On to Tampa

We had the luxury of an only four hour drive from Sunrise to Tampa, so we had a nice breakfast at Ally’s Comfort Café in Davie, FL.  We got great BLTs there the day before and Dave had the best grits he ever ate.  If you are in the area, check it out.

We took route 75 across the everglades.  There were such beautiful birds all through that ride.  They would be sitting on branches with their wings spread out.  They must be airing themselves.  It is a very elegant sight.  There really wasn’t a great place to stop and get pictures unfortunately.

Dave and Phil Esposito

The Tampa Bay Lightning arena is pretty cool.  Apparently the owner put about $10m into renovations.  They have a wonderful jumbotron.  Better than any I’ve seen.  Much better than the one from the Panthers arena.  The scoreboard from the old Garden was better than that!  Outside the gates they had a band playing and a general party atmosphere.  They have a statue of Phil Esposito, the father of the Lightning, outside the arena.  Pretty cool.

Tuukka

Rask's mask

Lightning Girls

Guys heading to the dressing room after the 1st period.

Quaider!

Boychuck.

Timmy!

Great seats near the bench.  See quirky things being so close to bench.  Defense sits on one end 1^st and 3^rd periods.  I could hear Doug Houda calling out defensive players names. Boychuck changes his gloves out several times a game.  Don’t know if this is every game but I suspect it is.  Thornton walks out to stick rack and grabs stick before the team comes out of the tunnel.  Again I don’t know whether this is particular to this arena, a superstition or habit.  I just really enjoyed the heck out of seeing how the sausage is made, so to speak.  Tuukka Rask was sitting at arm’s reach from me.  I decided that he is just the cutest thing ever!