THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 7, 1996 TAG: 9607060083
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
LENGTH: 49 lines
HMMM. THE CLEAR blue waters of Hawaii or the thick white heat of the Atlanta Olympics? The sway of palm trees or the swoon of dehydration? Cocktails on the beach or $4 Cokes on a shuttle bus?
To celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, Terry and Evie Foster of Virginia Beach made the obvious choice. The Games, baby, the Games!
``I figured Hawaii will always be there,'' says Evie, the family's travel coordinator. ``But how often in your lifetime will the Olympics be at your back door?''
So, more than a year ago, Evie earmarked the anniversary nest egg for tickets and lodging, wandered into the vast application process and - what do you know? - emerged smelling like a rose.
An expensive rose, certainly - nearly $3,500 for five days of events, not including food and gas.
Tickets for herself, Terry and children, Kyle, 10, and Aspen, 9, are $2,100. Their assigned motel, an hour outside Atlanta, is $800. The Fosters must drive to a satellite parking lot, then take a 35-minute bus ride to the so-called Olympic ring in downtown Atlanta. Cost of parking and shuttle: $550.
They will see almost everything they requested, however. Terry, who played basketball at Old Dominion and professionally in Europe, will have to catch the U.S. Dream Team on TV. However, the Fosters have tickets for such highlights as the bronze and gold medal women's soccer games, the bronze medal baseball game and a bunch of track and field finals, including the pole vault, which should include Chesapeake's Lawrence Johnson.
Five of world champion decathlete Dan O'Brien's 10 events also are on their itinerary, as is Michael Johnson's second-round heat in the 200-meters.
Evie says she is confident the trip can unfold relatively glitch-free, though she shares everybody's concern about the predicted suffocating weather.
``I figure we're going to leave at 5 in the morning and get back around midnight every day,'' she says. ``But it's just, you know, go for it. It's not going to happen again.''
Evie calls it Olympic fever. So long as it doesn't turn into heat stroke, Evie and Terry might yet see Hawaii.
``Hopefully,'' Terry Foster says, ``we'll have enough money on the 26th anniversary that we can do it then.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Mike Heffner\The Virginian-Pilot
[Terry and Evie Foster and children]
KEYWORDS: SUMMER OLYMPICS by CNB