Lucy had a hockey tournament with the Atlanta Thrashers this past weekend in the North Tampa Bay area of Florida, so we loaded up the gear and flew down for a very enjoyable time. The flight down was uneventful with little to no winds. We landed at North Tampa Airpark (X39) which was conveniently 12 minutes away from the ice rink. We stayed in the Holiday Express hotel that was a 1 minute walk away from the rink, which worked out great and the rink itself was the most impressive one I've ever seen. AdventHealth Center Ice had 4 rinks plus a small sized rink! The Atlanta Thrashers 12U team was severely outsized, since many of our players were 9 years old, including Lucy. They had a blast though and played hard and after four games there was obvious improvement in positioning and effort. The girls had a pool party Saturday night after playing two games and a 4 way chicken fight broke out which was a riot for everyone.
Sunday before we departed we ate at the little restaurant on the field, which turned out to be quite good food and a really nice atmosphere to sit on the porch and watch airplanes while we ate. Lucy flew up front on the way back and she did the radio call departing the airport. She then practiced holding a heading and got a lesson on GPS, auto pilot, and other misc things. After a while of that we just turned on the autopilot and relaxed and enjoyed the flight home.
