O Canada....

most people head south for the winter...not us..we headed NORTH! with a kid playing a competative level of Hockey, we had to head north to Hockey Heaven, Canada. We could have brought our whole family, but all the kids had games and social events that they didnt want to miss, so dale went on one trip, and I went on the other.

Trip 1: Vermont, Quebec ( no photos, some happy Canadian somewhere is the proud owner of a man's razor, an electric toothbrush, and a camera! )...

Dale went with David on this trip. The itinerary was something like this: travel, play a game, watch a game, play a game, travel, play a game, watch a game, play a game, play a game, watch a game, travel, play a game travel.

The Highlights were: winning every game, playing outdoor pond hockey in zero degrees against a Canadian team, watching college games and attending an NHL game in montreal.

The Lowlights: a bus with NO heat! temperatures hovered at Zero degrees the whole trip...in addition, the door on the bus stayed open the whole trip. (at one point, in his 50th time shutting the door, the head coach almost fell out of the open door while the bus was going 55 miles per hour! he explained watching the pavement zoom by and feeling like this was it for him...)

Dale and David came home last monday, went to a Caps game on tuesday. and with all that hockey, David was still angling for more.

Two days later, time for David to leave again...

Trip 2: Sarnia,Ontario. Trip 1 was a fun trip put together by David's coach at the beginning of the season. When you except his invitation to be on the team, you know about trip one. Trip 2 was thanks to David's team pulling off a win in an international tournament, known as the Silver Sticks.(international being Canada and the U.S!) both trips happen to fall on back to back weeks.

Traveling to Sarnia, Ontario was to play the other winners of the regional silver sticks. We expected to be slaughtered. We are a young team, and were down 3 good players. we played three games and their record was 0-2-1. (W-L-T)...one of the teams we played is ranked 6th in the U.S for A, AA teams...that was a very respectable loss and the boys were in the game for 2 1/2 periods. We were down 3 players for these games, so we were happy with that loss. The other two teams are in the top 15 rankings for Ontario's A, AA leagues. we really should have won both, but a tie and a loss were good enough.

before game 3..


Attending the Sarnia Sting game...