Monday, August 15, 2016

Detroit

Eli 15.0 had Driver's Education from 9-11 this morning, then I picked him up and we drove to Detroit to watch Pro Elite Camp.

"I wonder if I should get a snow kayak this winter," I said.

"That's not a thing, is it?" Eli asked.

"Sure it is," I said. "Small skis are attached just below the kayak, so the kayak just rides on the snow."

"How do you paddle?"

"I'm not totally sure," I said, "but I think you use the regular paddle, only it's modified with spikes that can grip the ice so that you can push."

"Are they expensive?"

"I would think there are plenty of used ones up here," I said. "Don't know how much they'd cost."

I drove on for about thirty seconds.

"You know that snow kayaks totally do not exist," I said.

"I KNEW THAT UNTIL YOU STARTED TALKING," he said.

"I almost persuaded myself," I said.

Later on, I heard a reference to parachute pants in an ad on the radio and made him look it up on Google. "Oh, no," he said when he saw them.

That is the correct reaction to parachute pants.

Pro Elite Camp is a Bandits camp that features a few NHL draft choices, guys on the National Development Team, D1 college goalies, and a few guys below that level. Plus the shooters are just ridiculous.

It was all amazing, but here's one story, because it's late and I'm beat.

When Eli worked out at Barwis during regular Elite Camp, there was a group of NHL players working there at the same time, and at one point, he had to ask the fastest skater in the NHL to move over because he was standing over Eli's water bottle.

He looked over at Eli and says 'Oh, sorry man, my bad." Typical hockey player--super polite, really nice guy.

That same player was a shooter today, just shredding guys in the drills. We were the only people in the stands, and at one point, he looked directly at Eli for several seconds, like he was trying to place him (at least half a dozen of the guys knew Eli, and they all acknowledged him at some point, so he might have noticed that).

Or maybe he wasn't looking at all, but it seemed like it at the time.

"My god, I swear he was staring at me," Eli said.

"He was taking an image with a mental camera," I said. "On that image are the words 'PERSON OF INTEREST.' "

Eli burst out laughing.

About fifteen minutes later, he looked over again. Seemingly.

"I swear he did it again," Eli said.

"That 'PERSON OF INTEREST' text is now flashing," I said.

Driving to Detroit at 11 and driving back at 5 is tough, but it was worth it.

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