The Icecapades

I don't know what took us so long but we finally managed to go ice skating. We had heard about this idea last year but it never really occurred to us to go. Then when we went on our "Winter Picnic" a few weeks ago, we saw all these people ice skating and it just looked soooo fun! Here's something really cool about Canada:

• In each neighborhood (called community), there is an ice rink. This same ice rink becomes a soccer field in the other "half" of the year (yes, b/c Winter is endless).
• There are several ponds and "bodies" of water around town that freeze (duh, because it is so freezing) (like at parks) and you can ice skate there as well.
• All these skating places are free so if you can get yourself some ice skates (or for us some friends to loan to some), you can Winter Olympics it up!

The downside is that because you aren't on an indoor rink, you have to incur some of the effects of the elements, like cold (the major reason we haven't done it before with our wee baby), ice erosion, and bumps. Check out these photos to see what I'm talking about.
You'd be skating along just getting your groove on and then "boom" a bump and it would make you all wobbly.
There were tons of patches of like this snow ice (the white areas) which you end up sinking into a bit with your blades. Not the most secure feeling in the world.

Chloe and her friend got tired fast so they just sat down and had a "picnic" snack on the ice. You'd be surprised what 100 feet of "skating" can do to your appetite.

We had originally come with a baby backpack to throw Tats into but once we got her all loaded up we started thinking that maybe it wasn't the smartest idea we ever had. We took some hints from other people there and busted out the stroller. Those Canadians sure have some fun ideas sometimes. We saw a few people pulling their kids with sleds too. Maybe next year.



Then I've got some movies to show too. Greg divulged that he used to be quite the roller blader in high school. Somehow that wasn't very cool to mention to me before. Still, I was blown away when I saw that he was able to do these awesome twirly whirlies.


Greg spent most of his time like this:

But it was really more like this:


I feel like I had a bit of a reality shock watching myself. Kind of like when you hear your own voice on the answering machine. In my mind when I was skating, I might as well have been Kristi Yamaguchi. And when I lifted my leg, I thought I really was looking like a really thrilling trick. And when Greg says, "Triple Salchow",(The jump is named for Ulrich Salchow.) in my mind I thought, "I bet he's right. I bet I look awesome." Also when he was skating I thought, "He's doing so great! Wow, I didn't think he would be able to skate this good. Still, though, I hope he's not jealous that I can skate so much better and more awesome!" Here I am totally moded, corrroded, my bootie is exploding.


I grew up across the street from a tennis court. If you ever want to do some awesome skating, go there (not ice obviously). There is the occasional rock but overall it is smooth and awesome. We used to pretend we were Olympic skaters. Then since we weren't so great, we invented the best alternative: "Fancy Falling". We would compete to see who could do the most dramatic and artistic fake fall (which often would turn into a real one). You'd like twirl, twirl, jump, fall, pose. How I wish I had some movies of that.

We had a great time and are quite sad that we waited until pretty much the last weekend to try it. They stop cleaning the snow off and with our few days above freezing, the ice really takes a toll. We're planning on buying some used skates for next winter so maybe my glory days will arrive after all.

3/21/09