and 900 meters.  There's gonna be a bunch of tired puppies tonight!  Tomorrow starts individual competition at 300, 500, and 600 meters.  All the different countries' shooters are mixed up so no two people from the same country are shooting together.  A person from a third country scores for them.  The South Africans hire target pullers so the shooters don't have to pull target duty--yay!!!  Everyone has the opportunity to win a medal at the different meters (gold, silver, bronze, 4th place, and 5th place).  The weather was in the mid-50's today and NO RAIN!  Yay!  Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and mid-50's--perfect weather for shooting.

Since today was practice day, Andrea Shaver and I stayed at the B&B and walked a mile on the beach into town to pick up a few things, and, of course, collected a few more shells.  We encountered Sea Rescue workers who were busy dragging and picking up the mountains of seaweed that had piled up on the beach from last week's storms.  All those pictures of pretty, white, clean beaches that you see in pictures involve a LOT of behind the scenes work!  Tomorrow Arleen will be photographing teams and competitors at the individual competiton so stay tuned for pics of that tomorrow night.