A home away from home!
It is always nice coming back to Raleigh! Seriously, the people in this market are awesome, and really make us a feel like this is our 'home' market. After we arrived last night, we met up with Steve Werner, the owner here at Dreamsports, and went out to dinner at Tony's Oyster Bar. Definitely an evening full of laughs, but none better than watching George Brown's face when the raw clams showed up. You could tell George wasn't exactly sure whether or not the clam was going to jump out at him or not...LOL!
After dinner, we headed to the rink, and did the usual work in setting this place up. As it is every time we show up here, the place was immaculate, and ready for us. I would like to give a special shout out to one of the rink managers here, Jimmy, who was gracious enough to stick around until we completed our set-up, which ended up being north of 1am.
We weren't the only ones working late...when we arrived at the hotel, the Tour Lizard Kings were congregated in the lobby sharing their own laughs, and within minutes, the leader of the clan, Tim Harrington, arrived after the trek up from Atlanta. We really value the strong alliance we have with the Lizard Kings program, and appreciate them continually traveling to support our events. This weekend, they are here with 10s, 12s, and 14s. Good luck Lizard Nation!
As for the hockey this morning, the Mites and Squirts kicked things off, and while I havent had much time to watch the action yet, I have caught a few shootouts, and as usual, the fans are rooting hard for their teams. The atmosphere here is electric. Dave and I just headed outside, and were treated to some fantastic barbecue courtesy of Bob Kerr, who along with a bunch of other of the local parents here, have a couple tents sent up, and a ton of food. They really do it right! Dave and I even had time for a quick game of cornhole, and seriously it was quick, as I was no match for Dmac!
The Peewees are underway, and we will be back in a bit with another update...