first off, I'm not too sure where this thread should be, so if it needs to be moved, mods please do so.
anyways, this thread starts back in early october when I was lucky enough to win the trip Rick had offered to lionbackers who went to his grand re-opening at Sports N' Stuff (great store needless to say). obviously enough i won, so here is what's happened the last couple days!
October 25th:
woke up nice and early to catch the 8:00 flight out to edmonton, then connecting to hamilton, don't i look happy early in the morning!
hey look, its edmonton!
wow! a safeway, how exciting!
449 est - arrive in the bustling city of hamilton!
it took about 10 minutes of driving, but we eventually found what appeared to be a city (not that we didn't know where we were going, but the airport is REALLY far away).
tossed our bags into the room at the hotel and my dad and i took off to niagara falls. it really was an unbelieveable thing to see, we got lucky with some clear weather too so everything was lit up nicely. took a wander around the town itself, its quite the tourist spot, reminds me a little of reno, nv. headed back around 11:00 and looked forward to the game tomorrow.
these pics are of the american part of the falls near the horseshoe falls
October 26th:
my dad grew up in hamilton so he really wanted to look around, see what had and what had not changed in the 44 years since he had been there last and it truly is a blue collar town, as evidenced by all the still mills and factories.
so we did a lot of sightseeing early on and then we went to the cfl hall of fame in downtown hamilton. but first when we parked, someone had mentioned to us that a local burger joint was a regular spot of angelo mosca, so my dad had to see if he was there, but no such luck today, but we did find copps coliseum.
so back to the hall we went; the hall is a rather small building, but still packed with plenty of information. the hilight was definately the main room which contained all the busts of the inductees.
we actually ran into a couple from bc and would run into them again later at the pub before the game. so, after picking up a couple of 3x5 flags of now defunct teams (memphis and birmingham) for $5, we headed to the ticats team store so my dad could get a new....something. new jacket in tow; we headed back to the hotel to get dressed for the game as it would be raining and cool then headed over to ivor wynne (its in a completely residential area; think of nat bailey but on a larger scale).
still can't figure why we took this picture, but it amuses me.
it was amazing how close to the field you could get during warmups!
but more importantly, my new best friend came over to say hi....who is this friend you ask? none other than buck pierce! he saw me standing over in the end zone and popped over and asked how the trip was going so far and then took a quick picture with me and my father before heading back to warmups. i couldnt believe he took the time to come over and say hi, let alone remember me and ask about the trip! the first picture my dad took without realizing that buck was pointing at me, and not just in some random direction
so anyways, back to the stands to watch a little more warmup
these guys were awsome, the wore paper bags!
time for the game to start - great seats by the way rick - sadly it was a bit wet and i couldn't get many pictures
it was rather empty that night, so at halftime we moved around a bit to get some different views, but settled on seats behind the lions bench with a couple other lions fans.
lions win!
at the end of the game, in a flurry of activity, players were tossing gloves into the crowd to the kids, buck had tossed his hat into the crowd, and you guessed it - it somehow found its way to me!
October 26 -
so we were supposed to be home today, but i negotiated with rick and we ended up being able to stay another day and we went to visit........you guessed it, toronto!
i was a little shocked to see street cars
luckily, the hotel was close to everything, so we could walk everywhere; we went by the rogers centre, and not a lie of a word, a door was open, so we did the natural thing and wandered around! but enough typing, pictures!
so inside the hockey hall of fame there is a ton of stuff, here are just a few pictures
retro jerseys!
le magnifique
gordie howe
bobby orr
the great one
the net he scored goal 802 on
replica of montreal canadiens locker room
the cup
milan lucic's jersey from the 06/07 mem cup season!
so...i felt dirty, but we went to the arogs game, we sat in row 11, pretty awesome!
i disagree with this sign - but chimpyDB might like it
heh, so people really do watch from the hotel
argos win and take over first place
after the game, we went to gretzky's for dinner and the burgers come with something nifty!
that's all she wrote, after that, we headed back to the hotel watched a bit of the edmonton/LA game and hit the hay and got ready to fly home the next day.
so that's everything in a nut shell, i have a bunch more pics and movies i took but there's too much to post here. but once again, i have to thank rick soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much for making this happen, it was an amazing experience for myself and really for my father who hadnt been home in 44 years and saw that so much was still the same, it really touched him. i can't express my gratitude through words, but hope to at some point. for those of you disappointed that you didn't win this trip, i want you to know that i got more out of these 4 days with my father than i have in a long time and we really needed the time to catch up with one another.
once again, thanks so much rick, and i'll be popping by the store on sunday to say hi before the giants/bruins game
.G. in Hamilton! Finally finished - 56K warning!
Moderator: Team Captains
- No Ordinary Joe
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Dude, that's so awesome! Glad you had a killer time and got to see the boys clinch in person! Can't wait to see the pictures!
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Thnx .G. Great pix. Just wondering if the Lions were heckled much by the Hamilton fans. BB
Wear orange or wear nothing
No. A bit of sniping at the ref, and they weren't thrilled with Casey coming out of the game.Ballistic Bob wrote:Thnx .G. Great pix. Just wondering if the Lions were heckled much by the Hamilton fans. BB
Gosh, .G., you were maybe 10 rows down from my wife and I in the first half.
yes they were, but i only heard one half of it; by then they would have had a few wobbly pops, so they were slightly more loose tongued, one guy was escorted out of the building. but the line of the night had to go to murph when he came off the field and said to the fans and said something along the lines of "go leafs go" and someone quipped back, "the leafs suck!" :lol:
classic
classic
MABEY!
- I_Bleed_Orange
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Thanks for the photo journey .G. It looks like you had a great trip!!
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Looks like 120chimp was in Toronto with his sign :lol:
Classic was the game last year where the husband and wife in front of us were escorted out for being heavily intoxicated..G. wrote:yes they were, but i only heard one half of it; by then they would have had a few wobbly pops, so they were slightly more loose tongued, one guy was escorted out of the building. but the line of the night had to go to murph when he came off the field and said to the fans and said something along the lines of "go leafs go" and someone quipped back, "the leafs suck!" :lol:
classic
Early in the second quarter.
With the wife being eight months pregnant.