Sunday dawned rather early for us considering the late night we had on Saturday night. We were being picked up at 10:15am to hang out with very special friends, while all our “gang” were going to a memorial service for someone very special for them (it was for someone we didn’t know very well so we thought it was best we didn’t go). Jen had very kindly let us borrow her car for our appointment at 5pm, so we grabbed the keys off her before we left with Mickie and off we went.

Mickie and Frederick have been such wonderful friends to us over the years, and it was Mickie who first messaged the Dallas Stars and asked them to do something special for us the last time we were there – which started the whole ball rolling with being the Stars Fans Of The Game, being at the first game early enough to meet Ralph on the concourse, who got us in to see Mike Modano through Rob Scichili… they really were the catalyst for how brilliantly our trip was last time here in Big D, so there was no way we weren’t going to spend some time with them this time around!

Their 14 yr old son Alex plays hockey for a team called the Stars on Sunday mornings (Bantem level I think?), so we were invited to watch him play, and then they took us and Alex’s friend out for lunch. Alex’s game was as the StarCenter in Plano, so Mickie picked us up from the hotel, and with a stop at Starbucks (for caffeination) we were on our way. The StarCenters are owned by The Dallas Stars, and help to build hockey in Texas. They have 2 sheets of ice in the buildings along with a Stars Stuff Store. The Plano SC was overrun with families preparing for and leaving games that had just finished. By the time we got there, Alex’s team was on ice and warming up!

They were pretty good! We got some great photos of Alex’s team playing, and of Alex who is a winger. He also got a few penalties – oops! – but he was strong on the forecheck and seemed to have good positioning. There were a few players out there who were just so, so fast! And a few scary parents in the crowd too! But the people we were sitting with were just lovely. I think the couple beside me were parents of another child on Alex’s team, and they were interested in hockey in Australia as well as our trip. Everyone is fascinated with the weather difference. It’s kind of bizarre but whatever!

Alex’s team won 5-3, it was all very exciting because at one stage it was 3-2, then 3-3, then 4-3 so it was rather edge of your seat stuff. After the game, Mickie took us down to the Stars Stuff Store to have a look around. We saw their clearance rack had different stuff from the Frisco rink, so we went at it, buying 6 shirts for $10 each! And I got an Ipod case for my classic Ipod for only $14! It’s AWESOME! We also picked up some car decal’s for our “Dallas” back home, and Sam bought me a Stars bracelet that I liked. All in all, it was a pretty good haul for $140! Plus, on the items that weren’t on sale, Mickie let us use her season ticket holder’s discount of 15%, so that was very generous of her!

Then it was off to lunch at SeaBreeze. We had a seafood basket that had a toasted lobster sandwich, fries and coleslaw (though I don’t eat coleslaw so I just had the sandwich and most of the fries), like Mickie did. Frederick had muscles (I think) and fish, and I’m not sure what the kids had, but it all looked so good. Over lunch, Sam and I gave them a small book on Australian Wildlife, as a very small token of our very large appreciation for what they’ve done for us over the years. Really, there are no words and nothing big enough that could ever compensate, but a little something goes a long way.

During lunch, we mentioned that we hadn’t done any of the things that we had wanted to while we were here, such as the Gallery or the Museum or even the grassy knoll where JFK was assassinated. Mickie and Frederick immediately offered to drop the kids off at home and take us downtown to see it! So that’s what we did!

Elm Street, ironically where it happened, still looks like it did on November 22, 1963. The buildings are all the same, the road hasn’t changed and even has white X’s on the road where the shots hit JFK. It was morbidly awesome! And there is even a tour that you can go on that follows the procession’s route, to the point of speeding up after the grassy knoll and driving to the hospital they took JFK to.

After the Grassy Knoll, we walked around downtown and passed the TGI Fridays we went to last time we were in Dallas in 2006. Good times. By the time we got back to the car, it was time to head to the hotel to drop us off because we had an appointment with Bob Shaw from Shaw’s Tattoo Studio at 5pm. We chatted to Mickie and Frederick in the parking lot of the motel until we had to leave.

We got to Bob’s at 5pm on the dot, and Bob was waiting for us, chilling out and watching the Cowboys game on tv (they were losing to San Diego, 7-10 at the time). After our introductions, and Bob mentioning that he knew nothing about hockey, and me telling him to watch a real sport instead of this padded NFL crap, we got down to business and checked out the designs he’d sketched out. They were exactly what we wanted.

When we had discussed the designs with Josh on Wednesday, he’d mentioned that they probably wouldn’t be able to do the shading on the celtic knots on the sides of my Stars logo. Bob, however, merely shugged his shoulders and said he’d adjusted the design just a little to make it wide enough to do the shading I wanted, instead of having to fill the whole thing in.

Sam went first, because he’s a whiney little girl and needed to go first for fear of backing out – he doesn’t like pain, and he’s terrified of needles. How he’s managed to get three tattoos before is a miracle I’ve yet to work out! Anyway, Bob shaved Sam’s back, lined up the tatt, made sure it was where Sam wanted it, right across his shoulders, checked the shade of green we wanted for the star in the middle – the largest part of shading so it had to be right – and then got him straddled on the chair and set down to work.

Sam’s tattoo took about two hours to do, and Sam spent most of that time calling out expletives and grouching at me when I told him to “Suck it up princess! You’re the one who wanted this!” Bob thought this was hilarious. He was also amused by both of us singing along to Sublime on the playlist he had going through the studio while he worked, and me dancing and singing along to Eminem as well.

Sam kept saying to me, “Just wait until you get yours done, you’ll be crying out too!” Which just made me all the more determined not to say anything when I got mine done, even if it did hurt. Bob thought we were hilarious! At least, he kept chuckling the entire time. By the time Sam’s was done though, Bob needed a break.

When he came back, we got me set up, the tattoo placed on my lower back where I wanted it, got me situated on the chair and then got down to work. Mine took about an hour and a half to do, as it is a little smaller than Sam’s. Sam took off to get us some coffee, and Bob and I talked family, kids and married life. It was kinda cool. He could tell when it hurt, because my back would stiffen a little, but I didn’t complain about the pain until nearly at the end when he was doing the shading on the Star right on my spine. That really hurt. Bob did say at the end though that I took my tattoo like a trooper! I was so proud, really!

After we paid him (including a nice tip), we headed to Wal-Mart to pick up some Aquaphor ointment for the tatts, and I found some Dallas Stars pj pants in my size – I was so excited! I picked up a pair that are DS Green with the Stars logo all over them, and a green and white plaid pair with the logo stitched on in one corner. We spent the rest of the night chilling out at our motel, after trying to walk Jen’s dog, Stellina (unsuccessfully I might add – we tried three times!), with some Jack In The Box for dinner. It was a quite night, online and letting our tatts breathe.

I was up before Sam this morning, which is surprising for two reasons. 1) he usually doesn’t sleep during the day (the blockout curtains at this motel really work) and 2) it was past 9am! However, I was up before Sam. When he did wake up, we had breakfast and got ready to head out to find our destination for the day: Shaw’s Tattoo & Piercing.

Shaw’s is owned by Bob Shaw, and is actually the same caliber, if not better than the guys of Miami Ink. If you’re going to get a tattoo done, the best to get it done by is Bob. And since it comes recommended by our friend Clay, we took him at his word. Armed with the address, we headed out in search of the small tattoo studio. It wasn’t that far from our motel, or hard to find and even better was that it is only 3 or 4 blocks from our old favourite coffee shop – Dunn Bros Coffee. Shaw’s didn’t open until 12, and we were a little early so we took a detour to Dunn Bros first.

When we got inside and ordered our coffees, the guy behind the counter (the owner incidentally), recognised our accents weren’t from around here. We told him where we were from and that we came to that shop 3 and a half years ago the last time we were in Dallas – in fact we practically lived there for the free wi-fi as well as the amazing coffee. The guy remembered us. It was a little weird. Anyway we ordered our coffee and a weird shaped muffin each and then sat down to have our treats. Once we were finished, it was back to Shaw’s to get things organised.

If you weren’t aware, Sam already has 3 tattoos (one on each arm and one over his heart), and I have 1 (mine is over my heart too, same as Sam’s… literally), so we’re a little experienced at the whole tattoo thing. However. The last tattoo each of us got was 10 years ago. Still, it was fun walking back into a tattoo place and looking at the designs on the wall. No need for them today though, as Sam and I had thought long and hard, and came armed with a design already!

Josh, the guy that served us, told us that Bob wasn’t in yet – he didn’t get there until 5pm (we were already going out at 6pm so we had to make it another day to go back to get it done), but he was very helpful in getting our designs worked out. I already had mine on my computer (which stuffed up there in the tattoo parlor – very embarrassing). Josh printed it out and we worked out what should be changed or tweaked and what should remain the same. Sam was going to go with the same theme as mine, but completely different. After talking with Josh though, Sam decided to have a similar design to mine, but have the tribal ends a different design and pattern to what mine will look like.

The central portion of our tattoos? The Dallas Stars logo! The estimated cost of our tattoos will be around $600 in total, which really is a bargain compared to back home – our tatts would cost around $1000, we’re estimating. Plus, how can you not get a Dallas Stars tattoo in Dallas?? We arranged to get ours done on Friday at 3pm, but Bob called Sam later and said that he won’t be at work until 5pm and he’ll need more than 2 hours to get the work we want done, so we’re rebooked in for 5pm on Sunday night.

On our way back to the motel to do laundry, we stopped at Jack In The Box – the last fast food place we wanted to try – and got a sirloin burger each. Yum. And after Jen finished work, we all got ready to head out by 5pm to meet up with our friend, Miss Kelly. Kelly is just amazing and sweet and awesome, and also a huge Mike Modano fan, like me! Though she’s met him way more times than I have – kind of a perk of working at the Dallas Stars Stuff Store at Frisco a few years ago. As Kelly is a huge Twilight fan, and Jen’s just a sucker for spending time with us, the four of us went to Studio Movie & Grill, which is this movie theatre that’s like Gold Class at Birch Carroll & Coyle, but the chairs aren’t laz-e-boyz. We all got pizzas except for Kelly, who got cheese fries, and a drink called a “Hurricane Katrina” but I think that’s just what Kelly and Jen call them. I forget what the menu called them.

But the highlight of the food portion was when we ordered our drinks, we also got glasses of water as well, and when the waiter brought them out, Sam got his fine, and Jen got hers fine and then I don’t know what happened, but Kelly’s and mine were spilled… all over Jen’s side and my back. HOMG ICE COLD WATER! It was so embarrassing and hilarious and the poor waiter… it was his second night on the job and he was so embarrassed. Thank god it was only water though. But the hilarity ensued, when Jen and I went to the bathroom (they call them restrooms here) to use the air dryer to dry our jeans a little. Jen went first because she just had to put the side of her leg under it. Me… I had to stick my butt under the air dryer because it went all down my back and onto my chair and soaked into my jeans and underwear. OMG. Jen was just collapsing against the wall with gales of laughter and I was just laughing and choking out, “SHUT UP, IT’S NOT FUNNY!” but it totally was.

The manager gave us a complimentary appetizer, and apologised profusely to Jen and I in the hallway. We were like, “Don’t worry about it, it’s fine, it’s just water… really really cold water. It’s no problem.” Kelly said that he’d come over to “assess the damage” and talk to them and when he said that it was the waiter’s second night on the job, Kelly was like, “AWWW Don’t fire him! It was an accident!” So I hope he doesn’t lose his job over it.

Anyway thankfully everything was sorted by the time the movie started, and we all sat back to watch The Twilight Saga: New Moon. No spoilers for those who want to but haven’t seen it yet and haven’t read the books, but I will say this: It was closer to the book than I expected, and better than I was expecting as well! I didn’t mind it at all, actually. There. I said it.

After the movie though, we went back to Kelly’s to pick up Jen’s car and then we watched Glee on Jen’s tv before coming home to pass out. Tomorrow is a big day – we’re off to Fort Worth to hang out with Adam, and then having dinner with Jen’s family! FUN TIMES PEOPLE! We are in demand!

Four hours sleep is no where near enough, especially not after as long and as an exciting day as we had yesterday. To be honest, there was only one thing that would ever get me out of bed after only 4 hours sleep in this situation: A close encounter with my all time favourite animal: An Orca.

My family will know that I’ve always had a fascination with dolphins and whales, and at one point wanted to study marine biology at university – before I discovered psychology and my aversion to cutting up animals, which kind of put a stop to my career in science. As Orcas (killer whales, for those who aren’t in the know) are the largest of the dolphin family, and technically incorrectly called whales in their most common name, they especially hold a special fascination for me. They are large, graceful, elegant, intelligent and amazing mammals. They can weigh up to 8000 pounds (2 tons) and are around 6m in length, sometimes larger. They are unique in that they have a matriarchal society, with the females of the family staying together most of their lives and the males going off on their own and coming back only for breeding season… I could rattle on and on here about them, but you didn’t sign up for a science lesson on the Orca in all it’s glory.

What you did sign up for, is a recap of our encounter. So, we’ll start with getting up at the asscrack of dawn – well, okay it was only 8am, but still, early enough for us – and by the time we were ready to go it was 8:45am. A stop at Starbucks was made first and once we were caffeinated we were on our way to SeaWorld San Antonio for our date with some Orcas! We managed not to get lost, and as we had already purchased a parking ticket online, were able to get in straight away and find a park close to the entrance of the amusement park.

When I purchased the tickets to SeaWorld online, I also purchased two tickets to the Shamu Up Close Tour, which gives you a behind the scenes look at the orcas in their pools, the trainers as they do their daily health checks and sessions with the orcas, and a tour guide who will answer any questions you have. It also comes with morning tea, and first choice of any seats for the Shamu “Believe” Show – though now that it’s December, it’s the Shamu “Miracle” Show. We also got gift bags, a necklace of a whale’s tail on leather and a photo of us on the encounter – since there were two of us we got 1 each.

Our tour started at 10:30am, when the park opened and we had to be there at 10am. They let us in, and we went to the reservations counter, who gave us a pass to the section of the park where we had to meet our tour guide, which wasn’t open yet. We walked past the rides that were being tested before the park opened, the closed concession and merchandise stands, and the Ski Theatre, where they do jet ski shows in the summer. We managed to find our tour location and waited for our tour guide and any other guests to arrive.

When our guide, Theresa, showed up she announced we were the only ones on the tour that day, so we could get started early! Sam and I followed her down to the Shamu Theatre where their five orcas live in a rotating set of 4 pools – the main arena pool, the two 25 foot pools and one 12 foot pool (the medical pool). We were lucky to meet all 5 of the orcas, Takara, Kyuquot, Keet, Unna and Tuar (I think that’s correct). One of the females is due to have a calf any day now, so she wasn’t participating in any shows (I just can’t remember which Orca is pregnant!). When the trainers came out to feed the orcas and check their teeth, one of them noticed us with Theresa, and he came over when she said we were there from Australia and had come to SeaWorld just for the orcas!

Jason, the trainer, was more than graciously accommodating and ended up bring over two of the orcas to our side of their pool and showed us some tricks and explained how they check their teeth, and other health checks. They were playful and friendly, and he explained that they always reward good behaviour and ignore bad behaviour, try not to bring attention to it. They showed off their vocal abilities, how to check their teeth, their tongues, their flukes (tails), waving their flippers, etc. We asked a few questions, like what fish were they fed in the park – since I already knew that in the while orcas like to feed on large fish such as salmon, and other mammals like seals and sea lions – hence, their “nickname” of sorts, of “Killer Whales”, which is really grossly inaccurate. Jason said they feed them 4 types of fish – the two that I can remember are mackerel and salmon – and the salmon they are fed is restaurant quality salmon. They don’t know if orcas have a sense of smell, and therefore a sense of taste, so we’re unsure if they have a preference. Theresa said they also feed them ice and jello of all things. Sometimes they’ll even put fish in the jello, as a frozen treat.

They explained how they don’t really teach them tricks, per say, they just teach them to do what comes naturally to them, but to do that behaviour on cue with a hand signal. They never try to train them to do things they wouldn’t normally do, that isn’t in their nature. Theresa also said that these particular orcas don’t like to jump over things, they like to go around them. So the end of Free Willy is not true to form, but definitely made great cinematography. The orcas love to be touched, and will rub their bodies on the walls and pool bottoms. They also love to have their trainers hug them and rub them and even rub them over with brushes and other objects that can essentially massage their skin. They don’t have a set routine as they like to change things up for them and keep everything fresh for the orcas. They rotate their pools, and once a day when the orcas have been moved out of the pools, a diver will go into the water and make sure everything is okay and nothing is in the pool or stuck to the bottom. The water temperature is about 60F, so it was warmer in the water than out of it!

There was so much more information and some of it I have on video, and we took a heap of photos but it was just… phenomenal to be there. To stand less than 2 metres away from orcas. They are so large and so beautiful, I had tears in my eyes just watching them. We got our photo taken with the whales posing in the background on a platform – which was not usual for the whales at all as usually the photos are taken in front of the glass tanks in the Shamu Theatre, so that was something special. There was morning tea included (good thing because we hadn’t had a chance to get breakfast!) which was a turkey club sandwich, a cookie, a pack of chips, some potato salad and water or iced tea. HOMG. It was so good, but so big I couldn’t finish it all. Sam and I saved our chips and cookies for later.

Once we were finished eating, we went to the Shamu Theatre where we got to sit in the second row of the Splash Zone, prime location for taking photos. Because it was so cold, the trainers didn’t get the orcas to splash the crowd but the show was just amazing. Again, i got some of it on video but both Sam and I got some amazing photos of it all too. It helped that Theresa sat next to Sam through the show and told him where the whales were going to come out of the water!

All the staff there were so friendly and helpful and very interested in Australia and our SeaWorld, which we were happy to tell them all about. We enjoyed the experience so much, that we even took the time before we left the park to leave some positive feedback on a comments form at Guest Services for the General Manager.

Anyway after the Shamu tour and show were finished at 1pm, Sam and I went into the Shamu Emporium and picked up a couple of shot glasses and a large stuffed orca for me (I’m a sucker for a good stuffed animal!), before we headed into the Voyager Cafe for a coffee (Sam) and water (me). We sat down and planned our next adventure! We wandered past the water rides (yes people were actually going on the rollercoasters and flume rides when it was a] raining and b] 40F outside!) to the Sea Lion area but we couldn’t get in to see them because the show wasn’t going to start until 4pm. We walked back to the 4D theatre and lined up to see The Polar Express 4D Movie, which was pretty awesome. We had 3D glasses on, and when the train arrived on screen, our chairs vibrated! When it snowed, it was simulated over us by bubbles. It was pretty awesome.

After the movie, we headed down to the dolphins and sharks section which was near the front of the park (and the exit). With the dolphins, you can purchase trays of 4 fish, and feed the dolphins! So we did that! We both got to touch a dolphin each too, which was just amazing and luckily, I got to capture Sam’s touch of the dolphin on film too! They feel rubbery and wet (of course) but not unpleasant. And they were just beautiful. There was even a dolphin in the tank that was charcoal coloured, never seen any bottlenosed look like that before! One of the dolphins was clearly lazy because he was so fat and chunky, he was obviously the one who never played with the buckets of fish that they would put into the pools for the dolphins to find, but rather preferred to just hang by the edge and get fish straight into his open mouth. It was definitely an awesome experience!

From there we went into their coral reef and shark tank display – but it was nothing on Shark Bay in our own SeaWorld on the Gold Coast. And no great white’s either! Their sharks were tiny!! No hammerheads or makos or anything! So it was interesting to see the different sharks from the other side of the world, like the black tip shark and the nurse shark but yeah, nothing like ours.

From there, after leaving our comment at Guest Services, and then Sam having a bathroom break, we headed back to the car to find our way clear across town to go to the AT&T Centre for the San Antonio Rampage Vs Texas Stars AHL game there in San An. The Rampage are the “farm team” for the Phoenix Coyotes, and the Texas Stars, in their inaugural year, are the “farm team” for our very own Dallas Stars. We were super excited to go to this game, and since we had 2 spare tickets (Rhonda had to work and Jen couldn’t make it down to San An for it), our friend Jena and her friend Anthony came along to take the seats. Anthony liked hockey, apparently, and Jena had always wanted to go to a game, so it worked out well! Our seats were in section 22, row 8, seats 3, 4, 5 and 6. What I didn’t know when I booked them was that seats 3 and 4 were the glass seats behind the penalty box. Thankfully it was the Texas Stars’ penalty box and not the Rampage’s.

The experience was a pretty awesome one, I have to admit. The energy in the building was good, there had to be at least 5000 people there in the arena and boy did they get into it and make some noise. Sam, Jena and I were all cheering out loudly (well, okay, maybe more Sam and I than Jena!) for the Stars, as was this guy in the next section over. There were a couple of Stars jerseys in the crowd which was nice to see, but obviously we were definitely outnumbered.

About part way through the second period, the Rampage’s mascot, a raging bull called T-Bone, came over to our section and spotted us in the crowd. Oh God. I didn’t even know he had come around until I felt a tap on my shoulder and there in front of me was T-Bone. A skinny guy in a grey leotard wearing the Rampage hockey uniform and a bull’s head. Actually he’s kind of awesome. We had this sign language (on his side) conversation. It went a little something like this:

T-Bone: *indicates to my jersey and then points to the raging bull logo on his jersey* Why you in a Stars jersey? Why aren’t you wearing a Rampage jersey?
Wendy: Because we’re Dallas Stars fans mate!
T-Bone: *shakes his head, makes a X in the air and a heart symbol on his chest* No Love, no love.
Wendy: What?! We came a long way for this game!
T-Bone: *Puts an L on his forehead* LOSER!!
Wendy: Me!? You’re the one with a Coyotes connection! That makes you the loser!
T-Bone: *Indignant jumping back with fake shock, hand on his heart, then he nods and offers me a high five* OMG WHAT?! That Hurt! HAHA. You’re alright!

T-Bone then hugged me as I was sitting there, and Sam – who had been watching the whole thing – asked for a picture. I stood up and T-Bone just enveloped me into his arms so I was barely visible! So awesome. And the guy in the suit was just laughing the entire time. I thanked him and he took off to “annoy” other fans. He was just the best mascot of any of the games we’d been to. He was involved in the intro, he danced on ice, he danced in the stands, he had a cowbell and a drum stick to get a beat going to rev up the crowd – which worked by the way – he was energetic and fun loving and very, very funny.

We also think a few of the Stars players heard us cheering for them, because when Gagnon ended up in the penalty box for like the third or fourth time, he looked at us, smiled and then shook his head and hung it in shame! And at the end of the game, he actually acknowledged us with a nod and a wave, which was awesome! But back to the game. It was 1-0 to the Rampage at the end of the first, but then the Stars came out to play in the second. We ended up winning 4-1. It was pretty awesome. And Jena and Anthony had a great time, so that was brilliant.

We had Whataburger (awww makes me think of Jessebean! Jesse is the first person that ever took us to Whataburger in 2006 after we came to the Duncanville rink to watch him play in a pickup game of ice hockey) at the rink, and much to Jena’s shock and amusement Sam managed to get ketchup all down his right pant leg (he’d had the dipping ketchup for his fries), and mustard and lettuce on the glass of the penalty box from his burger – how that got there, I don’t want to know. She was incredulously amused – which was a highlight for me!

After the hockey, we went back to the Short’s house to tell them all about what happened, and Jena’s husband Ryan came over. Then Sam, me, Jena, Ryan, Amber and Grady when back to Amber and Grady’s apartment (attached to the main house) and sat up talking for a couple of hours before Sam and I – completely exhausted and on the brink of passing out – went up to where we were staying to get some sleep.

It was a long day, a long weekend, but HOMG SO WORTH IT!!

Tomorrow: A drive back to Dallas and good friends!

Today started with the alarm going off at 4:30am, two showers and melting of ice from our car for the first of 2 five hour drives for the day. We were on the road to “Big D” by 5:10am, and it was I who took the first leg. My extent of driving in the US and Canada, ever, had been driving from the Short’s residence to the Starbucks about 5 miles down the access road. So practically non-existent! But, since Sam only had 2 hours sleep and I had 4 and a half, I took one for the team, stepped up to the plate and took an almighty swing at driving on the wrong side of the road, in an unfamiliar car, at 5am when the road is covered in black ice.

I didn’t do too badly if I do say so myself.

I drove for an hour and a half and we switched drivers at McDonalds for breakfast, where we stopped to eat and then Sam took over for about 45 minutes, while I slept. When he faded again, I took over and drove the rest of the way into Dallas, all the way to Jen’s motel, where we are going to be staying the final leg of our trip.

Jen greeted us with hugs and a gorgeous schnauzer named Stellina. We got a tour of our room, and hung out with Jen while we waited for Rhonda to arrive so we could all go to the Dallas Stars game together. While waiting, Jen, Sam and I went to lunch at the Corner Cafe & Bakery. It was nice to eat food that wasn’t fast food! I had a ravioli and Sam had a turkey toasted sandwich. It was delicious. Back at Jen’s, it was great to catch up until Rhonda arrived and we could head to the game.

Rhonda is sick with the flu at the moment, so it was wonderful that she felt well enough to get out of bed and come along to the game with us. She had arranged the tickets for the four of us with her Ticket Rep (she’s a season ticket holder for The Stars), who was able to compliment her 4 tickets in the lower bowl for us, because she had 2 guests from Australia with her. How awesome is that?

The AAC hasn’t changed – at least not inside – but the courtyard at the front has now been finished being built and HOMG is the big screens outside impressive! But inside, we got there with just enough time to buy new replica jerseys for Sam and I (Richards and Modano respectively) and a game puck before we had to get to our seats for the game to start! I was really excited about this game because not only were we going to watch the new “young guns” Jamie Benn and James Neal play (they weren’t on the team in 2006 as they were still too young), but we were going to see one of my favourite defensemen play. Unfortunately, he’s an Edmonton Oiler, but I do love Lubomir Vishnovsky!

The game started with, as usual, the singing of the National Anthems. It was kind of like a homecoming, hearing the anthem sung by Celina Rae, and the crowd yelling out “STARS” twice through the anthem when the words are mentioned. It’s … it’s hard to explain it. It’s a Stars Fans tradition. Some people are offended by it. I guess I can understand that point of view, but since it’s not my anthem I don’t get offended by it. I do think it’s unique, and something only the Stars can do in the NHL. That makes it special.

When the game started, though, it was all business. I was sitting next to Rhonda, who was next to Sam who was next to Jen. It was great because Jen and Rhonda were picking on Sam, but Rhonda and I were also talking hockey and cheering for the boys! I was so thrilled to be able to see Mike Modano play one more time. I don’t know if he will play another season, as this is the last one he’s contracted to and he is 39 years old, but he may do. I doubt Sam and I will be able to make it back to Dallas next year if he does though, so it was really special for me to see my favourite player, the player that got me hooked and obsessed with hockey in the first place, play one more time.

About four minutes left in the first period I said to Rhonda that I wanted a goal. Not ten seconds later, Jamie Benn scored with a lovely shot in the top left hand shelf over Deslauriers’ shoulder, assisted by Mike “Skeezy” Ribeiro and Brenden Morrow. And then three minutes later I said I wanted another one. With 31 seconds left in the first period, James Neal scored, assisted by Brad Richards and Nicklas Grossman. Both were very pretty goals. Neal’s was just impressive. Brad Richards took the puck up from the defensive zone, all the way to the net and was denied by Deslauriers, only for Neal to “pick up the trash” and score on a juicy rebound.

In the second period, Lubomir Vishnovsky of the Oilers netted their first goal from a slapshot that Marty Turco just couldn’t stop. The Stars still looked good, and for once Trevor Daley was having a good game and not making his usual 50 billion mistakes. Anyone who has sat with me through a Stars game knows that I would trade Daley for a bag of chips and a Starbucks coffee – and I’m not a Starbucks fan. But he made some great moves, was good on defense and his passing and puck handling was great. I don’t know what Crawford is going to get Daley to step up his game, but whatever it is, he needs to keep doing it!

In the intermission between the second and third periods, we went in search of Rhonda’s ticket rep and our friends Mickie, Frederick and their son Alex. They were in section 311, three levels above us! We had to walk all the way around the concourse before we found it, and while we were searching for them, Alex and Mickie had gone off in search of us! We found Frederick though, and managed to catch Alex and Mickie before we headed back to our seats for the start of the third period. Rhonda and Jen arrived at our seats after we did, having found out where the Stars commentators, Ralph Strangis and Darryl “Razor” Reaugh (pronounced “Ray”) were calling the game from – sections 210/211.

It was still 2-1 with 4 minutes left in the third period, and it was then that Sam, Rhonda, Jen and I got up from our seats and headed to the Platnium Level for sections 210/211 to see Ralph and Razor. We caught the game on the television screen in the elevator up, and then watched the jumbotron from the doorway of sections as we passed. As we walked to the elevator, Sam said that he bet the Oilers would score in the last minute of the game. “They always do,” he complained. We were waiting for the elevator when Ladislav Smid scored to tie the game up 2-2, and now we were off to the races! In the 8 games (including the Stars game) we have seen on our trip, only 2 have finished in regulation. 6 of them went to OT (overtime) or a Shootout. And with the score at 2-2, Sam and I felt that impending sense of doom that the game was going to go to OT… or worse, a shootout!

We found 210/211, and Rhonda told the guard there that we were from Australia and wanting to catch up with Ralph and Razor, who were up on the balcony, calling the game. He let us in the area and even said we could sit down in the empty seats of the section while the game finished! That was lovely of him. Regulation ended at 2-2, and into OT it went. The Stars were trying everything they could to finish it in OT, and we were all biting our nails. In the 5 games that the Stars had gone to a shootout, we had won 1 and lost 4. Not a great track record for Marty Turco (our starting goaltender) in the breakaway contest.

Inevitably it did go to a shootout, and while exciting, it was also nerve-wracking and scary. Rhonda and I were standing up for the whole thing, screaming out and cheering – it was so much fun! Unfortunately we lost, and the Oilers took the game 3-2. But at least we got a point.

We had to wait outside the section for Ralph and Razor to do their post game wrap up with the television Stars Live post game wrap up. The guard asked us if they knew we were there, and Rhonda said no, but he could give them a heads up if he wanted. I said to the guard, “Just tell ‘em “The Aussies are back”, they’ll know who you’re talking about!”

That’s exactly what he said to Ralph. And Ralph looked over at the doorway, saw me, grinned and exclaimed, “The Aussies are back!” It was lovely that he still remembered us after 3 and a half years!

When he came out, we had a short chat with him, and he asked us how we were and how long we were there for (great and until Dec 16, so this was our only Stars game and we couldn’t come to the game and not say hello!). We told him about our trip (the exceedingly short version) but we did mention that we’d seen Scott Glennie and Brayden Schenn for Brandon play in Moose Jaw and Scott was awesome! Then I said to Ralph that we had something for him. I handed over the Australian tie we had bought for him (we had one for Razor as well). It was green and gold and yellow and had kangaroos embroidered on it.

“It’s an Australian tie in Dallas Stars colours,” I said as I handed it over. He was blown away and said that it was amazing, and was so gracious and thankful. I explained, “Well, you hooked us up with Mike last time we were here, and we are so appreciative of that, so this is just a token of our appreciation.”

He grinned and said, “Oh wow! I wish you’d come up before the game, I would have worn it!” Then he said his goodbyes, wished us a great rest of our trip, shook Sam’s hand and then gave me a hug. It was so sweet. I love Ralph. Both Ralph and Razor are awesome, but Ralph remembers that when we met him the first time, it was Ralph and Razor that brought us the Stars. We didn’t have cable, and we didn’t have an internet connection we could stream the games – they weren’t available over the internet. The only way we could actually get Stars games was to listen to Ralph and Razor calling the game through WBAP radio in Dallas, which thankfully put their radio streaming online. We explained to him how Sam would record the radio stream on his computer during the day while I was at work and I would come home after work and listen to the game. Or if the game coincided with my lunch break, I would phone Sam and he would put the phone by the computer’s speaker and I would listen to the game over the phone on my lunch break. He was just so blown away by that when we told him last time (Mike Modano was too when we told him as well), that Ralph knows just how dedicated we are to the Stars, and how thankful we are to Ralph and Razor for being the voices of our team. There aren’t enough words in the English language to express what these two men mean to me for that.

Anyway we waited a little longer to talk to Razor because he was saying goodbye to the commentators there for Rogers Sports Net, the main sports network in Canada. One of the Rogers guys though looks like Razor’s doppleganger, it’s so funny. Razor came through the door and he stopped, and looked at us. He cocked his head to the side and it was so funny to see the realisation cross over his face. It was as if he was thinking… “Wait… wait, you look familiar… I know you!” And then he pointed at us and said, “The Aussies are back. The Aussies are back! Well hello! How are you!?”

It was thrilling that they were so happy to see us again. We chatted to Razor for a good 5-10 minutes, which was just wonderful. He too asked how long we were there for and said we should go on the California road trip. That’s how we told him that we’d been travelling for 4.5 weeks already and only just made it to Dallas, which led into where we were, what hockey we’d seen in Canada (mentioned Scott and Brayden again) etc.

He asked us how we liked today’s game, because we got to see some really good hockey – and it flowed from the discussion about hockey in Canada compared to the US. I told him “The Stars game was great and the crowd was a lot louder than it was last time and I see there’s a strip show at one end of the rink now!”

He grinned and said, “Oh yeah, the porn.”

We break this blog post to take a moment – and smack Sam on the arm as he groans again while I explain to you what I’m talking about. Some hockey teams in the NHL have what are called “Ice Girls”. They’re female ambassadors of the team, and every year the teams have Ice Girl auditions for the IG Teams. The girls that can skate go out on the ice during tv timeouts to “clean up the snow”, so they skate out with big scrapers and shovel up all the snow the teams have created during the game and dump them into bins and take it off the ice. They serve a purpose and it’s something for the guys to look at. No problem there. Our Dallas Stars Ice Girls wear black crushed velvet legging trackpants and a short sleeved midriff top with the Stars logo on it. They’re classy and sexy and all things nice.

But now, we also have Stars Cheerleaders. HOHMYGOD. I can’t believe it. Seriously. It’s a team of 7 girls, who stand on a balcony by JeffK, the Stars’ DJ/Music Director, and have pompoms and everything. Now that’s fine. Except they aren’t dressed like the Ice Girls. They wear the midriff tops, what I call bum-covers (spanky pants) and knee high black socks. Which, I don’t think is quite appropriate for an ice rink, but it’s no different to the Cowboys cheerleaders I guess. My issue with the Cheerleaders is not only the “dance moves” which honestly are only missing the stripper pole, I mean honestly, these moves are what you see on stage in a strip joint! I couldn’t believe it! And what made it worse was that it was plastered all over the jumbotron! Now, this is a massive HD cube of television screens. You can’t miss it, and you can’t help but look at it! There are children in this arena. This is marketed as a family event. What the hell are they doing putting the strippers front and centre on the jumbotron?! And the fact that they can’t “dance” in time with each other is just phenomenally bad.

I got the feeling that Razor agreed with my sentiments about the jumbotron thing because from what he said, a number of people had made comments about it, and none of them were complimentary.

Anyway with that aside, we talked about Marty, and I told Razor that he should impart his wisdom to Marty on the shootout after he told us how he was always good at them when he was playing hockey (he was a goaltender before he retired, played mostly in the AHL but did play a few games for the Hartford Whalers before they moved to Raleigh, North Carolina and became the Carolina Hurricanes).

I gave Razor his tie, which was black, silver and green with kangaroos on it and he too was rather impressed and surprised and thankful. He said he’d wear it for their next game, and I said to him, “Actually, if you could wear it for the Sharks game on December 11, that would be awesome because it’s Sam’s birthday!”

That took us into a discussion about how he could remember December 11 to wear the tie. I was a little incredulous. I said to him, “C’mon, it’s not that hard! Kangaroos and sharks are what Australia is famous for! Kangaroos on the land, and being eaten by sharks in the water!”

He was a little confused at first, but then he said, “Oh wait, I see where you’re going with this. How about kangaroos, they’re Australian, just like Greg Norman, he’s Australian, he’s the Great White Shark, Shark Tank, San Jose Sharks. I get it!”

He said he’d try to remember it, but he thanked us again and put it in his bag then and there. Then we said goodbye, shook hands and went our separate ways.

**SIGH** I love those guys!

Afterwards, we met up with Michele, Karin, Julie, Jeff and a few others outside who were waiting to see us! Hugs hello were all around and then we worked out who was coming where and headed back to the car to go to dinner.

We had dinner with Michele (we call her “Val” which is short for her surname) Jeff, Julie (who ended up taking Rhonda’s ticket for the Mavs game because she had to go back to work), and Jen at this tex-mex place they love to go to. It was a fun time! We had enchiladas but I don’t think they agreed with me too well because I wasn’t well later. Thankfully, I didn’t throw up but there were moments on the drive back to San An that we thought I was going to! But we’ll get to that.

After dinner, we went to the Dallas Mavericks Vs Atlanta Hawks NBA game. I was the only person of the four of us that went that actually wanted to be there, so I got outvoted and we left at the end of the first period, but since the game started at 8pm instead of 7pm like we thought, we would have had to leave early anyway. The Mavs game was a completely different experience to a hockey game.

While the Stars play rock music at their games, the Mavs play hip hop. While the Stars will fill the AAC, the crowd isn’t usually very noisy. The Mavs did fill out the AAC (I think the cheaper tickets have something to do with that), and their crowd was very noisy. The Mavs also have cheerleaders, but they weren’t as slutty, and at least danced in time with each other. While they did have some risque moves, it was nothing that you wouldn’t see on So You Think You Can Dance as a choreographed routine. And while they had bikini tops on, their pants were full length, so they didn’t look like sluts either. Man, I wished the Stars had taken a leaf out of their book. The NBA experience was a good one for me, and while basketball isn’t my favourite sport, I’d rather watch it than NFL or cricket any day. I did get a little bored with the play of the game, but that’s just because it’s so slow compared to hockey. And the squeaking of their sneakers would give me a headache if we’d stayed for the whole game – even in the rafters of 322. But still, I enjoyed the game – what we saw of it.

We headed out at the end of the first, and by then it was 8:50pm. We wanted to catch up with our friend Jesse (who I call “Jessebean” … not that he knows it, though if he’s reading this, he will now) who was playing hockey that night but his game finished before we could get there, and he was going to a party of a friend of his that he’d promised he’d go so we didn’t get to see him. I did get to speak to him on the phone though, which was awesome, and he said that they won, 3-1, which is brilliant, because Jesse is the goaltender! We’ll definitely catch up with Jesse later this week.

Instead, we headed back to Jen’s, and waited for Val and her wonderful husband Nathan to arrive (they went to Jesse’s game) and hang out for an hour before we had to start the long, treacherously straight road journey back to San Antonio for our day at SeaWorld!

It was awesome to catch up with friends and just laugh, which is what we always do when we’re with our friends from Dallas. They’re just as nutty and insane and gutter-minded as we are. It’s fabulous, and always a good time.

At ten, we finally stood up and made our way to the car. The drive back was just horrendous. Both of us were exhausted, and Sam ended up having to drive most of the way. I drove for about 50 minutes to an hour and Sam slept for about 45 minutes while I drove, but he didn’t feel like he’d slept at all. I wasn’t well, and had my second asthma attack for the day while in the car. I’d managed to get some sleep but it was stagnated and restless. We were so happy to reach San Antonio and fall into bed to pass out.

Four hours sleep before we get up. Fun times!!!

Today dawned dry – thankfully – and chilly but not too bad. We got up at 8-8:30am and headed downstairs. Papa Short had gone out – presumably for work – but as Mama Short works the night shift (she’s a nurse), she was due home any moment. So we waited in the lounge room downstairs for her to get home before we had our second reunion in 12 hours. Mama Short was so happy to see us again – which is always lovely – and of course did what any “southern mother” would do – fed us breakfast!

We caught up while we ate and after breakfast, Sam and I headed upstairs for showers and directions to a mall in San Antonio, while Mama Short went to bed. We found where we were going, got clean and then went back downstairs to borrow the phone, only to meet up with Papa Short. So we sat down for a good half an hour and had a chat!

It was nearly 12 I think by the time we got on the road, but that’s okay. We weren’t in any rush at all. We found the nearest Starbucks and Sam got a no fat venti latte with an extra shot, while I got a grande peppermint mocha. As usual, while we were waiting, Sam and I were bantering back and forth. The barista behind the counter, after she gave us our coffees asked, “Are y’all from Australia? Cuz I thought y’all are from Australia or New Zealand?” And that just launched a 10 minute discussion about Australia and NZ and The Flight Of The Conchords who this girl just loved, and how Australians and Kiwis really do rib each other like brothers and sisters do.

From there, it was fun finding an entrance onto the I10, which we found a few miles down the access road we were on, and then we were flying! We went past this massive outdoor mall called “The Rim” which I managed to get photos of on our way back home to the Shorts, and then past the strip of shops on our way into San Antonio township. OMG It’s huge. Everything is bigger in Texas. The roads are bigger, the turnpikes are bigger, the buildings are bigger… it’s just amazing.

We found North Star Mall and easily got a park and headed inside. Our first stop was somewhere to eat but we ducked into Champs which was a sports store. No NHL. It’s Texas, so we weren’t expecting it but it’s still disappointing to see. Lids, which is a store that sells nothing but hats, like baseball caps?, no NHL hats. Every other sport but. And right by the food court was The Official Dallas Cowboys Store. The merchandise in there is phenomenal. Didn’t buy any because it’s football and let’s face it, they don’t need to give Jerry any more money. But still, I wish the Stars had the range of merchandise that the Cowboys had.

Chik-Fil-A was for lunch. It was a grilled piece of chicken, no coating, and salad on a wholemeal bun. And lattice fries. HOMG SO GOOD. Beside Chik-Fil-A was a guy dressed as a cow, wearing a santa suit. A little creepy. Especially when he waved at us. *SHUDDERS*

After lunch, we wandered through the mall, which honestly took like 2 hours. We stopped into Build-A-Bear to make sure there really were Stars uniforms – Sam said that I could get one in Dallas!! – and I went through and selected which bear I was going to buy eventually. I’m so excited about it I can hardly stand it!

Then we went on the hunt for shoes for me. I’ve wanted to replace my sketchers for ages. I bought them in Dallas when we were here 3 and a half years ago, and have worn them nearly every day since. They’re still wearable but I really want to get another pair (or two if we can afford it!) while we’re hear because they are so much cheaper here than back home. The pair I had cost me $60 in 2006. When we got home, we found them at Lorna Jane at Chermside for $120! HOMG! We had no success. Dillards didn’t sell them, JCPenny were out of stock for the sizes I wanted, and Macy’s didn’t sell the model I wanted. Shoeless, we headed back to the Shorts, to wait for Amber to finish work.

When we got home, there were wild deer in the front yard. SWEAR TO TPTB! Sam didn’t drive slow enough and spooked them away but there was another herd already in the neighbours yard and we got some photos of them. They’re just unbelievable. Apparently there’s a herd of about 30 deer in the area. No one hunts them, but sometimes they do get hit by a car. They’re just beautiful!

After Amber got home from work, since Mama Short got called in for work tonight, we weren’t doing a family dinner at home. So Amber, Grady, Sam and I headed out to Mimi’s Cafe for a lovely dinner, and an even longer chat. The four of us get along so, so well, and are so silmilar it’s kind of funny. There’s a reason Amber and I call ourselves sisters. We’re almost exactly the same in personality. It’s awesome. Anyway after dinner, we headed back to their apartment (which is attached to Mama and Papa Short’s house), and talked about computer games, and life and everything in between. We tried to lure Jena over, another friend, but she never showed. We’ll catch up with her soon.

By midnight though, it was time for Sam and I to head back upstairs and for Amber to get to bed since she has to work tomorrow. Tomorrow we’re heading to the Zoo, the Sketchers store and hopefully, the Riverwalk at night. Friday, we’ll do the Alamo and hopefully catch up with our friend Tammy. So much to do, so little time!!!

Saturday dawned to be cold and lazy. The whole family was up by the time Sam and I dragged ourselves out of bed. Bella’s still sick, and Terry was making pancakes for everyone else! They were good too! Since Bella wasn’t well, Terry decided to stay home with her and the twins instead of coming to Prince Albert with us – which was definitely understandable. Sam agreed that if he’d been in Terry’s shoes, he would have stayed with me too. I think Bobby still isn’t feeling too great either.

Since we were gearing up for a trip to PA (Prince Albert) this afternoon, we took the morning pretty easy and just hung out at home, catching up online and charging the batteries on my camera. By 3:30pm though, we were on the road on our own. Terry had printed out the directions from googlemaps, and did up ones with pretty pictures too just in case – though it still didn’t stop us from missing the turn but I’ll get to that later.

We stopped at Starbucks for Sam to get his caffeine fix and to get some dosh out of the ATM so we can, you know, eat dinner, and by 4pm we were on the road again, like Shrek and Donkey off on another adventure. We didn’t hum On The Road Again but we did do some pretty hardcore singing to Sam’s 80s playlist on his Ipod. WHAT?! It’s good music!

Anyway, we passed a lot of farmland, a number of frozen lakes, the Mennonite Museum of Canada – not sure what that is but I suspect it’s another religious related place – and a number of small farming towns before we got to our destination.

Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

Since many of you reading this blog won’t know, I’ll tell you a little bit about this city. PA is the 3rd largest city in Saskatchewan, with approximately 34000 people in 2006 (according to the city’s website – I’m not just pulling these facts out of thin air!), and daily temperatures can range from 17C to -29C on average depending on the time of year. It was -10C tonight at the game, and apparently that was quite “balmy” for this time of year according to the locals!

Most importantly though, Prince Albert is the home of the Prince Albert Raiders. Why is this important? I’m glad you asked (even if you didn’t!). It’s important, because Mike Modano played in the WHL with the Prince Albert Raiders from 1986-1989. He was drafted 1st round, 1st overall by the Minnesota North Stars while he was a PA Raider. This was the final step in the Mike Modano Pilgimage (NO I’m not going to be stalking his home town in Michigan, that’s just … *shudders* CREEPY. I like to keep my stalking tendancies to a … professional level – or at least to wherever Mike played hockey).

Terry graciously organised with someone in the Saskatoon Blades office for there to be free tickets for us (and Terry and Bella too but since they didn’t come, the Raiders just gave us the 2 tickets) which was awfully kind of them, and completely above and beyond everything. We had dinner at Boston Pizza first before heading over to the Art Hauser Center, which is the home of the PA Raiders. When we got inside, there was a little hitch with getting our tickets – they hadn’t printed them! We tried Will Call first, and then Sam called Terry who said to ask at the Ticket Office which we did. The lovely ladies behind the counter went on a hunt, and after a phone call and another search they came back with two tickets. Meanwhile, we chatted to the lovely lady behind the counter who said we sounded like we came from Australia! Of course, we said we did, and that just went into another launch of how we know hockey and why we came all that way. Two words: Mike Modano.

After our tickets had been sorted, printed and received in our hands, we went through the doors, had them scanned by a lovely gentleman with a handheld scanner (it’s all so high-tech these days!) and then into the Merchandise Store we went! Every hockey game we’ve been to, we’ve purchased an official game puck, so we needed one of those. Sam, though, had been squirreling away some spare cash that we’ve had left over from previous days, in the name of the PA Fund so that I could get some merchandise if I wanted. In the end, I got a PA Raiders hat, a shot glass to add to our ever growing collection, a lanyon, the game puck and the WHL Official Statistics Book.

While we were deciding on what we wanted, we were talking to the lady behind the counter, and she also picked our accents, and asked why we were in PA. I told her that I was a huge Mike Modano fan and had wanted to come to PA to see the Raiders play for 17 years, and finally we were there to do just that! She was so nice, and since we had come all that way she gave us the Season Ticket Holder’s 10% discount on the merchandise. We thanked her profusely and then headed into the arena to try and find our seats. We ended up down a corridor that we weren’t sure we should walk down because the PA Raiders Locker Room door was on it, but it was shut so we kept walking. Then we came across the PA Raiders team photographs and their team records plaques. We took great delight in finding not only Mike Modano, but also Dave Tippett (former Dallas Stars coach) on the walls as well. Mike looked so young and innocent – it gave me such a chuckle to see him!

We continued down the hall and found ourselves at the entrance to the ice. Oops! Luckily there was also a stairway to the top of section 12, so we took that and then went in search of section 16. We found it, and then found our seats Row G, seats 10 & 11. Centre Ice. Perfect viewing. We were amazed and humbled. It was so lovely of the Blades front office to get us the best seats in the house. The PA Rink was different to any other arena we’d been in. Like Moose Jaw, it only had 1 tier of seats and then the “suites” (though there were more suites in MJ than in PA), and the rink seats around 3200 people. There were just over 1800 there tonight, so the turnout wasn’t that bad! The ceiling of the rink, however, was timber. Because the temperatures get to -40C in the winter, if they had metal instead of timber, they would shatter in the cold. Timber provides a flexibility to keep the structure standing when it’s buried under snow and well below freezing outside! Fascinating!

The PA Raiders wear black uniforms at home for the first half of the season and white at home for the second half. Their logo is the face of a pirate – who is called RILEY according to the back of the PA Mascot’s uniform. I’m assuming he’s Riley The Raider. Their black uniforms are highlighted with lime green bands on the sleeves and the bottom of the shirt, and white edging. It’s rather attractive actually, and like the Blades uniform, looks good in both the coloured and the white versions. I didn’t buy one though, as they were $129 each.

About halfway through the second period, a lady who had been doing the fan competitions during the time out breaks came and sat down next to Sam and asked, “Are you the Mike Modano fans from Australia?” which was when our stomachs sank and our cheeks reddened.

Sam busted me and said that I was the Mike Modano fan – but he was wearing his Stars jersey too so she knew we were both Stars fans, and she laughed with delight. “Who dobbed us in?” I asked her and she said the lady from the merchandise store did. OH WELL! Busted. She asked what we were doing there, etc, and then asked if we would mind playing a game for a prize – a $10 voucher to Subway. Since we eat there anyway, we thought what the heck and agreed. The Raiders were up at this point 4-1 over the Hurricanes, who must have been worn out from the shootout the Blades took them to the night before.

When it was time for our stint on the Jumbotron/Scoreboard, she mentioned that we were Mike Modano fans from Australia, was that correct, which Sam refused to answer but I just jumped in with a “YES!” and the crowd started clapping. Then we played this game where to win, we had to pick which of the three eggs had the cup of coffee inside at the end of the spinning. Sam looked at me when it stopped, I looked at him, and he said to me, “I think it’s 3.” I thought it was 2, and the crowd was calling out 2 as well, so he said to me to answer it. So I said, “2!” and it was right! We won the gift certificate! Then the host mentioned about the Grey Cup final tomorrow that the Saskatchewan Roughriders are playing in against the Montreal Aoulettes and asked us if we could do the Aussie football chant of AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE and the crowd would do the OI OI OI part. Which we said, “SURE!”

So we did! AND THEY DID! It was pretty awesome.

For the rest of the game, I ended up talking to the ladies sitting next to me, who were quite interested in us being there from Australia and our trip and everything. They were quite lovely, and both were season ticket holders who I think had been season ticket holders for like 20 years because they mentioned that they didn’t appreciate Mikey when he’d been on the Raiders team, but wow-ee had he done well.

The Raiders were a very exciting team to watch. They played a diamond system on the penalty kill, which is unusual as most teams will use the box system on the PK. They did the diamond system very, very well. They were also extremely good at passing tape to tape. Only in the third period when the boys were tired from the Hurricanes consistently hard-hitting checks and fights did they start to miss their passes. By that stage, though, they were so far ahead that it didn’t really matter anyway. I was impressed with #20 and #22 – both had been targeted by the Hurricanes all game and it took until at least towards the end of the second for either of them to crack and start a fight. #22 was also a brilliant skater too. Their goaltender was solid in net, which was also good to see. Unlike a lot of the teams we’ve watched play on this trip, the Raiders had set plays which they used consistently. And they worked tonight, with them winning the game in regulation 6-1.

It was an awesome night at the hockey and to add to the wonder of the night, the PA Raiders at the end of every game do what our Bluetongues do, and salute their crowd by tapping on the ice with their sticks and then raising them in ovation. It was quite heartwarming to see, and something I’ve missed about our own hockey league. On our way out we got photos of the team photos that had Mike in them, and the honour boards in the hallways before going out to the car.

Holy crap was it cold outside! It was about -12C in PA, because it was -8C when we got back to Saskatoon about an hour and a half later, and it’s usually about 4-5 degrees colder in PA than in Saskatoon. The ride home seemed to fly though, so it was okay. No snow, but plenty of black ice on the roads. We made it back in one piece.

Tomorrow is the Grey Cup final – a big day in Canada – the CFL Finals. And then? Who knows, but I suspect a lot of time tomorrow will be spent in front of the TV!

Today we didn’t go for our walk in the morning because it was just too cold to get out of bed. Instead, we slept in a little and went downstairs just as the kids were finishing breakfast. After their morning nap, the five of us (Bella, Bobby, Tommy, Sam and I) piled into the minivan and headed out to the CUC to meet up with Terry, who was at work. Terry had arranged with Spike, the equipment manager of the Saskatoon Blades, to give us a locker room tour!

It was pretty awesome! The Blades locker room has been recently rennovated because the CUC is hosting the IIHF World Junior Championships for Ice Hockey from December 26-January 5. Team Canada will have the Blades locker room for the tournament. Their locker room was already set up for the game tonight, with the boys’ jerseys hanging up, their protective gear already in place on their lockers and their skates ready to be sharpened. Their goaltender, Steven Stanford, had just gotten his new helmet back, with it’s paint job on it. It’s pretty awesome. On one side he has his tattoos that are on his shoulders and arms and the other side he has Will Farrell in costume from Blades Of Glory. He wore it in the game tonight and it looked awesome!

The Blades locker room has blue carpet that matches their uniforms, and their logo is on a large thick rug, so they can easily remove it when they have to. Just like all other hockey teams though, the boys do not walk on the logo. They walk around it. Bobby, who just loves hockey, climbed up into someone’s locker, so we got a photo of him just sitting there. He’ll be there in about 13-14 years time, no doubt!

From there, we saw where they store their equipment – a wall of sticks and just from floor to ceiling of shoulder pads, gloves, elbow pads, shin guards, you name it, it was there. We were also shown both the team’s jerseys. Unlike the NHL who wear colours at home and whites on the road (unless they’re in their third jersey), the WHL plays colours for half the season and whites for the other half. This year they’re wearing their blues until December and then Whites for the end of the season. Their jerseys are new for this season – a new colour scheme and logo (though the colours aren’t that different from previous seasons), and they’re actually a rather attractive jersey.

From there, it was their medic room – where the boys get massages, strappings for injuries, hot tub for aching muscles, and stitches for cuts on the ice, then their shower/bathroom area, their down room where they each have a locker with their photo on it, where they hang their street clothes and can sit down on the leather chairs and watch tv and chillax, and finally their exercise/weights room. It had 12 bikes, a leg press, weights, all sorts of expensive and impressive equipment. The boys train in there for a minimum of an hour and a half every day – seven days a week – unless they’re on the road, at which I assume they would use whatever gym is at their hotel/visiting city’s arena if they’re staying overnight.

Spike was rather interested in us being from Australia and being hockey fans. Of course the inevitable embarrassing question of “how did you get into hockey” got asked – god I hate that question – and we discussed the AIHL and the NHL and what games we’d seen in the WHL on our trip. We were lucky to be going to the game that night to watch the Blades take on the Lethbridge Hurricanes so we wished Spike his team good luck and headed back upstairs to put the kids in the car and head home because Bel wasn’t feeling well.

When we got home, Sam and I had Timmy’s for lunch (good ol’ Timmys!) and then after the kids went down for their afternoon nap, Bel and I both passed out as well. Only Sam stayed awake all afternoon. This damn cold just won’t go away!  I felt a little better after my nap though, which was great, and when Sam woke me up, it was time to get changed and head out to the rink for the Blades Vs Hurricanes game!

We were sitting in an empty suite, right next door to the TV cameras who put the action up on the scoreboard/jumbotron that hangs above the ice. With the boys, it’s easier to keep them contained to a room that they can crawl around in and things like that. Tommy spent most of the night with Terry, but Bobby – who just loves hockey – spent most of the game on either Bella’s, Sam’s or my lap, eyes glued to the action on the ice!

There were a couple of scraps on the ice, which was awesome to watch, and the Lethbridge defense was awesome. Their goaltender though – not impressed. If you’re playing semi-pro, you shouldn’t be flinching at the puck coming towards you when you’re a goaltender. You’re wearing kevlar, it won’t get through the helmet, mate! Might dent it, but it won’t get through it! The Blades were a little off, trailing 0-2 at one point before they stepped up their game and evened it up with 5 minutes left in the third. Terry said we were cursed because the game in Moose Jaw went to a shootout, and if this game went to a shootout, he wasn’t taking us to another game again! It did end up going to a shootout, but with 2 minutes left in the game, Bella’s phone started ringing.

It was Kirk, calling to organise with Sam and I to go out after the game! We told him that it would probably go to OT maybe a shootout so he was going to meet us at Bel and Terry’s in 30 minutes. Then it was time to watch the action on the ice again. I had Bobby on my lap, and he was just glued to the action on the ice, cheering when the Blades had the puck and putting his hands in his hair his jaw dropping when Lethbridge had it. It did go to OT, and no one scored, so it went to a Shootout. When the Blades’ skater scored, Bobby cheered along with the crowd – SO ADORABLE! The Blades ended up winning the shootout, so it ended 3-2.

Kirk picked us up from Bel and Terry’s and we headed over the river to The Fox And Hound for beer and wings (though I had scotch and coke – turns out you can get scotch & coke in Canada, so maybe it’s just a US thing?) and shooting the breeze. The wings were good. We had Buffalo, Hot & Honey and Lemon & Cracked Pepper. SO GOOD. It was just awesome to hang out with Kirk and catch up and talk hockey, and life and Canada, Australia, kids, just everything. Kirk is just an awesome, awesome guy. After F&H, we headed downtown to Broadway Street, and checked out the band playing at Roxy’s. They were pretty good actually, a group called Seven Straight. Apparently they’re on MySpace. Sam’s going to check them out. We ended up getting home around 2am.

Tomorrow we’re going out to PA (Prince Albert), which is a pilgrimage for me, since it’s where Mike Modano played in the WHL, the Prince Albert Raiders. I’m not sure if Bel and Terry and the kids are coming because Bel’s still sick but we’ll have to see tomorrow!

Sam and I slept in until 9am this morning. I know, but it was cold! Actually it was colder yesterday at -6 than it was this morning at -4. But still, there was ice on the river and steam coming out of our mouths with every breath. We took a different route this time though and walked up McPherson Street to 8th. We were in search of Victoria Ave, but it turns out that Vic Ave goes the same direction as Broadway which is really the street we were after. So we walked a little further today. But that’s okay. The girls behind the counter at Starbucks on Broadway remembered us from yesterday and thought we were insane for walking in these temps! And they’re LOCALS. Heh. Weak sauce.

Anyway the sun was up and shining on our way home so it felt a little warmer. The boys down for their morning nap by the time we got home, and Terry had left for work, so Sam and I had some breakfast and got on the net for a while before we had showers and headed out to the Credit Union Center after the boys had had lunch. Today they were relaying the ice for the WHL team that plays at the CUC – the Saskatoon Blades. Since Terry works for CUC, we get a little more access than the everyday person does, and were invited in to watch them get the rink ready for the ice.

The guys who were preparing the surface told us that first they paint the concrete floor white, then they mark out the lines (blue and red) on the rink with this stuff that looks like crepe paper. It gets stuck to the ground by water and the concrete being frozen. Then they lay out the sponsors’ logo ads and stick them down, mark out the hashes on the face off circles and paint the goalie creases blue. Once all of that has been done, and the paint has all dried, they then hose the surface and freeze it, then do that again a few times, and then zamboni flood the surface a few times. They also had to reinstall the pine benches for the teams and install all the glass panels. It was quite interesting to watch them lining things up and sticking them down and painting the surface. There were a team of 12 working on it – the Blades ice surface is covered in ad space. I’ve never seen so many sponsors ads on the ice before.

After we left the CUC, we headed to Costco, which is this store that sells most things in bulk – kind of like Campbell’s Cash and Carry but a little different. Anyone can be a member of Costco – you just pay the annual fee. There were so many people there at 3pm today it wasn’t funny. What was funny was what we thought was the Amish couple filling up the rented horse float and gigantic F650 with the community’s food for the month. Seriously, they had to have like 100 cases of Pepsi in that thing. We thought it was hilarious because we didn’t think the Amish used cars. Or drank Pepsi.

Turns out they don’t. According to Terry, they would have been Hutterites, who are similar to the Amish, but enjoy some modern conveniences, like electricity, cars and Pepsi. They really enjoy their Pepsi! He also told us some other things, but we’ll choose to keep that off the forum out of respect.

Anyway we had a quiet afternoon back at the house while the boys had their nap. And after dinner, we watched Glee on tv! Plus Bella DVRed Project Runway Canada for me because I’ve never seen it before and since I watch both the Australian and US shows I’m exceedingly curious! Right now, we’re watching Tampa Vs Toronto on tv, and Sam’s got the Stars Vs Blues streaming on his computer. Life is good in Canada, people!

Today we (Sam, myself, Bella, Terry and the rugrats, Bobby and Tommy) packed up pretty early (out the door by around 11am) and headed to Regina (pronounced like vagina but with an R instead of a V). We’re staying overnight with their friends John, Lois and their two daughters Kyle and Erika. Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan and is 252kms away (2.5 hrs to drive). Moose Jaw, where we’re going to a WHL game tonight, is another 30 minutes away.

Regina is smaller than Saskatoon and is the political capital of the province. It’s also where Terry grew up, so we got a pretty awesome tour of the town, and over the river. We got to John and Lois’ house, only to be greeted with Erica running around naked. She’s only 9 months older than the twins, so she’s in the everywhere. It’s a big deal at the moment because in the CFL (Canadian Football League), the Saskatchewan Roughriders are in the Western Conference Finals, which are being held tomorrow in Regina. If you’re not wearing “Roughrider Green” then you have no Rider Pride.

Clearly, we had no Roughrider Pride.

Anyway Lois and John are just lovely, lovely people and we had such a great time talking to them and their kids, and their huge collie x dog Kira and their cat (OH MAN!! ANOTHER CAT!) Warrick. Around 4pm we headed to Moose Jaw to have a look around town and get some dinner before the game.

Moose Jaw is just such an amazing town. It was instrumental during the prohibition era, as Al Capone used Moose Jaw to ship alcohol into Chicago via the train lines. The town is now only about 45-50,000 large but it sustains itself on tourism. It even has a public transport system. The buildings that are historically important have murals painted on them. It’s just beautiful. I wish it had been earlier than dusk because we weren’t able to get any photos of around town – or at least not many. We did get photos of Mack the Moose, who greets you as you drive into town. He’s a gigantic statue of a moose. Which is really amusing because moose aren’t native to the area!

Anyway the game we went to was the Moose Jaw Warriors vs the Brandon Wheat Kings. Normally I go for the home team if I don’t have an affiliation with who’s playing, but tonight both Sam and I were going for the Wheat Kings. On the Brandon Wheat Kings team is the Stars first round pick from the NHL Draft for 2009, Scott Glennie. And their captain is Brayden Schenn, the younger brother of defenseman Luke Schenn of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The tickets we had were for row 16, which was “the Gods” or “the Nosebleeds”, and with the really weird building shape (the roof is concaved, which is why the building is called “The Crushed Can”). The rink only seats 1800 people, and it would have been about half full. At the end of the first period, the twins were a little squirmy, so we took them down to the front row on the other side of the rink, right on the glass. They were a little easier to manage after that because they could see the action up close.

The boys on the ice though were great! The Wheat Kings scored first (Glennie, from Schenn and someone else – I can’t remember), then Moose Jaw evened it up. Once again, the skill wasn’t quite NHL quality but the passion and drive they have more than makes up for it. With only 4 minutes left in the game, the teams were tied 3-3. A Moose Jaw player broke his stick and then THREW his broken shaft at the Wheat Kings players, head high, causing enough of a distraction with the Wheat Kings bench screaming for a penalty, the Wheat Kings players screaming for a penalty, and no penalty was called. Moose Jaw scored during all of this, to give them the lead 4-3 with only 2 minutes left in the game.

At this point, Sam and I are calling bullshit, and the six of us are moving around to the end of the rink to make an easy exit with the boys. With only a few seconds left in the game, the Wheat Kings pull their goalie, and with the extra man on the ice, manage to score, to even it up to 4-4 and take it to overtime! SO EXCITING. The overtime period starts with both teams in the penalty box, so it’s 3-on-3 hockey for at least a minute and a half. No one scored, so it went to a shoot out. The Wheat Kings won, which was awesome. We were quite impressed with Glennie’s play.

On the way home, it started to rain, then sleet and then snow! And by the time we got to Lois and John’s it was snowing constantly. It was just amazing. Magical even.

It was also -10 outside so it was really cold. But still, I’ll take that kind of temperature for the payoff of snow. AWESOME.

We were up packing until 1:30am this morning before we fell into bed. This time we made sure we had everything. We were up at 7am, departed the hotel by 7:45am and were at O’Hare International Airport by 8am. We caught the Omega Shuttle from O’Hare to Midway – much cheaper than a cab at $17pp. We had a lovely chat to this lady from Chicago who was going from O’Hare to Midway to pick up her car upon her return from Florida.

We booked into our flight, went through security and then went in search of breakfast. It wasn’t the healthiest, but it was certainly delicious. It was this puff pastry scroll that was filled with mushrooms and cheese. After that, we headed towards our gate. Sam had to make do with McDonalds’ coffee. Poor baby.

The flight to Buffalo was relatively uneventful. It was half a planeful of people, and there was nothing to see thanks to the clouds. And we were sitting right on the wing – not such a great job in picking the seats on my behalf. My bad.

When we got to Buffalo, we made our way down to baggage claim and got our bags, and then tried to figure out how we were getting from Buffalo Niagra International Airport to the Greyhound Bus Station in downtown Buffalo. For $18 pp we could have taken another shuttle, but we talked to this lovely lady at the information counter who said for just $2.05 we could catch the 24 NFTA-Metra bus to downtown which would get us maybe a block or two away from the Bus Station – just to tell the driver that’s where we were going. $4.10 total is much better than $36, so that’s what we decided to do.

We didn’t realise that in order to get from the Airport to downtown, we had to go through Cheektowaga, which is basically the low-socioeconomic area of Buffalo. We went on a public bus through the ghetto, people! With our backpacks and everything. It was the scariest bus ride of our lives. We didn’t talk because we didn’t want to give away our accents. We just looked out the window at the houses. Sam saw a prostitute on the street corner, and a drug deal going down outside a drug house. Yup, really living in the fast lane now!

We did survive the bus ride though, and the bus driver did manage to get us a block away from the Greyhound Bus Station. Once again there were revolving doors, but Sam found a normal door that he could open to get inside so we used that instead. We checked with the ticket counter if we had to do anything but she said no, since we already had our tickets. Our bus wasn’t until 6:30pm, but the lady behind the counter said the next bus was at 4:50pm and we could see the driver about catching that one if they have room. Since it was just before 3pm, we eagerly jumped at this opportunity. Sam went in search of sustenance while I watched the bags, and he came back with a croissant and a danish each, along with a cappuccino made from some powered concoction. There’s not much to choose from at a Greyhound Bus Station in Buffalo. And we were thankful that they had anything at all since we hadn’t eaten since 9:30am.

We ended up chatting to this nice old lady who was going from Buffalo to Niagra Falls on the bus to leave her husband for 2 months, why I don’t know. I didn’t ask. Thought it might be better that way. The 4:50pm bus arrived around 4:30pm, and the driver told us that we could by all means jump on his bus rather than waiting. Unfortunately for the old lady who was sitting beside us, this bus wasn’t going through Niagra, so she had to wait for the 6:30pm bus.

The process of going through customs via Niagra/Buffalo boarder is different to the West Coast of Canada. We were not given any customs declaration forms. We weren’t given any tags for our bags to put on them before we put them on the bus (I think this had to do with us printing out our ticket from home and bringing it with us). The border was literally 10 minutes drive from the bus station. We did go past the HSBC Arena, so we know what the building looks like. Anyway we get to the border, and we’re told to stay on the bus but gather our belongings. The driver gets off and unloads all the bags onto the curb. We then file off the bus, pick up our luggage, making sure we have all our belongings together and then file into the building. One by one (or travelling party by travelling party) we get called up to three counters, each stationed with a Customs Officer. He takes our passports, we have a conversation – in which we discuss hockey, our trip so far, where we’re going next and that Australia actually does have a national ice hockey league. He let us through no problems (we didn’t say anything about the Maple Leafs. Promise! We did mention we’re going to the Hockey Hall Of Fame tomorrow!) and told us to go get back on the bus.

When we did, I noticed that ooh, our bus has free Wi-Fi through Greyhound! So that’s what I’m updating this post on. Currently we’re somewhere on the way to Toronto, in Ontario. Man, it is good to be back in Canada!

We did have a great time in Chicago, and though the Supernatural leg of the trip is over, there’s so much more to look forward to, including seeing Bella, Terry and the rugrats on Thursday when we fly to Saskatoon, the Short Family in San Antonio, and our new friend Tammy, when we travel down there on December 1 and of course our crew in Dallas – Jen, Rhonda, Jesse, Kelly (and finally meet the infamous Pookie!), Clay, Harry, Karin, Val and Nathan, and Leni and meet up with Mickie, Frederick and Alex, as well as hopefully getting together at some point with my friend Wendy, who also lives in Dallas and is another Supernatural fan. And I definitely can’t forget about meeting up with my girl, Sue in Houston. We will make this happen!!

Anyway I’m not sure how much longer we’re on the bus for, so I’m going to sign off now and get this uploaded. If we do anything interesting tonight – which I doubt we will, we’re both knackered, I’ll add to this post, but if not – we have returned to Canada in one piece and are really looking forward to the Hockey Hall Of Fame in TO tomorrow, and then glass seats at the Buffalo Sabres Vs Florida Panthers game back in Buffalo! It’s gonna be a big one, folks!

ETA: Just passed a large accident on the highway with firetrucks putting out a fire on a massive roadtrain. Good times.

ETA 2: We got to Downtown Toronto, which is freakin’ huge, people! HUGE! (AND WE WENT PAST THE AIR CANADA CENTRE – MAPLE LEAFSSSSS!) Anyway we got off at the Toronto Bus Station for Greyhound. We looked around and tried to work out the public transport maps, but man were they confusing. So we followed a security guard and headed for the main building for the Bus Station and thank god their visitor information booth was still open! We asked the lovely lady behind the counter what the best way to get to Pearson International Airport was (our hotel has a free shuttle from the airport to the hotel, and we love the word FREE right now). She told us how to catch the subway and the bus to the airport and all it would cost us was a total of $2.75 each. BARGAIN. It helped when she said when you go through the shopping mall area, you’ll see a Tim Horton’s on the right – and we were like HOMG TIMMYS! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU WE HAVE BEEN SAVED!!! She found that rather funny.

Anyway we followed her instructions (catch the southbound subway from Dumas to St George, then get off and go down the stairs to catch the westbound train all the way to the end to Kipling, and THENNNNN go upstairs and walk to the END of the platform and catch the 192 Rocket to Pearson. Simple, right? And it was. It was just TEDIOUS with the bags on our backs. I’m so glad we decided to get hiking backpacks for our trip. I can’t even begin to imagine how tedious this trip would be with a normal suitcase and having to carry that around everywhere.

It was fun on the subway with a driver who was very fond of the accelerator… and heavy handed on the breaks! I was nearly flying everywhere with inertia, and Sam was just cracking up laughing at me. Some of the other passengers were too. But that’s okay! It was rather funny. We made it though, made it to Pearson, and figured out where the shuttles were. Then we had to go INSIDE and order the shuttle. Thankfully, by the time we got back out to where the shuttles pick people up from, it was just driving up. That was awesome. And we were ecstatic to see there’s a Subway literally outside the hotel’s front door. That’s awesome.

We checked into our hotel, room 504 – once again the number 9 follows us everywhere (5+0+4=9). But the best part is that our room comes with free wi-fi, and we can use it in our room! Anyway definitely time for bed!

ETA by Sam: Figured I would add, upon driving into Toronto on the bus tonight, one of the best things we saw was what Wendy and I have come to refer to as “Wendy Ho’s”. That’s one of those heavenly buildings that have a Wendy’s restaurant right beside a Timmy Ho’s. Lunch & Coffee in 1 spot… Wendy Ho’s, remember the name people, remember the name!