Anais Valdez shares her hockey travel experiences

Have you ever been to Toronto, Philadelphia, or New York City?

I have for hockey tournaments!  It was so fun—first we went to Philadelphia for a league game, then Toronto for a chance at the Canadiens Jr. Cup!

In Philadelphia I played hockey at Iceline Arena.  We had some wins and we had some losses, but it was a great time.  We also went downtown and walked everywhere that we could.  We went to Ben Franklin’s print shop.  We also ran up the “Rocky steps” where the Rocky movie was filmed.  I have never seen the movie, but my mom and dad said I had to do it, and then raise my arms up at the top.  We also saw the Liberty Bell.  After all of the walking we went and had a Philly Cheesesteak at Jim’s Steaks and it was great.  I had cheese whiz on mine.  After Philadelphia we decided to go to a hotel and sleep.

In New York City we didn’t play hockey we just took a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, which was awesome.  We then visited the 9/11 Memorial.  It was very beautiful and sad to think about all the people whose names were on the memorial.  After that, we took a boat to see the Statue of Liberty, she was tall and really green.  Then we took the subway across the bridge and through town and started to drive to Kutztown, Pennsylvania.

In Kutztown we did not play any hockey.  We visited my mom’s grandmother’s gravesite.  Afterward we got some 7-11 Slushies, which was cool because we do not have 7-11 stores where we live.

Then we went to Ithaca, New York.  We visited Cornell College to get a women’s hockey shirt.  I want to collect a women’s hockey shirt at every college with a team.  We saw a lot of waterfalls. Did you know “Ithaca is gorges?”  Then, we went to the hotel and we suddenly got a call.  The call to go to Toronto for a hockey tournament with the Atlanta Kings AAA Elite team!

The next day we started heading up to Toronto but fist we wanted to go to Buffalo, New York.  We wanted to go to Niagara Falls.  So we got to Niagara Falls and took a boat to see them up close and in the mist.  We had to wear weird rain jacket things.  After we left the falls we headed to Canada.  I have never been to another country so I was excited.

When we got to Toronto, we stopped and got a donut at Tim Horton’s.  It was cool because the doughnut I had was decorated with a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey.  Even though I don’t like the Maple Leafs, it was still awesome.  Too bad they didn’t have a Red Wings doughnut (my favorite team!).

We went to the hotel that was 14 stories high and got a room on the second floor.  My sister and I asked if there was a higher room and the lady at the desk gave us a penthouse room!  We could see all of Toronto from our window.  It was amazing.
While in Toronto we went to the Hockey Hall of Fame!  I got to TOUCH the Stanley Cup and see all of the cool old jerseys of the greatest hockey players.  I had a lot of fun.

Now on to the tournament at Scotiabank Pond!  The first game we won, the second game we lost, and the third game we won.  That meant we were in the finals.  We were about to play the best team in Ontario, Canada who was actually the team we lost to in one of the first games.  It was now the final game, we were lined up ready to go out on the ice and then boom! the referee let us on.  All of us were nervous and excited.

When the game started we took the puck and we scored and the score was now 1 to 0.  Then the other team won the face-off and scored 1 to 1 and then the buzzer for the first period went off.  When the second period ended the score was tied 3-3.  In the third, we scored one more and then the Jr. Canadiens pulled their goalie and we ended up with an empty net goal.  The final score was 5 to 3!  The buzzer went off, we had won!  We threw our gloves in the air and huddled in a hug!  It was so cool throwing our gloves and sticks all over the ice.

As we lined up on the blue line one by one our names were called, we shook hands and then we got our very own champion hats and a really big trophy.  It was one of the best hockey tournaments ever.  My mom even cried when we won.  I will never forget this trip.Another busy month is coming up as we go to Florida, Detroit, and Chicago!  See you next time!