The Vancouver trip...

Back in March Vanessa and I took a little trip to Vancouver to see our Canucks on home ice!

It was Cory's birthday and as the fates would have it tickets were very cheap and my boss gave me the time off. It all came together so someone wanted us to go. I brought the tickets from Stub Hub, Vanessa paid for my flight into Seattle, I had to rent the car cause Vanessa got held up waiting for her RV.

I woke up at 3AM after the worst Red Wings game on home ice. Got on my plane that God the power was down at Southwest or I would have missed it. Got into Seattle I was wearing my jersey the whole flight and when the plane landed a guy who saw me go to the restroom asked, "Who signed your jersey?" I replied, "The only 2 I would let sign my jersey! Luongo and Burrows!" He said, "How cool!"
I got on the shuttle to go get my rental car and meant a nice Canucks fan bus driver who also loved my jersey! Loving WA so far eh! Then I went to check on the rental car and the guy who worked for the company looked a lot like Lu! Of course I had to flirt with him and see if he was a hockey fan. Turns out he hated Canada and hockey but was from Houston... So much for a match made in heaven eh!?!?!

I went to grab some vegan food and check out the vegan block in Seattle and of course grab a vegan donut. I talked to a few local vegans which was nice but I wanted to get to Canada ASAP so to the road I went.

When I finally got to the border (which seemed to take years!). I was asked "Why are you in Canada?" I smiled and replied, "I'M GOING TO A CANUCKS GAME!! MY FIRST CANUCKS GAME!" he looked at me like I was crazy took my passport and told me he had to run it through the system. After being searched, and integrated for about an hour and a half, and all the Canucks stores were closed! I was finally free to go! I have been through a lot of integration in my lifetime but that one was the worst! I should have told them my 2 Canadian cousins were lawyers, LOL!

On to getting lost in Langely and waiting for V! I stopped at a Safeway to get BeaverBuzz while I waited! It was on sale 3 for $5. I talked to the cashier who told me, "You are just so cute in your hoodie and mitts!" I smiled and was hit on my a 20 something year old while walking out. I love Canadians!

Finally met up with Vanessa and we tried to sleep! We were too excited to sleep, but somehow we got a few hours. I woke up at 6AM cause I get up early to run in the US all the time. Vanessa was still sleep so I let her sleep and went to Starbucks. Got a little wifi and was back to the RV to see if Vanessa was up. She was and we went to deliver her RV so we could be on to Vancouver!

I was afraid I was going to get Vanessa in trouble so I kept my distance while they checked out her RV. The Red Wings fan that V was talking to can up to me and said, "Where is your Luongo jersey?" I laughed and said, "It's in the car... I'll put it on!" I did and talked to him a bit. Then we went inside and talked to the cute Flames fan for a bit. he was nice and got us directions to our hotel. Vancouver here we come!

You know you're in Vancouver when... You see blue and green everywhere!

 First stop was the hotel, and then the arena! I met the lovely Shauni from Twitter and she was happy cause she just met a few Canucks. We just missed Burrows driving off! I got a picture of his car but out of respect to him I will not post it.  On to the Roger Neilson statue! I love the store and the towel power! It met so much to see it in person!

On we went to our first Canucks store! We ran around acting look crazy goobers looked at all the great Canucks stuff! But we didn't want to buy anything until we got to the outlet!

Come on in!!!

Look Njeri it's a Schneider jersey that doesn't fit me yet again!...

Burrows tee that I wish I brought!

Lu and Burrows stuff!!

Look at all the guys shirts! WTF?!?!

LUONGO!!!

OMG it's Alex Burrows!

Luie Lu you never looked better!

Place Hockey du Canada! Je Adore!!!!

What no over sized Cory poster?...

Next we went to the outlet and I got a Luongo shirt and Vanessa get a really cut Canucks long sleeved shirt. I tried on the XL Burrows jersey but it was too dirty to pay full price for it.


On to the game we went! There is no warm-up like a home ice warm up! So much fun to watch! I think I teared up a bit when I saw Luongo get his home ice start. And when we were looking for our seats we told this guy that we had to crawl over, "We're sorry it's our first time here." he replied, "That's cool!" he looked at me and smiled and said, "Sick jersey!" I smiled so happy someone was a Luongo fan and said, "Thank you!"

We don't know if Cory saw it...

 Thanks to the border I missed my flight! I called my boss and explained, had more yummy vegan food, and found a bar to watch the game. Low and behold there were Canucks fans there! from Vancouver and on their way to LA and PHX for a hockey tour! The BF of the girl gave me his scarf and said we can stay with them anytime! Canucks fans are the best!

View from the street near the bar.

Fargo

I never thought the coolest bus station would be in Fargo, ND. Alas, they have wifi, comfortable seats, and direct TV. I should mention I'm the only person here so I've gotten to watch both the Red Wings and Canucks games. Red Wings won 4-0, wahoo!! That puts us one step closer to a playoff spot, but no guarantees. I'm pretty on edge. The still in progress Canucks game has been great because Chicago is finally losing, and Daniel Sedin just set the record for 2nd most points in the franchise. 

I'm waiting for the 12;00am bus, and I won't be getting to Mason City, IA until 7:00am. I cannot wait to sleep on the bus! 

The drive here sucked. I was hauling ass to deliver on time since the bus hardly passes here, I couldn't miss delivery. And just when I thought I was okay, South Dakota is covered in snow. It was so bright, I couldn't see jack shit. I had to put on my sunglasses.

I ended up making delivery on time after all, and decided I'd walk a mile to the bus station since I'm a cheap bastard. Half way through, a man offers me a ride. He has three children in the car, so I accept. Big mistake.

No, he's not a creeper. But I ended up stuck with three annoying ass kids for 2 hours, and listening to some sad stories about his current life situation. It was so depressing, I felt really bad for him. I ended up buying his kid's food as at least a thank you for the ride. It wasn't him I was bothered by at all, it was his annoying ass kids. You should probably know I fucking hate children. Getting farted on, touched, seeing food thrown around, screaming in my ear, gah it's so fucking disgusting. 

He took me back to the bus station and here I am now, completely alone and having a blast. That's just who I am.

Tomorrow, I set sail for Saint Matheiu De Beloit, Quebec! But I have a layover in Detroit, where I will be attending Red Wings vs Kings with my lovely grandmother and aunt Eva. So stoked!

Bonjour!

They're the 2 best friends that anyone can have, they're the 2 best friends that anyone can have. And they'll always be seen together!

So I still can't believe Luongo and Burrows came walking up together side by side like little mobsters! Be still my beating heart! I'm still looking for the right words to explain what April 18th 2013 meant to me.

Me and Vanessa at warm ups! I'm rocking my new Burrows jersey!

WOW I'm going to go out on a limb and say Luongo and Burrows remembered me from the hotel because that is the fastest any player has shown me love at a warm up drill. They mostly don't make eye contact and try to pretend we are not there. But I will admit our signs mostly say "Cory catch a goal in my pants!" and "Luongo keep the Canucks sexy STAY!". This time we toned it down quite a bit and got lots of love from the boys! Not that there were lots of fans there but something tells me the hat was a big deal in the locker room at pre-game skate.

I had to stop myself from tearing up at warm ups and even as I write this I must stop myself from tearing up! ROBERTO FUCKING LUONGO SHOT A PUCK AT ME!!!!! ME!!!! And not just one MANY! I wonder has he ever done this before in warm ups? I was very surprised when I felt the glass shaking looked down and saw ALEX BURROWS was the one hitting it! No one, not even Vanessa know how big that was for me. I'm sure all three of them have a good idea the way I was jumping up and down but they will never truly know. It was so great to see him so happy and I think me making him happy made Burrows happy too!

And because Weise and Raymond are always so nice to us when they come to Dallas I thought it would be nice to give them a sign as well! Good thing Vanessa forgot her Cory sign cause they both smiled and gave us much love as well.

My super friend and fellow Burrows fan Shauni tweeted this photo of us to me during warm-ups. She said we were on TV in VanCity!

Burrows gave me much love! Je Adore!!!!!

 

Luongo shoots puck at... ME!!!! I can't feel my legs!

So after the love of warm ups I went upstairs to grab a Molson since our tickets had Platinum club access. That is the only place you can get Canadian beer in the whole arena. Just one catch you can't bring it down stairs :( Screw you America! I later went down stairs and was laughed at when I asked if they took Canadian money in the beer line. I said fuck it because I didn't want to miss Lu coming out.

Vanessa and Pierre diss the Kari Lehtonen photo! In hind-site this may have been bad luck! 

 

Pierre and Callahan get their first arena photo together!

So I went back to my seat and who do I see coming onto the ice?? THE FUCKING STARS! No really after that it was the Vancouver Canucks! The whole team first and then Luongo and Burrows. They both looked at me and smiled! Then they whispered something to one another. Then Lu removed his hat for the moment of silence for Boston, which was later followed by the Star Spangled Banner... That was odd but well placed seeing as this country has been through so much in the past few days.  I stood there in silence praying for Boston and because our anthem is so long snapped a photo of my boys. When the Canadian anthem came on I was yelling "Oh Canada!" Then it was puck drop time!

Luongo and Burrows respecting the USA.

Canucks entering the bench.

Burrows!

 

First Line respecting the USA.

 When the game started I believe I hugged the glass. Lu caught this out of the corner of his eye and let out a little chuckle. What I noticed during game play is Burrows didn't move down with the rest of the first line. He stayed seated right beside Lu the whole time, as if to support him just as I had set behind him the whole time to support him. I feel bad for saying this but I hoped Cory would get pulled so I could see Lu play. But alas no such luck.

Burrows and Lapierre on the bench.

The highlight of the night was when Lu was talking to his trainer and he was smiling. I turned to Vanessa and pointed to Lu and said, "HE'S SMILING!" I feel like such an idiot! He stopped as soon as he realized I was watching him! And during an icing call I asked Vanessa to take a picture of me and Lu and she did. She said he was trying to turn but also trying to pretend he wasn't.

I'M in HEAVEN!

 And the game wouldn't have have been right if Cory didn't come by for a sip of water to see Vanessa. I was so happy that she could be as happy as I was even if just for a few seconds. He and Lu shared a few word and Cory pointed to us. Vanessa didn't see but I did.

Cory tosses his towel to the trainer.

More Cory... Still not pulled...

Not sure if he is trying to bite his nail or what...

And finally to top off a REALLY bad game the goalie trainer looked at me in the end and said, "You want this?" I just smiled and nodded! I couldn't believe what I was hearing!!! I GET SOMETHING!!!??? I had no idea who's stick it was and Vanessa later told me it was Edler's. AAAAAHHHHHH I have my first stick!!!!!! OMG!!!! MY FIRST STICK!!!! I gave Vanessa the puck they through us at warm ups cause she gave me the Mason Raymond water in February! What are best friends for right?!

Afterwards we went to the tunnels to watch them pack up and said our goodbyes! Until next season boys!!! See ya in playoffs! XOXOXOXO

We met this blues fan at Christie's after the game! He was very nice!