New Skates for Gee

This evening, we headed up to Burlington to purchase a new pair of figure skates for Gee.  She plans to skate before some of Kenzie's figure skating lessons in preparation of skating with Lukey and Kenzie at Rockefeller Center and Bryant Park at Christmastime.  

Sheila hasn't skated in decades so this will be interesting.  I would like to join them but I know my spinal injuries could not handle skating and a fall would be, at a minimum, painful for my spinal injuries or, at worst, devastating.  Instead, I'll be trying to shoot some photos and maybe some video of them skating.  And, honestly, I really don't need another TBI by falling on the ice either.  

Sheila wasn't sure what size skate she needed so she grabbed a generic brand skate that was easily accessible to us just to try for size.  She laced the skate up but, when she stood on the one foot with the skate, she didn't seem all that stable.  The blade on this particular brand of skate was cheap too.  As I was helping the sales guy find a better skate in Sheila's size, she tried on a used skate that was a far better skate albeit a bit more expensive. 

This better skate was actually far, far better than that generic skate she had previously tried.  It oozed quality from the boot to the blade (especially the blade).  And, for a 'used' skate, it was in exceptionally good condition.  I would have classified it as 'like new' which is very difficult to come by when looking for a used pair of skates.  Used skates typically are in poor, dirty, smelly condition!  Unfortunately, this nice used skate didn't fit Sheila's foot all that well.  I suspect it was specifically shaped for the original owner's foot.  She did seem more stable when standing on this skate though which was a good thing.  And, although it didn't fit her well, she said she could actually feel the difference in quality.  Although tight, the boot was more comfortable than the generic brand skate.

This prompted me to grab the same skate that we had purchased for Kenzie a few months ago.  Kenzie's skate is a higher grade of skate than Sheila originally had wanted to purchase.  She was actually hoping to get by with just a cheap pair of skates but she seemed to be more excited by the more comfortable boot of the higher quality used skate so I figured she should try the same skate we purchased for Kenzie regardless of the higher price.  

The moment she slipped her foot into this skate, she cooed, "Ohhhh wowwww!"  

She laced both skates up tightly, stood on the skates and she again cooed with eyes wide, "Ohhhh wowwww!"

She even looked far more stable up on her feet in these skates.  She quickly admitted that the extra $30 for this skate compared to the first generic skate she tried was well worth it.  We had these new skates sharpened before heading out of the store.  While waiting for the sharpening, the sales guy asked about my camera and we chatted for a bit about photography, cameras, and shooting sports, particularly hockey. 

Now we just need to figure out how to pack three pairs of skates for our journey to Manhattan for Christmas.  We'll have a few blocks to walk from Penn Station to our hotel and then back again when we head back home so we don't want the skates to be burdensome.  Walking to and from the rink(s) won't be a problem but trekking through Manhattan with luggage and skates could be burdensome.