Hockey Tournament Weekend

We had a hockey tournament last weekend. This one was different than the others, though, because JJ had two games at home this weekend, my husband had to stay back with him, and so it was just me and Jamie.

Off we go into the wild blue yonder of…Sault Ste. Marie! Dude, that is so far away. It’s a 5+ hour drive, without traffic. We left Friday morning, and we made good time. I had volunteered to do the signs for the hotel room doors, though, and since I forgot about it until I woke up Friday morning, we got a bit of a late start. 😉 But they turned out well, and all the kids and parents were pretty excited to have not only signs with their names on them, but pictures of themselves from a previous game as well.  Because, of course if I personalize something for a kid, it’s going to include a picture. 😉

The boys lost the first game on Friday evening, but back at the hotel, I had a good time with the parents while the kids ran around (and got in trouble of course). I didn’t drink it all Friday night, much to the disappointment of many of my new friends on this hockey team. 😉 There were pudding shots and lots of different flavors of alcohol available, but I was a good girl and just drank water, because I planned on doing a 9-mile run the next morning.

You may remember that we went to Sault Ste. Marie last year, and at the time I was training for another half marathon. I got up that Saturday morning and ran 11 miles. The weather was really awful, really cold, with rain, and lots of wind. It was a tough run, for sure.

In contrast, this year it was beautiful! I went out just as the sun was rising, and the leaves were actually still on the trees for the most part, so I had some amazing views. Sault Ste. Marie is quite hilly, and I was able to get some neat shots.

Dude, that hill was killer. I tried to run up the street, choosing not to take the stairs, but even without taking stairs, I just couldn’t run the whole thing.  The view at the top was worth it though.  There was also a cemetery that I passed just as the sun was rising. So beautiful…

I ran near Lake Superior State University, and got some beautiful pictures.

You have to look really closely in the shot below, but beyond the end of the road in the distance is the International Bridge that connects Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, USA to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada.  Because why NOT have two cities with the same name in two different countries across the river from each other? 😉

Then I ran by the locks, and I actually got to see about going through.

It’s actually not that exciting to watch…it’s pretty much just a boat going very slowly. 😉

I did run through downtown just a bit, and it was cute.

Did you know that Sault Ste. Marie is Michigan’s oldest city?

The sign says so! 😉  (Actually, it’s the sign that you see leading into town that says it.  The Chamber of Commerce sign just says that Michigan was born there.)

I ran along going east for a little while after downtown, and the colors were just beautiful.

But then I stopped taking pictures when I hit mile five. It was at that point that I turned west, and I ran straight into 20 to 30 mile-per-hour winds! Those weren’t gusts, either, they were sustained! I had to walk up another tough hill, but I still managed, even with all the stops for pictures, and walking on the hills, to have a pretty decent pace for a Saturday easy run.

More importantly, I burned lots of calories (792 according to the Garmin!), and I was able to enjoy myself quite a bit on Saturday night. 😉   I didn’t go crazy, though, since I knew I had to get up and go to a game Sunday morning.

Speaking of games, they were great for most of the tournament. The boy skated really hard, but they had a lot of close losses. For the first game,they came back to tie it with 90 seconds left, but then the other team scored with 21 seconds left. Aargh! For the other two games, we were down by three or four goals, and came back to be within one or two. But despite how hard they were working and how well they were skating, it’s hard to lose.  🙁

We ended up playing a “meaningless” consolation game Sunday morning, but the boys had a good attitude about it. In fact, so did the coach…he decided right before the game to have some fun, and he took a dry erase marker and asked the kids who wanted a mustache. Jamie chose not to participate (he’s so serious! JJ would have done it in a heartbeat!), but several of them did, and it was quite funny.  After he drew about four mustaches, the coach asked, “Who’s next?”  According to Jamie,the biggest kid on the team, who is typically very quiet, then walked up to the coach and said in his deep, husky voice, “Make me a kitty.” And the coach drew a nose and whiskers on him!

I took lots of pictures of the kids with their faces painted, but I’m only going to share a couple of one kid, and that’s because I know this kid’s mom really well, and I know she won’t mind. 🙂

Isn’t that a riot??  It was so fun, and the kids were having a great time on the bench joking and laughing about the kitty and meowing at the other team, which somehow turned into squeaking. And the more fun they had, the better the game went. Suddenly, they were scoring goals, and after every good play, all the boys would yell, “Squeak!” I think the kids on the other team got a little mad. 😉 When it was all said and done, Jamie’s team had a 5–0 victory, and a lot of great memories.  And I had about 500 pictures. 😉

That’s my boy, number 6 in black above, doing what he does. I’m happy to report that he got no penalties this weekend! 🙂

It was a lot of fun, despite the losses, and for me, it felt good to get in a run even with all the hockey going on.  I did my best to eat well, bringing along fruit and yogurt and cottage cheese. I also brought the crockpot, and cooked a healthy dinner Saturday night instead of going out to eat. Unfortunately, the drive home was quite long, with several backups that I had work hard to avoid, thus making the trip even longer. I ended up snacking on tortilla chips and salsa, along with some peanut M&Ms, which happen to be a weakness of mine. According to my tracker, I was still within my points despite the snacking, but I think all that salt on Sunday didn’t help my weigh in on Monday.

That’s a 2 pound gain, which is certainly not ideal.  But on the other hand, I tracked on my food, I ate fairly well, and I had a great time at the tournament. And sometimes…you just have to remind yourself that there’s more to life than a scale!

Thanks for reading!