Mon - 26 Jan/15

Good news from the "Great White North" which is about to get a lot whiter with the upcoming blizzard. Marty's team won another hockey tournament on the weekend.

They had a few tough games but managed to pull through again. Once again they got to line up to congratulate the second place team for a good game.

A special treat at this tournament was a visit by the Hockey Canada Century Tour. As part of Hockey Canada's celebration of it's 100th anniversary a tractor trailer crammed with items from the past 100 years of hockey in Canada.

Ice Hockey is a Canadian game. Ice Hockey was not invented, nor did it start on a certain day of a particular year. It originated around 1800, in Windsor, where the boys of Canada’s first college, King's College School. established in 1788, adapted the exciting field game of Hurley to the ice of their favorite skating ponds and originated a new winter game, Ice Hurley. Over a period of decades, Ice Hurley gradually developed into Ice Hockey.

Soon after the boys of King’s College School adapted Hurley to the ice, the soldiers at Fort Edward, in Windsor, took up the new game. They carried the game to Halifax, where it gained impetus as it was played on the many and beautiful Dartmouth Lakes, and frozen inlets of Halifax Harbour.

When the soldiers were transferred to military posts along the Saint Lawrence and Great Lakes, they took the game with them. This gave rise to claims for Montreal, QC (1875) and Kingston, ON (1886) as the birthplace of hockey. Not only did the Montreal players use Nova Scotia “hockey”skates, wooden pucks, “hockey” sticks, and Halifax "Hockey Club" rules they learned how to play the game by being taught by a “hockey” coach from Halifax. In Montreal the "Halifax Rules" evolved into the "McGill Rules".

In 1943 when the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association accepted the report of a research committee charged with determining the origin of Ice Hockey, and named Kingston(1886) as the Birthplace of Hockey, an error was made, inasmuch as the committee members had not looked back to Montreal (1875) where the game was played eleven years earlier, let alone further east to Nova Scotia (1800) where it began eight decades before.

Charlotte headed over to the main clubhouse to check for new activities. She signed up for crafts for next week (card making). She decided to pass on today's craft (a handbag) since she did that previously.

WARNING: Olive Garden Alert: Do you wonder why everyone leaves Olive Garden with a take-out bag? It's because of the huge portions. We took home the remains of our entree orders which provided two meals each in the RV. So, unless you plan on eating the same thing 3 days in a row - don't go to Olive Garden (grin). (It was just as good on the last day as the first).

The perfectly sunny day looked great; however the wind gusts were near tropical storm strength making it feel a lot cooler than 60F. The overnight temps will be in the 30's F.

The usual evening of Jeopardy and TV.