I hope you all are enjoying your summer. Right now, I’m in the middle of training camp and we’re definitely grinding. But before I get going on training camp, let me tell you how my “summer” ended.

After the Tahoe golf tournament, my wife and I spent our final weeks of “summer” in San Diego. We spend our off-season there and, as you can imagine, that means we spend a lot of time at the beach. If you ever take a vacation out there, try to check out Downtown La Jolla or The Plaza in Del Mar. Both places have some amazing restaurants and great shopping.

The other thing that I’m a huge fan of is Opening Day at the Del Mar Races. I enjoy horse races and make every attempt to go to the Kentucky Derby every year. Although not quite the spectacle of the Derby, Opening Day at Del Mar is a great time. With the ocean a couple hundred yards in the distance, people dressed up in their best track outfits (i.e. seer sucker and huge hats) and the beautiful Southern California weather, it’s the ideal setting to have some fun with your friends. For the past two years, I have been fortunate enough to go down to the winner’s circle after one of the races and pose with the winning horse and the jockey and the owner. They also had other NFL guys like Drew Brees and John Lynch do it as well so it was cool to see them out there. Again, if you ever get a chance, I highly recommend Opening Day at the Del Mar races.

Also, while I’m in San Diego, it’s my final prep time to get my body right for training camp. I train with a stud trainer named Todd Durkin from 7:00 to 10:00 in the morning at a place called Fitness Quest in Scripps Ranch. A ton of NFL guys workout there (i.e. Drew Brees, Ladanian Tomlinson and a bunch of other Chargers) and they focus on high metabolic non-stop workouts that avoid wear and tear on your body like some of the other workouts (i.e. heavy squatting, power cleans). It’s helped me get in the perfect playing shape and I strongly recommend it if you’re looking for a gym in SD.

After the fun in San Diego, it was back to the grind here in Cincinnati. Right now, I’m writing from Georgetown College where our training camp is held in Georgetown, Kentucky. We come out here for a couple weeks and have a very intensive series of practices, meetings and meals as a team before the season starts. Most days we’re working for no less than 10 hours a day and it’s really a time to get our foundation set for season. I feel really good about the team that we have and I’m really proud of the great strides we’ve made this off-season. Normally this is where I would talk about how great our offense is doing and how excited I am for what we’re doing. However, I want to point out that our defense has looked awesome thus far in training camp. They’re firing on all cylinders and they’re hungry. It’s exciting to see and it makes us on the offensive side of the ball want to work that much harder. As I said, I’m excited for the season to get going and I think our team is going to have a great year.

On a non-football note, I’ve managed to sneak away a couple of days and golf at one of my favorite courses in Kentucky, Cherry Blossom Golf Course in Georgetown, Kentucky. It’s a great course and has been wonderful in taking my mind off of hot routes and coaches!

Now I’ve got to get back to the playbook. I hope you guys enjoyed this blog and to all the college sports fans out there – Fight On! If you have any questions about training or travels, send them my way!

Carson Palmer

Carson Palmer is the Quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals.

As a proud sponsor of the New York Mets, Delta leaders regularly have the opportunity to spend a day at the ballpark with valued customers and employees as a way to say thank you!

This past Saturday night we had our second Delta Day of the summer, granting us the opportunity to invite over 600 guests to share in the evening.

After some the pre-game festivities - the Mets treated us like family, welcoming everyone to a hospitality tent just outside the stadium where they serve all the best of ballpark fare - our group entered the park and we quickly took over the bleachers section in the outfield.

For a large group event, there is no better way to experience a game or to strengthen relationships than to have the flexibility of moving freely to visit with our guests - not relegated to one seat. What a great place to have a chance for a home run ball too.

The highlight of this Delta Day, at least for me, was when the Mets offered me the first pitch honors in Saturday night’s game against the Florida Marlins. Are you kidding me?

Leading up to the big day, I promised all my family and friends that I was going to “groove” one in there and that I’d make them all proud. If the truth be told, I was really just hoping to get it across the plate without throwing one into the dirt! Well it all worked out just fine and thankfully I didn’t send Met’s catcher Robinson Counsel diving into the dirt but he really made me look good as he received what would have surely been called a “ball” had one of the umpires been standing behind him.

The best news of all, as a Delta leader, my mission of appreciation was accomplished. However, for all those who were not a part of this special event, on behalf of New York’s largest and fastest growing carrier, I’d like to personally thank you for your business or your service to our valued customers and perhaps we’ll see you at the next Delta Day at Shea! See more pictures and a signed picture at our official Flickr account.

Mike Medeiros

Vice President – JFK

New York

Here’s one of our classic photos from the archives at the Delta Air Transport Heritage Museum. Delta Stewardess Maryanne Kowaleski keeps her cool as she poses in her uniform in front of a Convair plane on a hot summer day in Atlanta (August 1956).

Maryanne’s light blue “tropical weight” uniform was worn by Delta flight attendants in summers 1954-1965 on domestic flights. It was also Delta’s first international flight attendant uniform, and worn year-around by flight attendants working flights in the Caribbean and Venezuela.

Accessories included a light blue overseas-style hat, red/gold hat and lapel pins called “wings,” navy blue/white spectator pumps with 3-inch heels, a navy blue leather purse, white gloves and a dark blue serving smock–Delta’s first–to keep uniforms clean during meal service.

The Delta Museum is always looking for missing pieces for our uniform collections, so please keep us in mind - especially if you happen to have a pair of those spectator pumps from your flying days!

Marie Force

Archives Manager