Mega-Exhaustion Monday
We had a crazy weekend and no real chance to rest after the Dallas trip, so I'm running on fumes today. Here are some pictures from our trip, though, which was excellent.
First off, here's Eli 10.6 in the arena, wearing his throwback jersey. That jersey got him plenty of love from other Penguins fans, and holy cow, there were thousands of them. There were as many people wearing Penguins jerseys as there were wearing Stars jerseys.
Here's a picture from the team introductions. We had terrific seats--14 rows off the glass--and it wasn't terribly expensive, because the Stars are still trying to rebuild their fan base (long story).
That's the man. Marc Andre-Fleury. Eli was glued to Fleury both periods that he was down at our end. I noticed two things that I'd never caught from watching on television. One, he adjusts his depth based on even the slightest movement of the puck, far more so than other goalies we've seen. Two, at every break he goes down in the butterfly and collapses on his pads in a deep stretch that makes him look like a turtle peeking out from his shell.
Fleury was terrific, like he's been all season, and made some sensational saves. He's quick like some kind of comic book superhero.
There's Geno taking a face-off. Words cannot describe how quick he is on the ice. He always looks like he's skating in an entirely different rink than the other guys, one they just can't reach. It was a real thrill to see him play in person.
Well, it was a real thrill to see all these guys in person. I'm sure we've seen 100+ games on t.v. in the last two years, so to see them up close was just great.
We were also quite lucky that the game itself was fantastic. The Penguins won 4-3 in a shootout, and the game was close and intense the whole way. Like hockey, in other words.
I've mentioned that the hotel was ridiculous (monkey-spanker extreme), but this is why we stayed there--that's the view of the arena from the hotel. It was literally less than two minutes from the front of the hotel to the front of the arena.
That still-life perfectly describes the hotel: square pen, kaleidoscope, and unnecessarily uniquely shaped Diet Coke bottle.
Seriously: a kaleidoscope in the room, on a little base that said "WISH" on it. The best part was that it was a shitty kaleidoscope, which perfectly describes the hotel: totally over-the-top, but not in a quality sense.
I puzzled over that Diet Coke bottle for a while before I realized its purpose: its dimensions enable more profitable storage in the mini-bar. And I'm sure it's not the only place that has them, but in combination with the other items, it was funny.
Here's one other thing that cracked me up: they had Pop Chips in the mini-bar. Pop Chips are delicious, and they're less than a dollar a bag at stores. Here? $7.
Hell, in this hotel, they had probably just been marked down from $10.
It was a wonderful trip, all in all. And I'm sure we're going back next year for the Penguins game.
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