In one picture, the answer is OBVIOUSLY.
But really, it's worth it. The camp is run by prior coaches and players of the San Jose Sharks NHL organization. They supplied head to toe equipment (to keep, even after camp) and the one requirement of camp is that you must be aged 4-8 and have zero prior hockey experience (ice skating experience is urged but not necessary).
So, we got up at the butt crack of dawn (literally), and drove south to San Jose to the camp. It's a good thing we arrived early, because it takes a solid half hour just to get all that freaking equipment on.
There were probably 50 kids on the ice, and they had 5 rotating stations, each station teaching them something different. From what I could understand, the stations were skating (and falling properly), sharks and minnows (tag on ice, basically learning how to skate and evade), stick handling, and shooting. The last station was what Brad and I called "buckets", which was for the kids that couldn't skate at all and were hanging onto buckets the whole time. The kids that could skate (Cam being one of them) skipped that station entirely.
All in all, it was a glorious, hilarious shit show. Even the best skaters splatted themselves all over the ice every 2 minutes or so. No one is "good", which is why it was so adorably funny. Camden was trying to skate too fast, so the puck almost always ended up between his legs, causing him to try and stop, but he couldn't, because he's six and he's on ICE, so he'd splatter onto his back as if he had stepped on a banana peel. Then, four other kids around him would go legs up and land on their backs, because no reason at all.
Best. Kid. Sport. Ever.
After the hour was over, we were still 90 minutes from home, and it was 9am. So, we turned hockey day into family day, Silicon Valley style. And we couldn't have crammed more into the day if we tried.
First, we went over to Almaden Quicksilver Park, a huge hilly park with miles of walking, hiking and horseback riding trails. Since we were completely unprepared to hike in 85 degree weather after being in a 20 degree ice skating rink (long pants, thick socks, etc), we lasted about an hour. But this is a rad place that we will return to. We saw lots of little field mice and the kids really loved the banana slugs for some reason.
After we had enough of that, we headed back into the city and stopped at an almost-famous drive in for lunch: Falafels' Drive In, as seen on TV on Diners, Dives and Drive Ins.
(Actually, we had no idea it was well known, we just looked up good places to eat on Pinterest).
We had the Falafel sandwich, of course, hand made pita chips and hummus (the kids had corn dogs and onion rings, because America). This food is AMAZING. We will definitely be back.
Next on our thrown together list was an Egyptian Museum just a mile away. While I assumed it wouldn't be that impressive (I mean, it wasn't like a natural history museum or anything), it was actually bigger than any of us anticipated. There were hundreds of artifacts, mummies, and even a scale 2 story underground tomb that you can walk through (so cool the kids wanted to go through it twice). We spent a solid two hours in this place. Great find. Outside of the museum was a peace garden and a jumbo sized game of "senet", an ancient egyptian version of backgammon meets chess. Brad and I rested on a park bench while the kids made up the "rules" to this game.
Because we hadn't had enough adventure yet, we ended the day right back where we started. Exactly next door to the Sharks Ice Arena is the San Jose Giants minor league baseball stadium (single - A affiliates to the San Francisco Giants). And as luck would have it, there was a game at 5 o'clock! And even better, they were giving out San Francisco Giants Charlie Brown bobbleheads. Count us in! The Giants lost and it was hot as Egypt (see what I did there), but for $8 a ticket and front row seats, we had an amazing time.
Now, if you drive 90 minutes to an hour hockey camp, but spent 13 hours exploring the area, it's definitely, definitely worth it.
So, we got up at the butt crack of dawn (literally), and drove south to San Jose to the camp. It's a good thing we arrived early, because it takes a solid half hour just to get all that freaking equipment on.
There were probably 50 kids on the ice, and they had 5 rotating stations, each station teaching them something different. From what I could understand, the stations were skating (and falling properly), sharks and minnows (tag on ice, basically learning how to skate and evade), stick handling, and shooting. The last station was what Brad and I called "buckets", which was for the kids that couldn't skate at all and were hanging onto buckets the whole time. The kids that could skate (Cam being one of them) skipped that station entirely.
All in all, it was a glorious, hilarious shit show. Even the best skaters splatted themselves all over the ice every 2 minutes or so. No one is "good", which is why it was so adorably funny. Camden was trying to skate too fast, so the puck almost always ended up between his legs, causing him to try and stop, but he couldn't, because he's six and he's on ICE, so he'd splatter onto his back as if he had stepped on a banana peel. Then, four other kids around him would go legs up and land on their backs, because no reason at all.
Best. Kid. Sport. Ever.
After the hour was over, we were still 90 minutes from home, and it was 9am. So, we turned hockey day into family day, Silicon Valley style. And we couldn't have crammed more into the day if we tried.
First, we went over to Almaden Quicksilver Park, a huge hilly park with miles of walking, hiking and horseback riding trails. Since we were completely unprepared to hike in 85 degree weather after being in a 20 degree ice skating rink (long pants, thick socks, etc), we lasted about an hour. But this is a rad place that we will return to. We saw lots of little field mice and the kids really loved the banana slugs for some reason.
After we had enough of that, we headed back into the city and stopped at an almost-famous drive in for lunch: Falafels' Drive In, as seen on TV on Diners, Dives and Drive Ins.
(Actually, we had no idea it was well known, we just looked up good places to eat on Pinterest).
We had the Falafel sandwich, of course, hand made pita chips and hummus (the kids had corn dogs and onion rings, because America). This food is AMAZING. We will definitely be back.
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| See that line? That means it's good (photo taken off Google images, but the line was just as long yesterday) |
Next on our thrown together list was an Egyptian Museum just a mile away. While I assumed it wouldn't be that impressive (I mean, it wasn't like a natural history museum or anything), it was actually bigger than any of us anticipated. There were hundreds of artifacts, mummies, and even a scale 2 story underground tomb that you can walk through (so cool the kids wanted to go through it twice). We spent a solid two hours in this place. Great find. Outside of the museum was a peace garden and a jumbo sized game of "senet", an ancient egyptian version of backgammon meets chess. Brad and I rested on a park bench while the kids made up the "rules" to this game.
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| A replica "Rosetta Stone", with magnifying glasses. |
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| Entrance to the tomb! Calen is pretending to be scared lol. |
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| Playing senet. The boys made up the rules and were rolling the giant dice to move their white checkers past each other. I love how Cam is standing on his waiting for Calen to make his move. |
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| Entrance to the Egyptian Museum. Incredible. |
Because we hadn't had enough adventure yet, we ended the day right back where we started. Exactly next door to the Sharks Ice Arena is the San Jose Giants minor league baseball stadium (single - A affiliates to the San Francisco Giants). And as luck would have it, there was a game at 5 o'clock! And even better, they were giving out San Francisco Giants Charlie Brown bobbleheads. Count us in! The Giants lost and it was hot as Egypt (see what I did there), but for $8 a ticket and front row seats, we had an amazing time.
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| View from our $8 seats. |
Now, if you drive 90 minutes to an hour hockey camp, but spent 13 hours exploring the area, it's definitely, definitely worth it.
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