Kristi
03-13-2006, 02:44 PM
Friday morning was an early wake up call for us! We left Arlington after picking up our friends at 6:30. We sailed through the border and even with rush hour traffic going into Vancouver and the snow and were at the airport by 8:15. Sue and I of course had to do some shopping in the airport!! We hit Tim Hortons for breakfast and off to the gate we went. We hung out watching sports in a lounge before our plane. We went to our gate and were looking for our other friends on our plane. We did not see them and we noticed there was a gate change. We were about a half hour from take off and had to get to the other end of the airport to get to the new gate. There were our friends sitting there wondering where we were. We got on the plane and off we went to PG! 49 minutes and we landed on the ground in Prince George!! (In my opinion the ONLY way to travel to PG!!) Yes is was COLD with lots of snow on the ground, but sunny.
We arrived at the hotel (don't take WHITE Taxi’s in PG!!! only the YELLOW Taxi’s!)checked our luggage on off to lunch we all went as our rooms were not ready yet. We went to a great restaurant, Rics Grill. We found out both hockey teams in town were staying at the Ramada where we were staying. The Vernon Vipers (BCHL) were in playoffs already. We checked into our rooms, called my friends in PG and hit Coachs Corner in the hotel for a few cold ones. My friends from PG joined us; it was nice to finally meet them both!!
Off to the game we went.............we met up wit TND at the rink and got our tickets. We walked around the arena to check it out. It is a nice arena!! We encountered the nicest fans as we walked around the arena. They do not allow beer in their stands so we found the beer garden downstairs and wondered if anyone knew it existed.
We had great seats just to the right of Leland. The fans around us were great. Too bad we were behind the net when Lammers scored his hat trick! One guy from Everett threw a hat and actually got it back from the ref. It was great to see our guys get such a great win in PG after not having the best of luck there in years past. The fans there were very quiet (they didn't have much to cheer about) and there maybe were 2500 people there.
After the game our friends shuttled us to the casino where none of us did well! We went back to our hotel and were warned once again not to go outside our hotel after dark by both our cab driver and the training staff. We hit coaches corner for a late dinner and some good banter with the training staff and Keith Gerhart.
Saturday found us shopping at the mall, which was a pretty good sized mall for PG. Not much to buy but we did look around. Our friend’s son who is 9 had a hockey tournament so Chad and I took off to go watch his game TND met us there. I had told them I would photograph the game for them. They lost the game but they are great kids who play hard, this was only their third loss this season. Dalyn is a defenseman and once he gets into the age group where he can start checking WATCH OUT! (They are not allowed to check) He's big kid for 9 and I have already told him Everett will take him in 7 years!! (Oh yeah he wore a Silvertips tshirt to the game.......what a sport.........oh he had has PG jersey over it but hey at least he wore it!! LOL!)
Our friends had us all over for dinner before the game. There were 10 of us in our group. I thought they were crazy for inviting us all for dinner! Dinner was FABULOUS!! It's not often you go on the road and get a GREAT home cooked meal. We all arrived at the game stuffed and ready for a nap.
PG honored their billets and player parents before the game and also did some year end awards. It delayed the game a bit but it was nice to see them honor the graduating players and introduce the billets and families.
The game didn’t go our way but the PG fans were happy as they are still in the hunt for a playoff spot. Esposito played well in net I thought. Hunter was a little pest on the ice!! Some of their players have already started with playoff hair by having bleach blonde Mohawks!
We hit coachs corner again after the game and stayed up pretty late visiting with our friends and laughing at the horrible karaoke.
Sunday was a travel day back home and it was pretty uneventful although the boarder back up was bad.
All in all it was a great trip and I am already looking forward to going back next year. The PG fans are GREAT! I didn’t meet one that was rude or not glad to see our fans there. What a great reception! I joked with most of them about the lack of visitors they get in PG! Thanks to all of you for making my trip and the rest of my group’s trip great. Can't wait to return the favor down here or come back next year!!
We arrived at the hotel (don't take WHITE Taxi’s in PG!!! only the YELLOW Taxi’s!)checked our luggage on off to lunch we all went as our rooms were not ready yet. We went to a great restaurant, Rics Grill. We found out both hockey teams in town were staying at the Ramada where we were staying. The Vernon Vipers (BCHL) were in playoffs already. We checked into our rooms, called my friends in PG and hit Coachs Corner in the hotel for a few cold ones. My friends from PG joined us; it was nice to finally meet them both!!
Off to the game we went.............we met up wit TND at the rink and got our tickets. We walked around the arena to check it out. It is a nice arena!! We encountered the nicest fans as we walked around the arena. They do not allow beer in their stands so we found the beer garden downstairs and wondered if anyone knew it existed.
We had great seats just to the right of Leland. The fans around us were great. Too bad we were behind the net when Lammers scored his hat trick! One guy from Everett threw a hat and actually got it back from the ref. It was great to see our guys get such a great win in PG after not having the best of luck there in years past. The fans there were very quiet (they didn't have much to cheer about) and there maybe were 2500 people there.
After the game our friends shuttled us to the casino where none of us did well! We went back to our hotel and were warned once again not to go outside our hotel after dark by both our cab driver and the training staff. We hit coaches corner for a late dinner and some good banter with the training staff and Keith Gerhart.
Saturday found us shopping at the mall, which was a pretty good sized mall for PG. Not much to buy but we did look around. Our friend’s son who is 9 had a hockey tournament so Chad and I took off to go watch his game TND met us there. I had told them I would photograph the game for them. They lost the game but they are great kids who play hard, this was only their third loss this season. Dalyn is a defenseman and once he gets into the age group where he can start checking WATCH OUT! (They are not allowed to check) He's big kid for 9 and I have already told him Everett will take him in 7 years!! (Oh yeah he wore a Silvertips tshirt to the game.......what a sport.........oh he had has PG jersey over it but hey at least he wore it!! LOL!)
Our friends had us all over for dinner before the game. There were 10 of us in our group. I thought they were crazy for inviting us all for dinner! Dinner was FABULOUS!! It's not often you go on the road and get a GREAT home cooked meal. We all arrived at the game stuffed and ready for a nap.
PG honored their billets and player parents before the game and also did some year end awards. It delayed the game a bit but it was nice to see them honor the graduating players and introduce the billets and families.
The game didn’t go our way but the PG fans were happy as they are still in the hunt for a playoff spot. Esposito played well in net I thought. Hunter was a little pest on the ice!! Some of their players have already started with playoff hair by having bleach blonde Mohawks!
We hit coachs corner again after the game and stayed up pretty late visiting with our friends and laughing at the horrible karaoke.
Sunday was a travel day back home and it was pretty uneventful although the boarder back up was bad.
All in all it was a great trip and I am already looking forward to going back next year. The PG fans are GREAT! I didn’t meet one that was rude or not glad to see our fans there. What a great reception! I joked with most of them about the lack of visitors they get in PG! Thanks to all of you for making my trip and the rest of my group’s trip great. Can't wait to return the favor down here or come back next year!!