Rebekah passes two pre-golds and one gold dance!

Rebekah and Jo Ann just returned from a week and a half in Connecticut.  We went there specifically for Rebekah to work with Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov with the goal of taking dance tests at the end of the week.

We had a wonderful time since my dad came.  We stayed in a really nice hotel in Avon, Connecticut which is right next to Simsbury, Connecticut where the International Skating Center of Connecticut is.  Rebekah did two to four hours of ice dancing every day.

Every day her dances got better and better!
On the first Monday we were in Connecticut, my friend, Tom McHugh, drove an hour from Bethel, Connecticut just to ice dance with me. Tom and I know one another from something totally different than figure skating, but share a common love of ice dancing. Tom drove for over an hour to link up with me and we had such a nice time together. We did preliminary, pre-bronze, bronze, pre-silver, silver, some pre-golds and gold dances together and also some roller skating dances! It was so fun!

We also enjoyed eating out a lot and we enjoyed the beautiful area and the Avon Old Farms hotel.  One day, Rebekah and I visited the Mark Twain House.

On Saturday, we checked out of our hotel in Avon and Rebekah had one last lesson with Melissa and Denis.   We then drove towards Katonah, New York which seemed to be about two hours away, where Rebekah's test would take place on Sunday at the Hickory Hill Figure Skating Club.  We stayed at the La Quinta Inn in Armonk and had a nice dinner together in the hotel on Saturday night.

On Sunday morning, we checked out of the Armonk hotel and arrived in Katonah at the Harvey School Skating Rink around 8:30 am.  Rebekah skated on the club's dance session to warm up for the test and then it was time for the test session at 10:15 am.  The test session went quickly.  Soon, Rebekah was done with the Blues and Paso Doble and we waited to see if she'd be back on the ice for the Argentine.  When she was, we knew she passed the pre-golds!

Then, after the Argentine, test papers were passed out and we found out she passed the Argentine too.  It was so exciting to find out she passed by all three judges and over and above by all three too!

We left Katonah and headed back to Connecticut to the home of our friends Tom and Lori McHugh.  After visiting with Tom and Lori and also enjoying the videos Tom filmed of Rebekah's tests, we headed towards Hartford and went out to eat a great restaurant called Maggie McFly's in Southberry.  We had a relaxing meal together with Tom.

At the end of the meal, I glanced at my phone and there was a text message that our flight out of Hartford was cancelled for Monday at least due to Hurricane Sandy coming towards the East Coast.  We didn't panic, but made arrangements for an extended stay in our hotel.

I let Melissa and Denis know we were going to be in Hartford  for a bit longer.  Melissa suggested that Rebekah start working on the other gold dances, so on Monday, before the storm we went back to the rink in Simsbury.  Things were quiet there, but some skaters were still skating even though a storm was coming soon.

After Rebekah sort of mastered the Quickstep steps and timing and some of the Westminster Waltz, we headed back to our hotel.  We got some food and water at a convenience store.  Then, we went out to eat at Friendly's restaurant.  The restaurant staff told us that Friendly's rarely closed even in a hurricane!  I ordered turkey with all the trimmings!

Then, after we ate, we went back to the hotel and settled in before the storm.  The power only went out for a brief moment as we watched the news.  Eventually, the news in Hartford made it clear that the worst was over.  We went to bed knowing that things would be okay.

The next morning, the sun peeked through the clouds and I felt that something scary was over.  After eating the hotel breakfast, we went back to the rink and Rebekah learned the rest of the gold dances. Rebekah got to train with her new friend, Adelaide, who also trains with Melissa and Denis. After skating, we wanted to go out to lunch in West Hartford at a vegan restaurant, but the road there was closed and many traffic signals were down.

We headed back to our hotel area and had a nice meal at Ruby Tuesdays.  We went back to the hotel and we went swimming and then settled in for the night.  The next morning, Wednesday, we packed up and got on a plane for Colorado (my dad went back to Chicago).

As we boarded that plane, we all knew we'd been on a wonderful adventure that the three of us would never forget ....AND  Rebekah came home with a partial gold ice dance test!