IT'S COMING TO A CLOSE IN CALIFORNIA

SATURDAY NIGHT

The Coyotes are playing

St. Louis AAA Blues

It never ceases to amaze me

as to how agile goalies are

especially with all their equipment

Look at those legs!!!

Lots of Coyotes around the net

The boys won their game

**************

SUNDAY

The last hockey game of

the weekend was to start at

12:45

Before the game

Rod drove us to

HOLLYWOOD

or

at least to see the

HOLLYWOOD SIGN!!!!!!!!

We're on our way

WOW

There's the sign!!!!!!!!!!!!

I jumped out of the truck

and ran across the street

then went out in the middle of the street

to get a better shot

Lots of trees and hydro lines and cars in the way

That's it folks

Now

we're racing back to get to the rink

for the game

Coyotes are playing Dallas

We made it in the nick of time

I had one request

Drop me off at the entrance

to the rink please

Nature was calling!

I was running up the stairs

Guess who was coming down the stairs?

The Father of # 11 of the LA Kings

YUP

It was Rod Stewart in person

I nearly said

Good Morning

but it was afternoon

and

I didn't have the nerve!!!

Al

Bear the water 'boy'

Bear is a taxi driver in Dallas Texas

Bear does not like to fly

so

he took the train from Dallas to LA

and back again

He was on the train for 2 and 1/2 days

Now that is true dedication to his

hockey boys

Coyotes goalie down

When I was at the rink I was

looking at 'hockey' photos

on the wall

I saw a great shot where the photographer

caught skates and lots of spray from the ice

I said to myself

'I'm going to try and get a shot like that'

HA-HA

It will take 1,000 pictures to catch the moment

I gave myself an E for effort though!

The boy is side by side

or

neck and neck

GO BOY GO

The game is over

Coyotes won

Here are Al's friends gathering around

 after the game

They are all such good friends

It warmed the heart to see this

GREAT COMRADS

There goes the Dallas goalie

Good game Al

There goes the Coyotes goalie

Good game Brendan

The picture says it all!!

We are on our way home to Arizona

Oh my

the sky is changing

We missed the rain

We arrived at the rink around 11:30

The bus wasn't that far behind us

We still had a 45 minute ride to Queen Creek

then I had another 1/2 hour ride to Gold Canyon

Was it worth all the driving?

YOU BET!

On the way to Queen Creek

'the boy' sat in the front seat with his Dad

they talked hockey all the way home

Granny sat in the back seat

I listened to their hockey talk

OH

LIFE IS GOOD

SATURDAY AFTERNOON IN CALIFORNIA

This is Evan's home rink

Do you remember Evan from the Olympics

and

Dancing With The Stars?

The boys are on the ice 

They are playing Russell Stover

Do you recall the story of

yellow and blue socks

playing a hockey scrimmage?

This is yellow socks' brother

He is a hockey player too

You can be sure he is watching

his big brother # 13

Good job goalie

The boys won their game

Here we have Stephanie

and her American friends

A sweet photo of Dolly

yellow socks sister

Funny funny picture

At last I'm a hockey player

H-A  H-A

The Americans and the Canadians

hopped in the truck

and headed to Manhattan Beach

The two hockey players

# 13 and # 25

stayed behind with their team

'The team'

 Travel together

Eat together

Bunk in together

We only visited with

'the boy'

for about 10 minutes

during the entire weekend

Check out this bike

Ready to look after us

Dang

We forgot our suits

No swimming for us!!!!

This fellow must be having the time of his life

AH

A Mom and her daughter

It looks like we were cold

WE WERE!

If we were cold

what about these guys??????

OH MY GOSH

Do you think this boy is collecting clams??

Many many many many

seagulls on the beach

The American

Like her new hat?

It keeps her head warm at the rink!

I stood by the railing on the pier

and watched the photographer

DO HIS THING

I have never seen yellow tires before

Manhattan Beach Pier

Christmas trees lined each side of the walk way

The American and I took a stroll down the street

These houses caught our eye

(She is a photographer too)

THE OLD AND THE NEW

Bikes everywhere

Two colours of green

and

an

Oooo la la

 seat!!!!!

Great Friends

The American and the Canadian

There was a shop across the street

from the restaurant

Sign read.......

DIANE'S BIKINIS

I did not check out the suits

Those days are long gone......

Beautiful view of the pier

Time to go back to the rink

To be continued.......



WEEKEND IN CALIFORNIA

The family was divided over the weekend

between hockey and lacrosse

Rod, Stephanie and Granny

headed to California to see

the boy

play hockey

Jr Coyotes U16AAA

vs

Ohio Blue Jackets

Russell Stover

St. Louis AAA Blues

Dallas Stars

Papa and Jennifer were off to watch

the girl

play lacrosse

We were all up at 4:15 a.m.

in order to get to the rink in Scottsdale

by 5:45!

Where's the bus????

Finally it rolled up

The boys grabbed their hockey gear

into the bus it went

and

they were off to

sunny California

Even though we drove to Californa

we actually flew!

ZOOM ZOOM

I was sitting in the back seat

watching the world  go by

and noticed the

American flag

blowing in the breeze

I was surprised to see it as

there is a stretch along highway 10

that seems to go on forever

and it is very barren

We drove straight through to Indio

before stopping for breakfast

I have mentioned before that our niece Kim's (Chatham)

favourite colour for a VW beetle is

YELLOW

so

I'm always on the lookout for a good photo

however

this is not a good shot!!!!!!

ha-ha

California has the largest

wind farm

Here's

LAX

Our hotel was right across the street

from the airport

Busy place!!!!

The hotel was only about

6 or 7 minutes from the rink

This is Al

Al is goalie for

the Dallas Stars

He is from Arizona and has

played hockey with

the boy

off and on for 8 years

and

to top it off

they are great buds

This year their teams played against each other

# 11 for the LA Kings

His last name is

Stewart

His Father's first name is

ROD

Do you know who I'm talking about????

The LA Kings played Dallas

I took this photo of the zamboni for

our grandson

Garen

All little boys are fascinated with the zamboni

The gentleman in the middle is

BEAR

He is the water 'boy' for Dallas

He is very good to the players

He makes peanut butter sandwiches for the players

however

makes ham sandwiches for the goalies!!!!

Sounds like they are special?????

I understand the players are very

good to Bear as well

The boy with mouth guard in place

'ready to play'

The Coyotes with their coach

They were playing the

Russell Stover team

Time out

Had an issue with the goalie's skate

Interesting scoreboard

Coyotes did win the game

TO BE CONTINUED...............