This morning we took the kids ice skating at the new Bremerton Ice Arena. Actually, it's not that new any more, because it's been open for about 6 months. We've been meaning to get out there, so it was nice to finally see the new rink. As far as I know, it's the only ice rink on our side of the Puget Sound, so it was a big deal (at least to me) when it was constructed. Abigail and Michaela each got a "private lesson" from me, which consisted of a series of laps around the rink while learning how to fall, how to get back up, and how to stand with your feet slightly apart and knees bent. Both of them had a great time, and were asking to come again, so I count it a big success. It takes time to learn to skate, so I was happy to see them meet real ice and still come away enthusiastic.

For me, I've set foot on the ice exactly once in the last 8 years, prior to today. I discovered ice skating when I was an undergraduate at MIT, because we had to accumulate physical education credits in order to graduate. I took beginning skating for the first credit, fell in love, and promptly looked for any excuse to be on the ice. Hockey, no problem. Figure skating, no problem. I was skating about an hour a day, 6 days a week during my last 3 years as an undergraduate. I wasn't quite as dedicated as a graduate student, and when we moved to the west coast, I discovered that university students are spoiled rotten with free ice time.

I was having trouble finding some of the edges in my hockey skates today, so I took my skates to the pro shop at the rink to get them sharpened. The guy in the pro shop took at look at the blades and the skates (CCM 451 Tacks) and guessed that the skates hadn't been sharpened in a long time -- he was right. And it made me feel a little better about the falls that I took today. Unfortunately, this happened at the end of the skate session, so I'll have to go back some other time to find out how good the sharpening job was. It's a shame that the rink is so far (it's a 45 minute drive each way), or I'd be there a lot more often. Or perhaps its a blessing in disguise. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed gliding across the ice.