After a great day at the Kentucky Oaks with artist Dr. Nicolosi and Brooke Wiseman, we hit the Unbridled Eve gala in a new Chevy pick up truck. The Unbridled Eve gala is a black tie event held on Derby Eve that begins with an amazing cocktail hour sponsored by local Kentucky bourbon distilleries. The event typically has 30+ VIP/celebrity guests (we are 2 of them!) and over 100 silent auction items that benefit Blessings in a Backpack. Robin Thicke, Wyonna Judd, John Elefante, Dennis DeYoung and Louisville Crashers all performed throughout the whole night. Between entertainment was the beautifully laid out 3 course dinner.
We had the celebrity treatment when we first arrived, with valet parking, personal entrance and of course we got to walk the red carpet. It was definitely very intimidating to be walking the red carpet and everyone is taking your picture and asking you for interviews. After smiling for what seemed like hours, Team HDsailing met up with Dr. Nicolosi, Wade (Dr. Nicolosi’s husband/manager) and Ms. Wiseman to go walk around the event and of course get more pictures.
The event was beautifully set up with ice sculptures everywhere! We had to look around the items for auction, because Dr. Nicolosi did a piece of Robin Thicke to be auctioned off. He really is an amazing painter! When we were checking out his piece, I spotted Jimmy Jean-Lous, the Haitian from Heros, and to our surprise, Dr. Nicolosi was close friends with him! So what did we do? Of course get our picture with him next to Dr. Nicolosi’s piece.
After walking around and mingling with other celebrities and meeting a bunch of people who work for Blessings in a 
Backpack, David and I made our way to our table so we could have dinner. We sat with one of the top BMX riders, someone who was in American Idol and someone who was in Project Runway. Everyone was super nice and we all chatted about our lives and what we have done to get there. After dinner, David and I spotted Dean Norris, guy who portrays Hank Schrader from Breaking Bad. We made sure he was done with dinner before we went and chatted with him and got our picture with him. I know I have never met so many celebrities in my life. Dr. Nicolosi, Wade, Ms. Wiseman, David and I then hit the dance floor to listen to the famous artists play. We were enjoying every second of the evening, knowing this is the best moment in our lives. It literally can’t get any more awesome than this.
After the bands took a break, the whole crew went walking around to see how Dr. Nicolosi’s piece was selling and of course to have more celebrity 
run ins. Well it didn’t take long, we ran into Mark Sanchez, the Broncos new quarterback. We actually talked for some time, because apparently he knows some of the Americas Cup sailors and was able to go for a ride in San Francisco. It was an awesome story; listening to him trying to describe sailing terms and how quickly the boat was moving, was hilarious! The night was still going strong, David and I thought it was going to be a nice evening where we could be in bed by 10pm, because we both had to leave pretty early in the morning to get back home. However, we quickly realized this was not going to be the case; Dr. Nicolosi wanted us to help him organize the unveiling of his piece of Robin Thicke. Well it’s almost midnight, sure why not we thought! So we helped him set up where he was going to do it and made sure no one else was going to ruin the photos. Finally, we did the unveiling and our night was done. David and I have never had an experience like this before. We are seriously grateful for Delta Dental allowing us to come out to these events to raise awareness of our team and to meet such wonderful people. We are super excited to be helping Blessings in a Backpack come September, where we will take the children, they help every day, out sailing. This was truly a great experience for Team HDsailing and we are excited to see what happens next.
