We're BACK!!!!!!! Or.....

We Are The Champions, reprise.

Well, let's just start off by saying that the outcome of the trip was a good one. My daughter now has the distinction of being the goalie for the ONLY team in our league, from our town, to win at this tournament. That we're also the youngest, just caps it.

I don't recall all the numbers (shots on goal, against DD, and all) but I do recall final scores:

First game against the Shooting Stars came to 5-1 in favor of the Icebreakers (DD's team).

Second game against the Firebirds (best team in Anchorage, from the appearance) came to 2-2 tied with the Icebreakers.

Third game against the MatSu Eagles came to 8-0 in favor of the Icebreakers.

Fourth game, and championship bragging-rights, against the Firebirds again, came to 5-1, in favor of our Icebreakers.

Just some shots above to show ya a little bit of the games. That's the girls, post victory lap, posing with the trophy & the coaches, letting the WORLD know who's NUMBER ONE!

There's a pic of DD with the DH, prior to her first game at the tourney. And the other one is obviously a shot of one of her saves. Not the most incredible of her saves, but a good save (a VALID save) nonetheless.

(Grrrrrr!!!!! I was going to link to the dinky little clip in today's paper, but for whatever reason the website for the local paper doesn't want to open. *sigh* Sorry.)

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Other than the actual hockey, DD got to go swimming at H2Oasis (the only water-park in the state, as far as I know) with the rest of her team, for the birthday of one of her team-mates, who turned 11 while we were there. They had a blast.

We also went to Chuck E. Cheese's, which was a disappointment all around. The food was mediocre at best, the games were "too easy" for DD, and the prizes (the ones that were left, after what was evidently a very busy day) were cheap & fit only for the 5 & under crowd. (I didn't really expect any better, but DD did. As far as I'm concerned, C.E.C's is a casino for kids, and the prizes for winning don't even amount to the worth of one of the tokens for playing the games. But, it had to happen this way. DD would not have believed DH & I about the place, if she hadn't seen it for herself. NOW she knows that she DOESN'T want to go there again, next time we're in Anchorage, and we won't be getting nagged about it any longer. H2Oasis is all she's interested in now. *grin*

We didn't get to the Imaginarium. We ran out of time, and patience with the driving, and just didn't make it to that part of town. Anchorage seems to be horridly designed. Well over 75% of the streets are one-way streets, but that's not marked on the maps, one must figure that out for oneself. And, until you get to an intersection, you don't realize that you simply can't turn right, because that's a left-moving street, you must go to the NEXT intersection, or loop around, or something. It's weird. I'm glad we don't have to visit more often.

We did make it down to the Diamond mall. I found the two stores I was most interested in, "Rainbow Earth" and "Laura's Body & Soul". Saw some nice stuff in Rainbow Earth, but nothing that totally grrabbed me. Nothing that I just HAD to have. So, left there without spending a dime. Found a pretty new hair-pick for my hair at the Anchorage "Bethel" shop (it's glittery, rhinestone hair pins, clips, and combs, some very gaudy, others are somewhat pretty). It's a blue flower 2-pronged pick. Great for french twists. And at Laura's, I went a bit scent-mad. I got 4 bars of yummy-smelly soap (plumeria, coconut, rosemary-mint oatmeal, and citrus spring), and a spritzer bottle of Heather cologne (the scent of heather, that purple flower that blooms on the moors of england, evidently). I also got DD a roll-on strawberry cologne, and a bag of strawberry bubble-bath salts. There is SOOOOO much more in that store that I could have gotten hung up on, bath bombs, bath melts, salts & bubble-baths, sponges, and lotions and oils & essential oils and perfume oils, and incense, and lip & body balms..... Oooh, I love pretty smelly things like that, and a store full of them..... I could just hand them my pay-checks. LOL

Other than that, we had too much pizza, too much fast-food, and not enough REAL meals (I think breakfast would qualify as a REAL meal, and our first night there we ran next-door to a place where we got typical american style fare (biscuits & gravy for me, soup & a sandwich & milkshake for DD, Chef salad for DH). I'll be glad once we can get back in the swing of eatting real meals again. LOL It'll be interesting to see whad DH picks up for dinner tonight.

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Anyway, the hotel was ok. The beds were too hard, the pillows were too firm, and there were no vehical plug-ins. On the other hand, there was a business center (with computers to log onto internet on, but was constantly over-run by girls doing school-work), a pool, a gym, a lavish continental breakfast set-up. Each room had a fridge, microwave & coffee maker, along with the usual TV. Room size was pretty good. And one of the team moms made posters for each door where a girl or a coach was staying, so we knew who was where, and we had purple, black & white streamers on all those doors, too. It was all girls, all the time. LOL

Ok, while I think that sums it up pretty much. Gotta get heading to work.

Have a Blessed Day!