North Dakota and Southern Manitoba

I’m all about timely blog posts. That’s why I’m finally writing about my time in North Dakota and southern Manitoba as part of my annual-ish hockey road trip…which happened more than a year ago. Better late than never, right? I mean, I wrote about eating in Winnipeg and attending the Pittsburgh Penguins-Jets game last year, so that was somewhat timely!

Besides attending a hockey game in every NHL city, another life goal is to visit all 50 states. So as part of visiting Winnipeg to see a Jets hockey game, we decided that we had to find a reason to go to North Dakota, which is a short drive away. The initial idea of last year’s hockey trip was to attend a Winnipeg Jets game and a University of North Dakota hockey game. Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work unless we made the trip in the middle of winter (which we didn't want to do). So instead, we attended a UND football game. I mean, of course you go to a college football game when you’re in North Dakota!

So let's start with the drive from Winnipeg to Grand Forks, North Dakota. Do you know what is between the Winnipeg suburbs and the Manitoba/North Dakota border? Not much though now that I’ve driven in Iceland, the area between Winnipeg and Grand Forks is a metropolis. So highlights of Southern Manitoba:

Hemp Oil Canada! After probably about 25 miles of driving through nothing after leaving the Winnipeg suburbs, we passed the Hemp Oil Canada factory. (Apparently, the company is now known as Fresh Hemp Foods.) There were (and I assume still are) also a series of homes across the highway from the factory. While I didn't think that there were still company towns, Ste. Agathe, Manitoba may just be one. According to WikiPedia, the population of Ste. Agathe in 2021 was 643. Feel like at least half of the population has some sort of affiliation with Hemp Oil Canada,

After another 20 minutes of nothing, we came across Morris, Manitoba (population approximately 2,000), home of the annual Manitoba Stampede which seems to take place in July of each year. Would I like to attend a rodeo in Manitoba someday? Yes. Will it ever happen? Extremely unlikely.

After another half hour of nothing, we reached the US border. When we entered the United States and returned to Canada later in the day, the border control seemed confused by our visit. Why were two guys from Virginia and another from New York crossing the border driving a vehicle with a Manitoba license plate? The concept of a rental car seemed to escape them. 

We finally arrived in Grand Forks, and after a stop at the UND bookstore to buy some souvenirs (meaning T-shirts for my kids), we made it to the Alerus Center for the football game between the University of North Dakota and University of Northern Iowa. It’s a somewhat odd arena/stadium. It’s more of a field house. There are stands on each side with no or limited seating in the end zones. I know you really don't care about a recap of a football game that took place over a year ago, but I have some pictures and videos to share. 

I liked how the teams shook hands before the game. Don’t remember ever seeing that before.

We went to a late lunch / early dinner at a place called Smiling Moose. It was fine. However, a few days after I returned home, I learned that there was a Ground Round only a few miles from the stadium. Ground Round was one of my favorite restaurants growing up in Pittsburgh, and there are only a few remaining. Not going to Ground Round was the only regret of the trip.

Around the corner from Smiling Moose is the Grand Forks curling club. The door was open, so we walked right in. There was one guy there setting up the place for the start of the curling season which was a few weeks away. He was super gracious in letting us walk around. 

On the drive back to the hotel, we stopped at the St. Vital Curling Club, founded in 1933. This Winnipeg curling club has members that won Olympic medals! I think we hoped that we would be able to try curling ourselves, but there were league competitions going on, so we just watched for a few minutes and left.

A few more pictures from Winnipeg. Did you know that Winnie the Bear, later Winnie the Pooh, is named for Winnipeg?

Live From Winnipeg: Jets-Penguins Review

My friend Christian and I are attempting to attend a National Hockey League game in every city with a team. While our annual hockey road trips haven’t been as annual lately (thanks to kids and Covid), we’re closing in on our goal. This year, joined by our friend Jason, we visited Winnipeg along with North Dakota. I already wrote about our dining experience in Winnipeg and will write a separate post about being a tourist in Winnipeg, our time in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and how we confused both American and Canadian border agents. This post focuses on the Winnipeg Jets-Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game. Please note that there are plenty of non-hockey related items, so please continue reading even if you’re not a hockey fan.

Let’s start with scheduling this trip. Our initial idea was to attend a Jets game as well as a University of North Dakota hockey game. Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out for a UND hockey game though we did incorporate a visit to a University of North Dakota football game instead. Because why wouldn't you go to a UND football game when you have the chance? Fortunately, the timing matched up with seeing the Jets face my hometown team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. I figured out that it's been over a decade since I attended my last Penguins game. In the pre and early Alexander Ovechkin era in Washington, it was really easy to get tickets to Pens-Caps games. That changed when the Caps started being good, and ticket prices got a lot more expensive. And while I go back to Pittsburgh at least once or twice a year, I haven't been to PPG Paints Arena, except to see the Harlem Globetrotters. This is a long way of writing that I was very excited to see Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in person again.

Trying to be a gracious tourist, I didn't want to walk around Winnipeg and the arena wearing Penguins gear. However, I wanted to show that I am from Pittsburgh for people who might understand.

Even though there were a lot more people in Penguins gear than I expected (I forgot that Crosby is a national hero in Canada), exactly zero people commented on my shirt. 

Going with the Jets (and Top Gun) theme, I liked that the home team hits the ice to Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins.

That's Kenny Loggins!

For no apparent reason, the Jets have two mascots. The first is Benny, who served as the team's mascot in the 80s and 90s before the team moved to Arizona and is now the secondary mascot. Benny is named for the former team owner Ben Hatskin and for the song Bennie and the Jets because nothing represents Sir Elton John's longstanding ties to Winnipeg like a blue mascot with a giant red nose and mohawk.

The second mascot is Mick E. Moose, which may be one of the worst names in mascot history and seems like a Disney lawsuit waiting to happen. The silhouette of Mick E. visiting our section might give you nightmares!

When the Jets score a goal, the arena blasts Takin' Care Of Business by Bachman-Turner Overdrive (along with the goal horn). Fun fact: the band is from Winnipeg, so this song makes perfect sense. The mascot really should be called BTO rather than Benny. Anyway, after the initial playing of the song, the arena staff figure out who scored the goal, and each player has their own individual song. It's a very cool idea that I haven't seen before. While one player had your standard AC/DC goal celebration song and the others weren't very memorable, Adam Lowry's goal song is Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter which is certainly a choice. 

The Jets have a house band called Mach 10 that perform between periods. At one point during one of their sets, the lead singer announced that they were going to play a song that is a fan-favorite and represents Winnipeg. Was it a BTO song? Bennie and the Jets? If you guessed Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer, you win!

I appreciate Winnipeg making me and others from Pittsburgh feel like home.

Mid-way through the second period, a chant of "Where is Rutger?" emerged throughout the entire arena. Rutger McGroarty was the Jets 1st round draft pick in 2022. While I don't know the entire story, it seems that Rutger never wanted to play in Winnipeg, so the team traded him to the Penguins over the summer. The one thing you can't do as a player is say that you don't want to be there. Fans hate that more than anything else, so even those wearing Penguins gear joined the chant. I tried to answer the question by explaining that Rutger is currently in Wilkes Barre-Scranton, home of the Penguins top minor league affiliate, but no one seemed to acknowledge my response.

Before the game, the team had a nice tribute to forward Bryan Little who had one last pregame skate with the team. I didn't realize that Little played his last game in 2019 but only formally retired recently. He is a fan favorite in Winnipeg.

This is the best jersey I saw at the Canada Life Centre:

If you really want to see highlights from a game that occurred a month ago, please check out the video below. The game recap is here too. You might notice that Pittsburgh center Lars Eller had two goals for the Pens. I think he is a solid veteran that the Penguins would want to help the team win. (Sean's note: The Penguins traded Eller to the Washington Capitals last week, so never mind.)

A month after this game, the Penguins are near the bottom of the Eastern conference standings and like this game in Winnipeg, regularly lose leads. Meanwhile, the Jets are 16-3 with the best record in the league. If the Penguins aren't going to win the Stanley Cup, I'm going to support the Jets especially since I can say that I attended one of their games during their championship season. And here are a few more pictures.

Eating In Winnipeg

I recently travelled to Winnipeg and North Dakota as part of my annual-ish hockey road trip. While I plan on writing several different posts about the trip, this one focuses on food. Yes, today, I'm going to be a food blogger.

For our first night in Winnipeg, we ate dinner at Feast Cafe Bistro as recommended by Taylor at Tourism Winnipeg. Taylor and I go way back...to earlier in October. Feast is a 100% Indigenous-owned and operated restaurant using local ingredients. I split a bison ramen noodle bowl and a fire-roasted buffalo lasagna. Both were delicious and not something I would normally eat. 

We went to dinner at the Hargrave St. Market on the second night, adjacent to the Canada Life Centre where the Jets play. I really enjoyed the Hargrave St. Market concept. It's a modern-day food court which seems to be becoming more prevalent. There were about 8 different food and drink restaurants serving pizza, tacos, Japanese bowls, burgers, and more, but it's not like Taco Bell and Sbarros that they had at the Monroeville Mall food court growing up. This was much more upscale.

On day #3, we went to the Forks Market. I want to live there! First, outside of the market is The Forks where Winnipeg began at the meeting of the Red River and Assiniboine River. (Please don't ask how badly I mispronounced this name which is all over Winnipeg.) The Forks Market has dozens of restaurants and shops. While there were many dining options, how could I not eat at the best named restaurant in all of Winnipeg? (And they had poutine too.)

On the third night, we ate at the James Avenue Pumphouse. Really cool venue. The building is over 100 years old and served as the pumping station distributing water to area fire hydrants. Much of the machinery is still there. I got the Dan Dan Thai plate. It was good but not great. A little too much tofu for me. Think I would go for something else next time.

I probably should have started this post with the view from my hotel.

Of course, I had a donut from Tim Hortons! I also visited a Real Canadian Superstore. When I told my brother that I traveled thousands of miles to visit a grocery store, he said, who are you, dad? I like going to new grocery stores. Although I didn't buy anything, I like seeing my normal Rold Gold pretzels in a darker yellow packaging and in French.

I was also intrigued by a strawberry milkshake flavor of Frosted Flakes. I almost bought one before going on my phone and realizing that they are sold in my area. Sure enough, there are boxes at my local Wegmans.

Consider this part one of the 2024 hockey road trip. More posts to come.

My Ray Bourque Hot Take

I’m going to be a sports blogger today. Specifically, I’m going to be a hockey blogger. After a multiple-year hiatus (stupid Covid), the hockey road trip returned this year with a stop in Denver to see the Colorado Avalanche. I’ll probably have multiple posts about the trip over the next few weeks. Today, I want to write about this.

Pictured are retired numbers of Colorado Avalanche players. The one that jumped out to me is #77 Ray Bourque. Bourque is one of the greatest defensemen in the history of the National Hockey League. He played nearly his entire career in Boston and was traded to Colorado to give him a chance of achieving a Stanley Cup championship. Even though he was at the end of his career, the trade was a really big deal. I think most Bruins fans are and were disappointed that Bourque didn’t play his entire career in Boston, but are and were happy that he won a title. 

Bourque played 14 regular season games for the Avalanche in 2000 after being traded from Boston tallying 8 goals and 6 assists. He then played 13 playoff games as the Avalanche lost to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Dallas Stars in the conference finals. The next season, Bourque played 80 regular season games and helped lead the team to the title with 4 goals and 6 assists in 21 playoff games. Overall, Bourque played 93 regular season games and 34 playoff games in Colorado. So my question is why is his number retired?

I understand that Bourque is a Hall-of-Famer and helped lead the team to a Stanley Cup title. However, this was not the team’s first championship and his tenure was less than a year and a half. Since I’m a Pittsburgh Penguins fan, my comparison to Bourque is Bryan Trottier, who won 4 Stanley Cups and a Hart Trophy as league MVP during his Hall-of-Fame tenure on the New York Islanders. Trottier joined the Penguins at the age of 34 before the 1990-1991 season and played 115 regular games with 20 goals and 37 assists over two seasons (and played another 41 games in the 1993-1994 season). More importantly, Trottier played 44 playoff games in the 90-91 and 91-92 seasons with a combined 7 goals and 7 assists and earned two more Stanley Cup titles. With players like Mario Lemieux, Ron Francis, and Jaromir Jagr among others, Trottier wasn't close to being the team's top star, but he brought leadership and experience to the Penguins like Bourque did to the Avalanche. The difference is that it's likely that the Penguins organization probably never considered retiring Trottier's number. (The fact that the Penguins have only retired two numbers could be a topic for a completely separate post.)

Two other thoughts from the game. First, defenseman Cale Makar scored the game-winning goal in overtime. Even though he's only in his fourth season, he's done significantly more on the ice in Colorado than Bourque. Retire his number now!

Second, Peter Forsberg, another player who (deservedly) has his number retired was in attendance. He could easily pass as a social studies teacher or history or psychology professor now!   

Penguins-Sabres Game 7 Road Trip

In May 2001, I was approaching the end of my graduate program at The Ohio State University in Columbus. I also worked three jobs and was trying to find a full-time job and figure out where I would live after graduation. Despite probably being stressed, particularly in finishing my case study requirement to be able to graduate, I watched nearly every Pittsburgh Penguins playoff game at my friends' apartment, generally with my friends Maze, Wells, and Rob. Oh, I should also mention that my friends' apartment featured a living room table with bottle caps glued on the entire surface. This really has nothing to do with the story, but the table was super cool for guys in their 20s and not something that would probably work in homes with families. 

20 years ago this past Saturday (May 8th), the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 in overtime in game six of the Eastern Conference semifinals. During the postgame broadcast on either ESPN or ESPN2, the studio host casually mentioned that there were still some tickets available for game 7 to be held two nights later in Buffalo. We looked at each other and quickly tried to figure out the logistics of taking off work/school and driving the 300+ miles to Buffalo. While we were doing this, we found the phone number for the Buffalo Sabres ticket office and called to purchase tickets. There was not a way to buy tickets online back then. We managed to get 4 tickets in the top row of the HSBC Arena.

(I should mention that I showed this post to my friends before publishing it. According to Rob, the studio hosts mentioned that there were still tickets available for game 7 prior to overtime beginning in game 6. He also said that we pledged to try to buy tickets for game 7 if the Penguins won game 6. He's probably right.)

On Thursday, May 10th, 2001, we left Columbus around lunchtime and drove to Buffalo. It was a fairly uneventful ride except that Rob attempted to hang a Pittsburgh Penguins towel from the backseat window. This ended poorly as his pinky finger got smashed in what was clearly non-child friendly windows. While I don't believe there was any long-term damage, his finger really hurt during the trip. Oh, and there wasn't time to go to the doctor or even stop and get ice. We had to get to Buffalo in time for the game! (It's possible that we stopped at a fast food drive through to get a cup of ice. If we did, it probably didn't take more than 2 minutes from the trip.)

What's funny is that I remember very little about the game except for Darius Kasparaitis scoring the game-winning goal in overtime against future Hall-of-Famer Dominik Hasek and then diving on the ice in celebration. 

There were a decent amount of Penguins fans in attendance (at most 10% of the crowd), but much less than a Pens-Caps game in DC or any away Steelers game. While the Sabres fans were disappointed in the result, I don't remember getting any abuse or people yelling at us while wearing Penguins gear. 

After the game, we made our way to the lower section of the arena behind where ESPN interviewed Kasparaitis. I know that this made Sportscenter (a friend of mine saw me in the background and emailed me the next morning asking if I lived in Buffalo), but unfortunately, I can't find any video of this. There's audio proof of the interview though.

There's also complete footage of the entire game and interviews conduced by Pittsburgh and national media. I went through this video starting around the 3:25:00 mark like it was the Zapruder film, but I couldn't find myself. 

(Sean's note: The video I posted here in 2021 is gone. I can't find any videos now of the post-game celebration and interviews.)

The Penguins finished the season with a rookie goalie named Johan Hedberg. He went 7-1-1 to help lead the Penguins into the playoffs and continued his hot streak in a first round series win against the Washington Capitals. Hedberg got the nickname "Moose" and was extremely popular in Pittsburgh. You would hear "MOOOOOOOOOSE" chants when he made a big save, and there were even foam antlers to represent Hedberg. I mention this because Maze had a pair of these antlers that he wore to the game. On the way out of the arena, a Penguins fan approached Maze to buy the antlers, and purchased them for $20. While Hedberg played 12 seasons in the NHL, he never did as well as he did during the 2001 playoff run. I think getting $20 for the antlers was a good deal!

After we left the arena, we threw a frisbee to each other in the parking lot waiting for the traffic to clear. Then, several hours later probably between 2:00-4:00 AM, we stopped at a 24-hour Denny's somewhere off I-71 in Ohio. The food went right through us and Wells drove as quickly as possible to get us back to Columbus.

20 years later, I'm happy we went to the game. I wouldn't necessarily call it a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, but this was a fun, impulsive decision that I'll always cherish. I certainly remember it more than what I would have done at one of my jobs that day. It's fun to tell people that I was at the Kasparaitis game and that we drove from Columbus to Buffalo, saw the game, and drove right back in less than 18 hours. I'm sure that my friends feel the say way.

Photos by Associated Press and Doug Pensinger/ALLSPORT

45 Years Old: 45 Questions Answered (Part II)

In honor of my 45th birthday, I created blog posts where I answer 45 questions asked by friends. The first part is available here, and this is part two. Will there be a part three? We'll see.

11. Who is your all time favorite non-Pittsburgh athlete?

Even my all-time favorite non-Pittsburgh athletes who you wouldn’t associate with Pittsburgh have Pittsburgh ties. The two that stand out for me are Jason Taylor and Larry Fitzgerald. Taylor is from Pittsburgh and played football and basketball for my high school, but most people associate him with the Miami Dolphins. Fitzgerald is Mr. Arizona as a member of the Cardinals, but he attended the University of Pittsburgh and is one of the greatest wide receivers in college history. So that rules them out.

Therefore, my favorite non-Pittsburgh athlete who doesn’t have any association with Pittsburgh is Tony Gwynn. What a player and what a person. I wrote a blog post about Gwynn (of course I did), but I’m happy to write about him again. As a kid, I always knew of Gwynn as a great hitter as he regularly appeared at the top of the batting average standings when I looked through the Sunday newspaper. However, I rarely saw him play since it’s not like the Padres were on TV much and their games started after 10:00 PM. When I moved to San Diego in 1997 near the end of his career, I saw how revered he was out there, and how much he was respected by everyone in baseball. During the 1999 All-Star game, baseball and the Boston Red Sox honored Ted Williams only one of the greatest baseball players of all time. What’s amazing about the video below is how all of the players gather around Williams, and how happy Williams was to see Tony Gwynn (around the 3:50 mark). Williams lived in San Diego and he and Gwynn got together and talked about hitting (and presumably other stuff). How cool would it have been to listen to those conversations?



Gwynn also did so much in the community and received the 1999 Roberto Clemente Man of the Year award. After his playing career ended, he went back to become the head baseball coach at San Diego State, his alma mater. How many Hall of Famers to that?

The two biggest travesties of the 1994 baseball strike was that it cost the Montreal Expos a legitimate chance to win the World Series (which presumably would have kept the team in Montreal) and Gwynn was hitting .394 and had a chance to hit .400.

Gwynn died way too young at the age of 54 in 2014.

12. What do you love about living in Northern Virginia?

Opportunities for fun, free events and diversity. There are so many free concerts and events, particularly for kids and especially during the summer. Plus, we’re right next to DC, so we can visit any of Smithsonian museums for free or attend free events for kids at places like The Kennedy Center and The National Theatre. We don’t take advantage of this stuff nearly as much as we should, but I know people in other parts of the country and world don’t have these opportunities. Still, we attend at least one free show or concert a week each summer. We’re also in a very diverse area with people from so many different countries and cultures. My kids’ elementary school had a family heritage night last fall with student and family-led displays, performances, food tastings, and more. It was such a cool event with so many different nations and nationalities represented.

13. What do you hate about living in Northern Virginia?

Traffic and the cost of living. What should be a 20-minute drive can easily take 45 minutes (or more during rush hour). Even when you think there wouldn’t be traffic like on a random Wednesday morning at 11:00, there could be due to an accident or construction. The cost of living is also frustrating. A friend in the Nashville area recently posted on Facebook a real estate listing for the house next door to her. It’s amazing! So much space with 5 bedrooms and a big yard. The cost is around the same as the value of my home, but we definitely don’t have 5 bedrooms and a yard. We have also spent SO MUCH MONEY on daycare, preschool, and before and after-school care for the kids. It’s a good thing there are free community concerts and museums nearby!

14. What is your favorite place on the Ithaca College campus?

What’s funny is my favorite spot on campus is a place where I spent very little time. The Dillingham Fountains. If you’re at the right place on campus, you can see the fountains and Cayuga Lake. The problem is that the fountains were turned off for most of the school year to make sure that the pipes wouldn’t freeze. In Ithaca, New York, that could be October through April or nearly the entire school year. There were also cool lights to go along with the fountains, but I feel like those only came out during special occasions.

15. For your 45 questions: 1975's top three films were: Jaws; The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Which one would you pick to define 2020?

I really hope that I’m wrong, but I think the answer is going to be "Jaws." In Jaws, the Amity Island mayor decided to keep the beaches open even though there was already a shark attack and seemingly no action taken to ensure that there wouldn’t be future attacks. The beach needed to be open for July 4th! And what happened? More people got attached by sharks. The White House and the Centers for Disease Control created Guidelines for Opening Up America Again. One of these guidelines is that “states should have a “downward trajectory” of cases over a 14-day period before reopening.” What happened? Most, if not all of the states, failed this test before reopening. I also worry that officials will stop counting or under-report COVID-19 cases or deaths in order to make it seem like things are better in their area that it is. This already happened in Nebraska. Or you get Georgia who made it look like cases were going down by putting dates out of order. For example, May 5th was followed by April 25th.

Again, I hope that I’m wrong, but I think there are going to be a lot more shark attacks in 2020.

16. If you could go back in time, would you change anything in your life?

This is a variation of the “what is your greatest regret” question from part one of 45 questions. The only thing I can really think of is that I would have bought stock in Apple, Amazon, or Google or some other company or made big and correct wagers on sporting events. I don’t think I’d be comfortable having Bill Gates or Warren Buffet money, but it would be nice to have been successful in these endeavors so that we’d be comfortable financially. Like really, really comfortable financially. And yes, this answer is basically plot points from the movies Frequency and Back to the Future 2.

17. & 18. If you could time travel, would you go back or forward and what would you be most interested in seeing?

I’m counting this as two questions. It would be cool to go back to game 7 of the 1960 World Series to see Bill Mazeroski of the Pirates hit a 9th inning series winning home run against the Yankees.

Traveling forward, I don’t know if I’d want to go to January 2021 to know the result of the November 2020 election. I mean, if Donald Trump loses, do we think he’s going to handle it well? Will there be a peaceful transition of power? I guess it would be nice to know when there will be a successful COVID-19 vaccine and to see when everything is going to be back to normal.

19. What is your favorite memory of being 23?

In December 1998, I helped organize and create a Kosher Pickle Taste Test at San Diego State University. It was a lot of fun and a huge success and also inadvertently started the tradition of having pickles at Hanukkah. I’m still waiting for this to catch on across the country and the world, and I think this is the year it’s going to happen.

20. What’s the thing you are looking forward to most about being 45?

Since I think I’m going to spend much of being 45 at home, the answer is spending a lot of time with my kids. (This might also be on the list of what I’m not looking forward to being 45.) It will be interesting to see how they grow. I dread doing potty training with Luigi, but it will be so nice not to change diapers anymore. I expect that Pedro Tulo will be reading much more. Maybe The Moose will learn to ride his bike? They’re all going to grow and learn, which should be fun to see.

21. In honor of Michael Jordan and the last dance would you rather be 23 or 45?

I liked being 23. I lived in San Diego, and while I didn’t have much money, I didn’t have many expenses or worries. In normal times, though, I’d still probably go with 45. While my kids can definitely be frustrating and I worry about them, it’s really cool being a dad. However, seeing that I’m probably not going to travel anywhere, eat out at restaurants, or even go the grocery store without wearing a mask for a good part of my 45th year, I’ll go with 23.

22 & 23 What's the age that you liked being the most and the least?

I think 45 is going to be the one I like the least. Again, while it will be exciting seeing my kids grow, I don’t know when I’ll be able to see my mom. Or go out to a concert or sporting event. Or coach my kids’ soccer teams. See a theme here?

The age I liked the most? Probably 25 which is odd to say since I had some tough times then. I couldn’t stand my supervisor at my primary job and often struggled to keep motivated during graduate school. I just wanted to be done. I mentioned “primary” job since I also had at least 2 other jobs at that time. However, as a 25 year old, I went to Israel for 10 days followed immediately (with a 4-hour stop at Newark Airport) by spending the summer in Lancaster, England. I made side trips to Dublin, Edinburgh, Paris, London, and more. Then, after returning to the US, I met friends in Vegas and attended a wedding in Montreal. I also started dating my girlfriend who is now my wife. Just before I turned 26, three friends and I drove from Columbus, Ohio to Buffalo to see the Penguins win game 7 of the Eastern Conference semi-finals (the Darius Kasparaitis overtime goal game) and then immediately back to Columbus. Such a cool experience!

24. Who are your celebrity crushes, then…?

Alyssa Milano and Debbie Gibson. And yes I wrote about both of them here and here.

25. …and now?

This one is much tougher since I don’t know all of the latest stars. I probably would have said Katy Perry a few years ago, but not so much now and it has nothing to do with her dressing up in a Dumbo costume during the recent Disney singalong.

I’ll go with Anna Kendrick who is very talented and also seems to have a great sense of humor. I enjoyed reading her book too. I'm also a fan of fellow Pittsburgh Steelers fan Sofia Vergara.

26. & 27. What do you like/dislike the most about being part of Gen X?

This might be the hardest question on here. I don’t have a good answer. I think it’s nice that us Gen X folks connected to a time with “old” technology (like rotary phones or televisions without remotes) but also know how to use computers. We’re not getting told that we and need to die like Baby Boomers to help the economy, but we’re also not Millennials who are told that we spend too much money on avocado toast. We’re just here doing the best we can trying to help our parents and our kids.

28. What is your favorite blog post?

How can I pick just one out of over 3,000? It’s like picking my favorite child. I mean that answer changes on a minute-to-minute basis. Some of my TMI Thursday posts were fun. I feel like I had some great posts about my kids and being a dad. Interviewing Chris Wright, the former Pittsburgh Spirit and Minnesota Timberwolves General Manager, was a neat experience. Actually, just because of who asked this question, this is my favorite blog post!

29. So what’s been your favorite hockey trip so far?

For over a decade now, a friend and I have taken an annual-ish road trip to see NHL hockey games across the United States and Canada. At this point, we’ve seen nearly 2/3rds of the NHL teams/cities. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’ve tried to chronicle some of our experiences over the years. While it’s hard to pick a favorite trip since they’ve all been fun, I think I’m going with our 2009 trip to Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto. The negative was that it was freezing in Montreal (temperatures were in the negative teens) and the crowd at the Maple Leafs game was the quietest at any that we’ve attended. Why am I bringing up the negative? I don’t know. The crowds at Montreal and Ottawa were outstanding. We got to see the Hockey Hall of Fame with the Stanley Cup in Toronto, toured Canada’s capital, and ate some really good steak in Montreal. We did so much driving, got stuck re-entering the United States from Toronto, surreally watched the news seeing that Sully landed a plane in the Hudson River, and then I stumbled into people attending Obama inauguration parties when I returned to DC. What a trip!

30. If you could attend any major sporting event regardless of who is in it, what would it be? Super Bowl, World Series, World Cup Final, Masters, Indy 500, Kentucky Derby, Championship fight, etc.?

The “who is in it” is the key here. The Steelers in a Super Bowl or the Penguins or Pirates in a game seven would be at the top of the list. Ithaca College somehow making it to the Division I NCAA Final Four despite being a Division III team would be the dream scenario. Since I don’t have a significant rooting interest in this scenario, I’d pick the World Cup final. Unlike the other examples in the question, this only happens every four years. It has the biggest worldwide television audience of any sporting event, and you’ll have people from all over the world in attendance making it a really unique experience.

31. If you could get tickets to any one Summer Olympic event, what would you go see?

The men’s 100 meter dash but with an asterisk. This might be the most exciting athletic event in all of sports, but I’m also not spending a lot of money on a 10-second race. There needs to be a several hours of qualifying races and/or other track and field events, concluding with this race.

32. If you could get tickets to any one Winter Olympic event, what would you go see?

The women’s hockey gold medal game gets a slight edge over the men’s hockey gold medal game. While I can see many of the men’s players in the NHL, the women’s game is truly the biggest event in the sport. Plus, there’s an excellent chance that the game would feature the American and Canadian teams, and they’ve had quite the rivalry over the years.

33. Your wife tells you that she’s taking the kids out all day and you have the entire day to yourself. What would you do?

To dream, the impossible dream!



Obviously, the answer is before the coronavirus. For most of the day, the answer would be nothing. I would sleep in. Maybe I’d read the newspaper. I’d sit on the couch and watch whatever is on my DVR. At some point, definitely after lunch, I’d probably go out to see a movie since I rarely go to the theater. For the evening, it would go to a trivia night or a sporting event with friends. This sounds like a fantastic day!


So as you can see, I've only answered 33 of 45 questions. I’m still 12 questions short. Will there be a part III? Please ask some questions, so the answer will be yes!


Anna Kendrick photo from her Instagram page.

Dallas (2019 Hockey Road Trip)

I strongly considered having "Sean Does Dallas" as the title of this blog post, but I went with the less controversial title instead. Over the weekend, I visited Dallas as part of my annual hockey road trip. Here are some pictures:

When I checked into my flight, I realized that I purchased a "Basic Economy" ticket. This means that I got to take one personal item on the flight or pay $25 or $30 each way for a bag, even if it's a carry-on bag. Yes, I managed to fit everything I needed for the weekend and the flights into a backpack.

I'm going out of order, but besides the hockey game, the one thing that I had to do in Dallas was see The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. The trees are much taller now, but this picture is from the sixth floor of the building formerly know as the Texas School Book Depository, just several feet away from where Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John F. Kennedy. Despite the assassination occurring 55 years ago, this museum seems to be the top tourist attraction in Dallas. I'm sure that city and corporate officials want the focus to be on arts, sports, and other things, but I get a sense that the assassination is always going to be a significant part of Dallas. (As an anecdote, I asked the waitress and hostess at a restaurant what's one thing we had to see in Dallas, and they both replied, separately, the JFK Museum.) Anyway, I highly recommend visiting the museum.

Oh, I didn't expect to see the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette available at the gift shop.

I also didn't expect to see this T-shirt available a few blocks away from the museum. I noticed the don't take pictures sign about a minute after taking this picture.

The reason for going to Dallas during a cold January weekend was to see the Dallas Stars, making it the 24th game/arena my friend and I have seen together over the past decade.

I really like the Dallas Stars green and even the giant star that comes down onto the ice during the pregame ceremonies. It's not as good as the sabretooth Nashville Predator, but it's a close second (until I see the San Jose Shark in person).

I couldn't get a great picture, but it's nice to see someone appreciate Dallas Stars legend Jaromir Jagr.

One neat feature of the American Airlines Arena is that there is no room for the visiting back-up goalie on the bench. Therefore, he needs to sit way over here.

There's no reason why the North Stars moved to Dallas and why they keep the retired numbers of the Minnesota players.

You'll notice that this was not my picture. I really, really, really, really wanted to take a picture of and with the Stars' mascot Victor E. Green (better known as Texas Youppi!), but it didn't happen. Maybe if I got a picture with Victor, the Stars would have won. Instead, the St. Louis Blues won 3-1 with Vladimir Tarasenko scoring two goals. In the two Blues games we've attended, Tarasenko scored 5 goals. Coincidence?

For breakfast at the hotel, a Texas waffle! (Not pictured: This waffle covered with chocolate chips, whipped cream, and syrup. I make sure to eat healthy on vacations!)

We also saw the Allen Americans face off against the Wichita Thunder in an ECHL minor league hockey game. If you're holding a baby in a front row seat and feel the need to bang on the glass, you got to do what you got to do.



Even though the team is called the Americans, this seems like some Communist propaganda celebration after goals. By the way, I hope that Zachary Pochiro makes it to the NHL, so I can say that I saw him score 4 goals in a game for the Americans! I also feel like the Americans should have pictures of Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys throughout the arena.

Deep Ellum appears to be the cool, trendy area. We drove through on Sunday morning, and I felt the need to take a picture of this odd robot statue dude who likes to hold pigeons.

Finally, I arrived back to Dulles Airport to this. Actually, Dulles was closed, so we got diverted to Philadelphia and sat on the plane, refueled, and were able to fly back when Dulles reopened. I got home about 3.5 hours later than expected, but at least I made it home on the same day.

And this was Monday morning back in Virginia. Time to shovel.


Victor E. Green picture courtesy of Getty Images. (Not pictured or mentioned was a visit to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. If you're in Dallas for an extended period of time, check it out.)