12-JAN-2010 - Flew in to Tampa Bay; flight was mostly uneventful, and although having "teh Interwebs" on the airplane was cool (one cool point for AirTran), paying $15 per bag was not (and AirTran loses their cool point). At Tampa Bay International, picked up the World's Ugliest Rental Car (AKA: The Car You Can't Lose Track Of) from the rental folks, and headed to the hotel. Got checked in, went a'wandering in downtown Tampa. Came back, went to dinner at
Roaring 20's Pizza and Pipes (about 45 minutes south of Tampa), then went to the game.
( Backstory on dinner... )Lightning 7, Capitals... not as manyI gotta be honest: we walked out after the first frame. The guys came out flat, and we were exhausted anyway - I'd been working 10-hour shifts all week, and we'd had an early flight in. Did not even look at the score until the next morning... was utterly unsurprised. The Caps looked absolutely wretched during warmups and the first frame. Not gonna say anything else.
13-JAN-2010 - Got up, headed for Miami, via
Big Cat Rescue, where we did a 1.5 hour walking tour of the facility, and found out that panthers don't roar; they meow like the "lesser cats."
( Backstory on Big Cat Rescue )From Big Cat Rescue, we headed down to Miami, where it took us the better part of an hour to find the $LOCATION (sorry, geek stepping in here) where my friend had to install a new switch. She got that done while I wandered around taking pictures (what else would I be doing???), then we headed for the arena.
Capitals 5, Panthers 4 (SO)What a game we saw! By the end of the 1st, the Caps were down 2-0. By the end of the 2nd, we were down 4-2. And by the end of the 3rd, we were tied 4-4. Theodore was *outstanding* in the shootout, stopping everything he had to stop, and the shootout win went to Tomas Fleischmann, which made me very happy. We got to see a
Gordie Howe Hat Trick (a goal, an assist, and a fight) thanks to relative newcomer Jason Chimera, too.
Got back to the hotel after the game, bouncing off the walls, and called it a relatively early night again.
14-JAN-2010 - Got up, headed for Ft. Lauderdale International, and then back to BWI. Slept the entire flight - I don't remember takeoff; I was out before we left the gate. Landed, had lunch, then went and put in an 11-hour workday. Got home, crawled into bed, and did the same on Friday, which made me late for the game, but oh well! I was pleased to see what I saw of it.
All in all, apart from the Lightning disaster of a game, the trip was great fun! :-)
Pictures
here!