From The Camera Roll

So there was TigerBlog at the baggage claim at JFK Sunday after getting off an 8.5 hour flight from Milan. 

He was surrounded by 52 men's lacrosse players, pretty much all of whom wore something that advertised "Princeton." In fairness, TigerBlog also was dressed thusly, at least for his "Princeton Lacrosse" sweatpants. The sweatshirt he wore said "Bella Venezia Lacrosse," something he acquired in a trade for a Princeton sweatshirt with a member of the Italian national team staff. 

That's Samuele by the way. He was wearing a blue "Italia Lacrosse" sweatshirt that TB originally said would make a good trade, but Samuele said that he had played exactly one game for the national team and that the sweatshirt meant a lot to him. Fair enough. 

Here's the sweatshirt TB got in return:

Good trade all around, no? 

Meanwhile, this is Martina. She went from fairly upset to amazingly thrilled when a Princeton Lacrosse sweatshirt came her way, courtesy of Samuele, who drove her 20 miles to pick it up from the hotel where the Tigers were staying. Of all the people who came away with Princeton gear, TB is pretty sure Martina was the happiest.

Don't worry. TigerBlog hasn't forgotten the story about the woman at the baggage claim. He'll get back to that shortly. 

TigerBlog took nearly a thousand pictures during the trip. He showed you a few from Lake Como the other day, and yes that area was scenic beauty at its finest.

TB also took this one, which he's pretty sure if the back of the head of Porter Malkiel, one of the stars of Princeton's second midfield unit. This is one of his favorites:  

He took so many pictures on Lake Como that he'll share a few others to give you more of a sense of what it was like there: 

 

And then there was the food. This is just a small sample of what TB ate while he was there:

 

 

Of all of the food that was consumed, the last one was likely the best one. It was about as perfect as food can be prepared, at least to TigerBlog.  

 

Of course TigerBlog did make his own pizza, or at least made some of a pizza, with considerable help from the experts. It turned out to be really good. See for yourself. 

Like he said, he has a thousand that he could share. Maybe he will go back through the camera roll a different time. 

Tomorrow he'll be back to talking about the rest of Princeton Athletics. For today, he wanted to share the photos — and to tell you the story about the woman at baggage claim. 

As he waited for his suitcase to come rolling out, a woman walked up to him and started chatting. She asked who the team had played while there, and TB began to explain what the trip was all about. He also mentioned that the games against the Swiss and Italian national team weren't all that competitive but were a lot of fun for everyone involved, tossing in the fact that Princeton is the defending NCAA champion.

She told him that she knew, and that her son-in-law had played lacrosse at Yale. She said that her late husband had played at Washington & Lee. She mentioned that she herself had attended UVa and that she knew they had a good team. 

As it turned out, the woman at the baggage claim is one of the most famous journalists of all time. It's possible that she is the most famous woman journalist ever. If not, she's in the top five. Somehow TB had no idea who she was until Tiger defensive coordinator Jeremy Hirsch told him after he spoke to her.

The more TB thought about it, he figured that she possibly liked that she was having a normal conversation with someone who didn't know who she was, rather than someone hounding her for an autograph or photo. She was super nice, that's for sure. And she knew about lacrosse. 

TB asked he about her trip to Italy, and she mentioned that she was on vacation. It was a pleasant little five-minute chat.

Who was she? 

Katie Couric. Nice to meet you Katie.