February 19 2017
We are back home in Ottawa! Tommy was in California for a long time! He was in Chula Vista at the Olympic Training Center from Jan 21 to Feb 9. He made new amazing friends, trained very hard, and learned many incredibly valuable things on this part of his journey as a T20 para athlete dreaming to race at the World Championships this summer in England, and in Tokyo 2020.

Then his trip to California took him to Disneyland in Anaheim, where he had the joy of reconnecting with some wonderful old Disney character friends, some longtime YouTube friends, and meeting some dear YouTube friends in person for the first time. What an adventure, and what fun to spend time discovering all the magic at Disneyland with our dear friends Alyssa and VJ, Hannah, Dana and Scott, Lindsay, Valeria and Mason- your companionship and support made the magic so much more special! We were also grateful to be lucky enough to unexpectedly cross paths with friends like Jamie and her family, and many other YouTube friends, and also make so many brand new friends in the parks as Tommy reached out in his friendly way to so many kids and their families along the way.

Also, a very touching moment was our day in Marina Del Ray and Santa Monica, where Tommy reconnected with Farnaz and her husband Robbie. Farnaz was a therapist who worked with Tommy in 1997, when he was 5 years old. 20 years later, Tommy had his first conversation with her. It was incredible to see them chatting away together. We also visited the apartment where we stayed when Tommy was 5, and he led us from the pool area right to the door of our apartment. He remembered it all. What a great experience to take Tommy back to where we stayed 20 years ago, and how wonderful that Farnaz met him again! Thank you to each and every person who joined Tommy in his California adventure over the past few weeks, for being a part of making Tommy’s trip so fantastic.

There are lots of great photos and videos….we will be posting them little by little over the next while. Can’t wait to share the special moments with all of Tommy’s friends via his YouTube channel 🙂 Stay tuned 🙂

https://youtu.be/Xfb5EacUKSA

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