FC Pride Soccer Tournament
Alyssa's soccer team participated in the FC Pride soccer tournament in Lawrence, IN (basically Indianapolis) over the weekend (last weekend- I'm behind again). They mostly participated in it- Alyssa's coach told the girls that if they made it to the finals, they wouldn't play in it. He didn't want them playing two soccer games two days in a row. Of course, this would be the tournament that they made it to the finals 😝.
Alyssa and I went to the tournament. Donnie had a board meeting on Saturday morning that he couldn't miss. He thought about coming over after the meeting, but he'd miss the second Saturday game as well as the first one because her team played at 8:00 am on Saturday and then at 12:00 pm. He could make it over for the Sunday game but he'd have to come Saturday and spend the night because her Sunday game was at 8:00 am (don't ask me how I felt about two eight am games...). He and Abby stayed in Ohio the entirety of the tournament while Alyssa and I became Hoosiers for a day and a half.
We left Springboro around 4:30 pm Friday. Hit bad traffic within ten minutes of the drive. Arg... the 2 hour and 12 minute (projected by Apple Maps) drive ended up taking us over three hours (although that included a very brief stop for dinner close to our hotel).
We stayed at a Sheraton that was right next to an upscale mall, The Fashion Mall at Keystone. We stayed there because a lot of Alyssa's teammates were staying there; we didn't have to but we wanted to be where most of her teammates were. We went to bed fairly early that evening. We had to be at the soccer complex the next morning by 7:15 and our hotel was fifteen minutes away from the soccer complex. Shortly before we went to bed, I made a disturbing discovery about our route to the soccer complex: when I input the address of the fields (Franklin Street) into Apple Maps, it gave me the directions and had me ending at Franklin Street (which makes sense); however, I had a print out of the soccer complex and nowhere did that street exist on the map near the fields. So, if I went to the destination as proscribed by the address, Franklin Street, I would not end up at the soccer fields. I called Donnie and he said he recalled that exact same situation happened to him (except that he didn't realize it until he was driving and had arrived at Franklin Street and the soccer fields were nowhere to be seen. Donnie had been to this tournament before which is how he had experience with the fields). Donnie walked me through where to go when I read him the street names that looked close to the soccer field, based on my print out. It turns that Franklin Street is the main address for the entire sports complex but it will not get you to the soccer fields. I'm glad that I noticed the discrepancy or I would have been bumbling around Franklin Street the next morning looking in vain for the soccer field where Alyssa was supposed to be.
The soccer games on Saturday went ok. We tied both of the games. Wins would have been nicer of course. However, the girls hadn't played a soccer game in three weeks. The games that they'd played in early September were on turf and they were playing on grass at the FC Pride tournament.
After the second game on Saturday, we drove back to our hotel (we'd stayed in the area in between games). Alyssa showered and then we had a bit of time before dinner/ bedtime. Many of the girls from her team planned to meet at the mall to have dinner there while the parents planned to eat/ drink at the hotel's restaurant. The mall's food options did not sound good to Alyssa and she does not like to shop so she had no desire to go to the mall. We decided to have dinner on our own. We found a sandwich shop where we both had soup (chicken noodle for Alyssa, chicken tortilla for me) and then it was back to the hotel to watch a Hallmark movie before bedtime.
Alyssa's last game was on Sunday morning at 8:00 am. Her team had to win the game by more than two goals and another team had to win its Sunday morning game for us to make it to the final game. Alyssa's team easily defeated their opponents- the final score was 7-0. The team that we needed to win for us to make it to the finals won its Sunday morning game, which meant we were in the finals. Except that we didn't play in the finals. Mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, it would have been awesome to play in the final game and possibly win the tournament. On the other hand, awesome was being home by 12:30 pm so I don't feel like I can properly complain about that facet of the tournament :). I had a great time with my soccer girl during our brief, two- too early mornings, soccer playing/ watching time in Indianapolis.
Our hotel room- tire art??
Race car related, lol
There goes my girl... bad picture and you can hardly see her but she was headed to the field in the dark. Her games were so early- unlucky but we got lucky with the weather. Early mornings in late September can be cold. But with the heat wave, 8:00 am wasn't cold at all.
Pretty sunrise
The mall near our hotel was upscale, as I mentioned before. It had a Saks Fifth Avenue store and some other higher end type stores. The only boujee thing that Alyssa and I did all weekend was drink the $5 Fiji water that was in our hotel room. The only reason we did that was because we had a $5 room credit for not getting maid service while we were there.
The tournament had a cool feature where photographers would take pictures of your child during games and then you could buy them after previewing them. I thought that sounded like a great idea. I discovered, though, that no one has an incentive to take pictures of your child quite like a parent does. The pictures were great quality but the only ones they got of Alyssa were of the back of her.
A few of my pictures. This one isn't good because I didn't realize my lens had condensation on it from the humidity.
And that's all took :(. I was counting on getting photos from the photo taking service that the tournament provided. Which, unfortunately, turned out to be a bit of a bust.
Lunch on our way home- sometimes bacon, burgers, fries, onion rights and cookies just hit the spot :)
Alyssa has a self imposed healthy food eating standard for herself during tournaments and the day before a tournament or game begins. After a game or after a tournament is complete, though, all bets are off :). We were soooo excited to eat our junky lunch!!
Alyssa and I went to the tournament. Donnie had a board meeting on Saturday morning that he couldn't miss. He thought about coming over after the meeting, but he'd miss the second Saturday game as well as the first one because her team played at 8:00 am on Saturday and then at 12:00 pm. He could make it over for the Sunday game but he'd have to come Saturday and spend the night because her Sunday game was at 8:00 am (don't ask me how I felt about two eight am games...). He and Abby stayed in Ohio the entirety of the tournament while Alyssa and I became Hoosiers for a day and a half.
We left Springboro around 4:30 pm Friday. Hit bad traffic within ten minutes of the drive. Arg... the 2 hour and 12 minute (projected by Apple Maps) drive ended up taking us over three hours (although that included a very brief stop for dinner close to our hotel).
We stayed at a Sheraton that was right next to an upscale mall, The Fashion Mall at Keystone. We stayed there because a lot of Alyssa's teammates were staying there; we didn't have to but we wanted to be where most of her teammates were. We went to bed fairly early that evening. We had to be at the soccer complex the next morning by 7:15 and our hotel was fifteen minutes away from the soccer complex. Shortly before we went to bed, I made a disturbing discovery about our route to the soccer complex: when I input the address of the fields (Franklin Street) into Apple Maps, it gave me the directions and had me ending at Franklin Street (which makes sense); however, I had a print out of the soccer complex and nowhere did that street exist on the map near the fields. So, if I went to the destination as proscribed by the address, Franklin Street, I would not end up at the soccer fields. I called Donnie and he said he recalled that exact same situation happened to him (except that he didn't realize it until he was driving and had arrived at Franklin Street and the soccer fields were nowhere to be seen. Donnie had been to this tournament before which is how he had experience with the fields). Donnie walked me through where to go when I read him the street names that looked close to the soccer field, based on my print out. It turns that Franklin Street is the main address for the entire sports complex but it will not get you to the soccer fields. I'm glad that I noticed the discrepancy or I would have been bumbling around Franklin Street the next morning looking in vain for the soccer field where Alyssa was supposed to be.
The soccer games on Saturday went ok. We tied both of the games. Wins would have been nicer of course. However, the girls hadn't played a soccer game in three weeks. The games that they'd played in early September were on turf and they were playing on grass at the FC Pride tournament.
After the second game on Saturday, we drove back to our hotel (we'd stayed in the area in between games). Alyssa showered and then we had a bit of time before dinner/ bedtime. Many of the girls from her team planned to meet at the mall to have dinner there while the parents planned to eat/ drink at the hotel's restaurant. The mall's food options did not sound good to Alyssa and she does not like to shop so she had no desire to go to the mall. We decided to have dinner on our own. We found a sandwich shop where we both had soup (chicken noodle for Alyssa, chicken tortilla for me) and then it was back to the hotel to watch a Hallmark movie before bedtime.
Alyssa's last game was on Sunday morning at 8:00 am. Her team had to win the game by more than two goals and another team had to win its Sunday morning game for us to make it to the final game. Alyssa's team easily defeated their opponents- the final score was 7-0. The team that we needed to win for us to make it to the finals won its Sunday morning game, which meant we were in the finals. Except that we didn't play in the finals. Mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, it would have been awesome to play in the final game and possibly win the tournament. On the other hand, awesome was being home by 12:30 pm so I don't feel like I can properly complain about that facet of the tournament :). I had a great time with my soccer girl during our brief, two- too early mornings, soccer playing/ watching time in Indianapolis.
Our hotel room- tire art??
Race car related, lol
There goes my girl... bad picture and you can hardly see her but she was headed to the field in the dark. Her games were so early- unlucky but we got lucky with the weather. Early mornings in late September can be cold. But with the heat wave, 8:00 am wasn't cold at all.
Pretty sunrise
The mall near our hotel was upscale, as I mentioned before. It had a Saks Fifth Avenue store and some other higher end type stores. The only boujee thing that Alyssa and I did all weekend was drink the $5 Fiji water that was in our hotel room. The only reason we did that was because we had a $5 room credit for not getting maid service while we were there.
The tournament had a cool feature where photographers would take pictures of your child during games and then you could buy them after previewing them. I thought that sounded like a great idea. I discovered, though, that no one has an incentive to take pictures of your child quite like a parent does. The pictures were great quality but the only ones they got of Alyssa were of the back of her.
A few of my pictures. This one isn't good because I didn't realize my lens had condensation on it from the humidity.
Lunch on our way home- sometimes bacon, burgers, fries, onion rights and cookies just hit the spot :)
Alyssa has a self imposed healthy food eating standard for herself during tournaments and the day before a tournament or game begins. After a game or after a tournament is complete, though, all bets are off :). We were soooo excited to eat our junky lunch!!
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