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1851 Landwehr Road- Glenview, IL 60026
- (847) 724-2800
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1851 Landwehr RoadRoad trip time. We spent last weekend in Chicago for the US Figure Skating National Solo Dance Finals. L had been working towards this all year. She made it a goal after the skaters in our club got to go to Los Angeles last year for the National Finals that she was going to be part of the team that qualified this year.
The competition was in Chicago this year….more specifically, Glenview, IL. A suburb on the north side of the city. We didn’t get the big trip to a City she’s never been to but she did earn the chance to compete against some of the best ice dancers in the country.
The competition was at the Glenview Community Ice Center near the corner of Landwehr Road and West Lake Avenue in Glenview. This massive ice complex is part of the Glenview Park District, has 2 1/2 rinks, and sits next to the campus of Glenbrook South High School.
L didn’t actually compete until Friday morning but we had to be there Thursday morning when the competition started. She wanted to watch *all* of the competition….and she pretty much did. Three days of competition with it coming to an end Saturday night around 9:00 after they crowned the Senior Solo Combined national champion.
We got up Thursday morning and made the 3 hour drive from Kalamazoo. We pulled in to the parking lot next to the rink around 10:00 or so. We had already missed the couple of events but that was the plan all along. We wanted to get there for 10:30.
We walked in the front doors to find a massive atrium area. All of the seating is up a level while locker rooms and ice surfaces are on street level. We got L checked in, got her NSD jacket, then we headed upstairs to watch *a lot* of ice dancing.
The competition was on Rink A. This is the main rink and the biggest of the three rinks in the complex. All of the seating is on one side of the rink. The far side has these really cool silhouettes that are back lit by the sunlight coming through. There are locker rooms for this rink just off the main entryway but only skaters and coaches were allowed downstairs.
All of the seating is upstairs above the rink. This is really my only complaint about the whole weekend. I hate places that do seating like this. You can’t see the whole ice surface. If the skaters are up against the near boards, you lose them. If they get in to the corners, you lose them. The bleachers were also really hard and there was too much room between them to lean back comfortably. A lot of the girls were sitting on the cement part and putting their legs underneath the bench seat. That made it a little more comfortable for the long periods we all sat there and they could more comfortably lean back. They also left the hockey netting in place which is kind of annoying. Kalamazoo has hosted this same event in the past but the club hosted it at Wings Event. Whenever GKSA hosts big events like that, they take down the plexiglass and the netting surrounding the rink for unobstructed views.
The second ice sheet, Rink B, was used for practice ice. L had two practice sessions on Thursday night. Both took place on Rink B while the competition continued on Rink A. The ice surface in Rink B is the same size as A but the spectator seating is much smaller. Like Rink A, seating is above the rink. It didn’t matter too much for this because we were just there for about 20 minutes or so just to watch the skaters practice.
The third rink is much smaller. They call it the “Studio Rink.” It’s a 90′ x 60′ rink set up for pee wee hockey. Instead of putting up a temporary wall at center ice and playing games on half the rink, they have a rink designed for the little kids. They also use this rink for ice bumper cars…which I’m not gonna lie, we all wanted to try but they were booked up. It was fun to watch though.
There is quite a bit more to this place than just the ice sheets and that’s what made sitting there for three long days a little more comfortable.
The main floor has a pretty large pro shop called Offensive Zone. It’s mostly hockey stuff but they do have gear for figure skaters. There are boxes of Edea, Jackson, and Ridell skates sitting on the floor. They also do their own heat transfer shirts. It’s mostly used for hockey jersey’s but they had the NSD logo and were making shirts. They actually ran out of shirts by Friday but told us if we went and bought a shirt somewhere, they’d press it for $6. J ran to Target and got a t-shirt and a crop sweatshirt and brought them back. We got two shirts for under $50. We typically pay over double that for competition apparel.
The main level also has a donut shop open in the mornings. I’ll dive in to this in a separate blog post later (which I will eventually link back here) but L actually passed up food from Starbucks on the way to the rink because she wanted a donut from Joe Donut when we got there.
Upstairs, next to the main seating area, there is a fantastic bar run by North Branch which has a restaurant just down the street from the rink (this will also get it’s own blog post which will be linked here when it’s done). It’s a concession style set up where you order at the counter but they bring the food out to you and it’s fantastic food. You can either sit in the restaurant or take it “to-go” where they will put it in a box and you can take it in to the seating area. The unfortunate thing is they were only open in the evenings on Thursday and Friday and only during the day on Saturday. There was a lot of time we were at the rink that they were closed.
We kind of took over the seating area during the day and did a lot of Door Dashing for food. J and I both ordered from there multiple times but also, we were in Chicago, as you will soon see from other blog posts, there was a lot of Chicago food to be had. We did take advantage of the alcohol though. Just like Wings West, they have a solid beer selection and you can take it in to the rink with you.
The weekend at the National Solo Dance Finals was a great experience. L had an amazing time, finished 5th in the nation in her event, and made a lot of lasting memories with her teammates and friends. The Glenview Community Ice Rink is one of the best facilities we’ve been to as we’ve traveled with skating the last couple of years. It was a fantastically well hosted competition in a great facility. L is already working on next year’s routine’s with the goal of qualifying again….but next year, we’ll have to head to Tampa. It was nice having NSD within driving distance this year.