I’ve been engrossed in the NHL playoffs, mostly because the Tampa Bay Lightning made it to the Eastern Conference Finals in a year where they signed a new GM (Detroit’s very own Stevie Y) and new head coach. While I didn’t get to watch the game, I did listen to it with Tampa Bay’s own Dave Mishkin, while sitting next to the bonfire at the cottage.  Though it wasn’t the ending I hoped for the Bolt’s season, I was ok with it.  Now I’m rooting for Vancouver, what about you? You seriously have to, HAVE TO, love technology and the TuneIn radio app. Check it out, you can stream any FM radio station. Yes, any of them, worldwide.

And you know that trip I briefly mentioned at the end of the very long post dedicated to Chuck’s birthday? Yeah, we went to Ireland.  We had no plans but a round trip flight to plan around.  It was exciting and exhausting.  I would call our first trip abroad successful.  We are lucky we travel so well together.  There were only a few times we felt like throwing each other off cliffs or off the bus.  Hey, it’s to be expected.

Dublin - Howth - Cork - Cobh - Dingle - Tralee

You can find almost all of Ireland pictures on our shutterfly website, but I haven’t gotten around to adding the last 2 days. There are just so many pictures!

At the beginning of May, after meeting lots of dogs and puppies, we finally found the perfect pup for our family.  Stella is now 4 months old and adjusting nicely, though Scooby is a bit cranky at times.  Liko, surprisingly, loves to play with her.

25 pounds of pure puppy love and craziness

My Dad, Chuck and I braved the rain for the Detroit Zoo Kidney Walk in memory of my Mom.  The weather was truly awful and after a couple hours we were soaked to the bone.  We had a good time though and the polar bears  were playing and active.  Thank you to everyone that donated, I raised over $300 for the National Kidney Foundation!

The past couple months have been crazy with changes and new opportunities. I’ll get around to sharing them too. I’m known for taking on a lot of things at once and this time is no different.  I never start one thing at a time, it’s usually 10.

Today is Chuck’s birthday.  As I type this I wonder if he cares that I just told the whole world his age, hmmm I hope not.  He treats his birthday just as another day, which I really don’t understand.  No really, it blows my mind.  I’d celebrate birth week or month if people would let me.    In honor of Chuck’s birthday here is a list of  35 things that have happened on March 29th in the past 35 years.

1976
The storm of March 29,1976 was the greatest catastrophe to ever hit a Nebraska utility

1977
March 29 page of Jimmy Carter’s Diary – Up at 6:30am and bed at 1:06am – long day, huh?

1978
Hockey – New England Whalers star Gordie Howe becomes the first 50-year-old to play professional hockey. Hartford, Connecticut (northernblue.ca)

1979
Delhi beat Karnataka by 399 runs to win Cricket’s Ranji Trophy (brainyhistory.com)

1980
Pink Floyd’s 1973 album Dark Side Of The Moon marks its 303rd week on the Billboard album charts, passing Carole King’s Tapestry for longest stay on the “Billboard 200.” (oldies.about.com)

1981
Hockey – Jacques Richard of the Québec Nordiques scores his 50th goal of the season against Montréal Canadiens. (northernblue.ca)

1982
Constitution – Canada Bill given royal assent. London, England (northernblue.ca)
(I was born 11 weeks later, just FYI )

1983
International An American arms control initiative was reported by Reagan Administration officials. They said the American negotiator at the talks in Geneva would propose to Soviet officials today that they agree on an interim solution as a step toward the elimination of all medium-range missiles in Europe. (nytimes)

1984
NFL Baltimore Colts move to Indianapolis (brainyhistory.com)

1985
Wayne Gretzky breaks own NHL season record with 126th assist  (brainyhistory.com)

1986
Beatle records officially go on sale in Russia (brainyhistory.com)

1987
A total solar eclipse occurred on March 29, 1987. It is a hybrid eclipse, with only a small portion of the central path as total, lasting a maximum of only 8 seconds. (wikipedia)

1988
Detroit Red Wings played Washington Captials: 2-2 OT (hockey-reference)

1989
Former Nhl Ref Aims A Few Shots – NHL Referee releases a book (chicagotribune)

1990

1991
Allergic To Exercise? It Can Be A Genuine Problem (chicagotribune)

1992

1993
Saddam, Still: With power his only objective, Saddam has rebuilt Baghdad, rewarded his supporters and convinced his people they are the victims of Western aggression (time magazine)

1994
Japan’s newest museum pays homage to a noodle (baltimore sun)

1995
Washington Capitals at Tampa Bay Lightning: 4-2 (hockey-reference)

1996
1996 Women’s European Ice Hockey Championships were held in Russia; Sweden won (wikipedia)

1997
3 days after the “Red Wings – Avalanche Brawl”

1998
Detroit Edison Co. shut its Fermi 2 nuclear power plant after an inspection found a backup cooling-water system might not work during a severe accident. (nativenewsonline)

1999
Gretzky puts his stamp on hockey history once again on March 29, 1999, scoring the 1,072nd goal of his professional career. Between his NHL and WHA career, Gordie Howe tallied 1,071. (gretzky.com)

2000
The Future of Michigan’s Radiation Machine Regulations presented at a meeting of the Great Lakes Chapter of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine in Detroit, Michigan by Tod Van Wieren, Health Physicist. (michigan.gov)

2001
Tie Domi vs. a Philadelphia Flyers fan, March 29, 2001. While most NHL fights typically occur on the ice, this incident pitted brawler Tie Domi against an unruly Philadelphia Flyers fan. (sports illustrated photo)

2002
Pet cloning arrives (cbsnews)

2003
In Boston, Massachusetts 50,000 people attended the largest rally in the city since the end of the Vietnam War. Thousands of people blocked Boylston Street in a die-in along the Boston Common. A handful of arrests were made. In the UK hundreds of protesters marched from Cowley into the centre of Oxford and thousands took to the streets of Edinburgh (Police estimated 5,000, while organizers estimated more than 10,000). Edinburgh protesters marched along Princes Street to a mass rally in the city’s Meadows area. (wikipedia)

2004
The Republic of Ireland, on March 29, 2004, banned smoking in all workplaces. (patch)

2005
Detroit Hockey team Visits Yekaterinburg, Raises Money for Youth Sports (yekaterinburg)

2006
Chuck drove back to Michigan from Florida – exciting way to celebrate your 30th, yo

2007
17 Additional People Indicted In Large Scale Drug And Money Laundering Case (justice.gov)

2008

2009
We were at the Hawks game to witness this

2010
Oilers eye sweep of Wings on Sportsnet (sportsnet)

2011
No suspension for Bertuzzi’s hit last night against Chicago (freep)

Ireland in 9 days!

May you live to be 100 years, with one extra year to repent.
Irish Blessing

Wishing Chuck a very happy birthday. Be ready to celebrate in Ireland! ♥ ♥

I ended up booking our flight when Spirit had a round trip, direct flight for $140.  There was a slightly cheaper flight but it had a layover in Atlanta and when it’s only a 2-2.5 hour flight the last thing I want is to have to land, wait and depart again. The savings to me wasn’t worth the waste of my time.

If you fly Spirit to Florida take note that the seats and rows are thisclose together, we weren’t sure if we’d be able to shove the backpack down underneath the seat in front of us. It was slightly claustrophobic.  Spirit will also nickel and dime you to death.  Carryons are $30 and checked luggage is $40. Since it was a short trip, Wednesday to Saturday, we crammed everything into our backpacks to avoid the charges.  Oh yeah, not to be sexist but the women flight attendants were beyond crabby.  On both flights the male flight attendants seemed to be loving life while the women were shooting daggers with their eyes.

We made the decision that we weren’t going to rent a car this time. In November 2008 we stayed in Clearwater and a rental car was necessary. Since this was a shorter and hopefully, cheaper trip, we opted out of a car. This meant I had to find a hotel room in the city, which are not inexpensive. Ones within walking distance of the St. Pete Times Forum were between $180-200 a night on hotels.com, Priceline and Expedia. No bueno.

I kept checking, holding off until 2 weeks before we were scheduled to leave. I even called the hotels. The rooms are definitely not cheaper if you call. At this point I was reconsidering a car and staying near the beach but I decided to give Priceline’s deal negotiator a try. I asked around about it and was told to start really low and have a firm limit in mind. I increased the price a handful of times by increments of $5-10 and kept getting rejected so I quit. A couple nights later Chuck was on the computer and suggested I try it one last time. I got the room for $90, our limit. I suggest if you use this tool to try it one day and if it isn’t giving you what you want, wait and try it again another day.

The way the deal negotiator works is you pick an area and a star rating and you don’t find out what hotel it was until you’ve booked it.  It was a little scary but the hotel we booked was actually my top choice when I was looking around, Sheraton Tampa Riverwalk.  It was a beautifully large hotel room with a king size bed and a couch.  We were beyond surprised that they even gave us a room looking over the Hillsborough River and pool. The staff was friendly and willing to assist in any way they could. The only downside of the hotel was the food, go out to eat if possible.  In addition, the hotel is within walking distance of the Riverwalk.

I saved the best for last!  There is a water taxi company* in the lobby of the hotel.  Larry will take you anywhere you need to go that’s accessible by the river and he even offers tours.  We were really interested in the Buddhist Monastery trip but it only went on Sundays.  We took the water taxi to the hockey game for $5 a person and another night went on a night light tour.

*Just a friendly warning – the website is very…ahem..busy and bright*

I also had one other autograph.  At the Detroit airport while waiting for our suitcases from a trip to Arizona, my mom (again!) spotted Sparky Anderson, and most likely the rest of the team, arriving back from spring training.  She handed me a pen and a napkin and told me to go ask him for his autograph.  I stared at her terrified and refused to move so she dragged me over there and asked him herself.  I’ll be honest I don’t think I even knew who Sparky Anderson was, but every time the Tigers were on after that he was like my new best friend.

As I mentioned in my previous post when Chuck and I moved to Tampa we couldn’t afford Center Ice so we cheered on the Tampa Bay Lightning.  They became my second favorite hockey team even though they weren’t all that great, I got to know the players  like a good hockey fan.  Vinny Lecavalier quickly became my favorite player followed by Marty St. Louis, Kubina and Richards (who now plays for Dallas).

After we moved back to Michigan we followed the Lightning and watched whatever games we could on Versus.  Chuck and I have seen the Red Wings play the Lightning every year since our mini-season tickets in 2005. So it’s not surprising that we made the traditional trip to Tampa for the game on February 17.  Since we were staying in Tampa, within walking distance to the St. Pete Times Forum, the morning of the game we walked over there with our coffees.  The security office door was open and we stepped in to have a chat.    The morning skates were closed to the public so Chuck and I found a stairway to sit and watch the players roll in.

We saw Guy Boucher and Roloson walk in for practice.

Chuck scoping out the parking lot; Guy Boucher; Dwayne Roloson

Shortly after that the guy we had befriended in the security office politely, if not a little sheepishly,  told us we couldn’t sit there but we could stand behind the gate at the parking lot entrance.  He also tipped us off on what time the players would be done with practice and sign autographs.

We were walking back to the hotel to change because even though it was only 8:30am I needed a tank top (this fact alone makes me miss living in Florida, if only a little bit) when this red Ferrari stopped to pull in the lot.  It was Vinny Lecavalier and he turned and looked at us confused when Chuck yelled his name.

When we returned to the designated spot there were a few people waiting already and most of them were Wings fans with their jerseys, hoping to get a signature.  The players slowly started to trickle out and we ended up with 10 autographs,  better than when I waited around for the Backstreet Boys and definitely less embarrassing.

After Lecavalier signed my book I had the afterthought to ask for a picture.  He was still signing away so I did ask, but like everyone else, he didn’t hear me.  Chuck is used to this so he called him over giving me the opportunity. (Thank you!)

not pictured who also signed my TB Yearbook; Kubina, Gagne, Purcell

Bergenheim was a trip, he walked over and asked, “Anyone have anything for me to sign?”.  I was closest and he helped me find his page.  Stamkos blew out of the parking lot with his dad in the passenger’s seat, promising to sign after the game.  I wonder if he kept his promise.  I should have taken Chuck’s picture with St. Louis but I was not thinking. I think we are even now since he didn’t take a picture of me surfing when we were in Hawaii. Don’t you?

That being said, the Lightning are really good at signing autographs.  It makes sense, they are trying to build a fanbase but what about the Wings fans that actually drove 1200 miles to see the game hoping to get an autograph?

No such luck, the Wings are too busy standing around for a half an hour pretending they don’t hear the call of their fans. They couldn’t even wave!* To be honest this is disheartening. I get it, they aren’t trying to build fans, they clearly already have them. I’m told by numerous sources that you can’t stand around the Joe before or after a game and get an autograph anymore. I haven’t tried it personally, but I’m not going to stand around freezing when the odds are slim to none.

Detroit is Hockey Town and as of this year, Tampa Bay is Hockey Paradise.

*There is one exception. I ran into the girl with the Osgood jersey at the game, she went back before game time and when the Wings bus arrived Osgood walked across the parking lot to sign her jersey.  She said  he probably wouldn’t have  if he had been playing, so she got really lucky.*

©marialaitan St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, Fl

When we moved to the Tampa Bay area in 2005 we had no idea we would grow so attached to another NHL hockey team that wasn’t the Detroit Red Wings.  We didn’t have enough money for Center Ice package to get the Red Wings games so we watched the next best thing, the Tampa Bay Lightning.  It was the first year after the lockout and the Lightning had won the Stanley Cup in 2004.  We bought a mini season ticket package for the 2005-06 season and were amazed that Lightning fans were few and far between and that there seemed to be more opposing team fans at the St. Pete Times Forum.

The St. Pete Times Forum is a beautiful arena.  I won’t forget the first game we attended.  We were blown away by the concert stage outside the arena, the games to play, and the people milling about before the game started.  People, there is a bar outside the arena where you can buy a beer and watch the band play before the game starts or gaze at the Hillsborough River.  You could make a whole afternoon in Tampa with the game finishing off the evening.  The suites are where they should be, closer to the ice on the lower level , unlike how Joe Louis is set up.  In the Joe the suites are all the way up at the top and players look like miniature figurines.  There are more bathrooms (women who have had to stand with their legs crossed at the Joe understand how important this is) I went to the ladies room with 5 minutes left in the 1st period and got back with a minute still to play.  If food is your thing there are a variety of food stands – Mexican, Southern BBQ, Pizza, etc.

Upper bowl seats at the Forum are around $25.  Here is a picture from November 2008 when we flew down to Tampa to see the Wings play beat the Lightning.  I don’t remember the exact section -

©marialaitan

Just last week we flew in to Tampa for the Wings vs Lightning game and we sat in section 126, row T seats 1-2. Here is the view, if a little blurry.  Ticket face value $70.

©marialaitan section 126, row T

I understand that the tickets are less expensive for the Lightning fans because there fan base doesn’t come near the Red Wings, but I’m jealous nonetheless.

And to rub it in Wings fans, a slated  $35 million renovation will commence at the Forum as soon as this season is over.  The Forum opened in 1996.  Let’s put this in perspective, the Joe was completed in 1979 for a cost of $57 million.  I think it’s time for Detroit to get a new arena, don’t you?

You want to be a little bit more jealous of the Lightning? You can see and listen to what the renovation will bring. 11,000 sq. ft party deck overlooking downtown Tampa? Yes, please.

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sunset at the San Diego Harbor

We started the day with a drive north from our Mission Beach condo.  Then we thought it would be fun to just drive and see where we ended up.  Did we end up anywhere exciting?  No.  For two reasons.  One, because we had to find a bathroom and two, because we were getting crabby from lack of breakfast.

We ended up at a shopping mall, before it officially opened.  We walked around looking for the bathroom (love the outdoor malls!) and ended up back in the parking lot.  We saw people leaving the Crate and Barrel across the parking lot so we headed over there.  The doors opened by two salespeople with a smile.  They told us to grab a scanner and have a good time.

Chuck didn’t think anything of it, but by looking around at all the happy, young couples and stations of food, I knew we had stumbled across something.  First order of business though was to find the bathroom.  Up the escalator, just as we were getting off someone offered us a mimosa.  Yes! A Mimosa!   Whatever it was, it was awesome.

Trying not to make eye contact with the staff we made it safely to the restrooms and afterward we grabbed a mimosa.   I told Chuck he should take off his wedding ring because by this time it had dawned on me that this was an event for newly engaged couples.  He thought I was crazy and wouldn’t follow suit  when I slipped my wedding band off.

Boy did that change when two salespeople cornered us and started asking us questions about our engagement.  I scared Chuck silly with my skill to lie about things that don’t matter.  And while asking questions about this decoration piece he kept his had firmly in his pocket.

We scored some free food along with our mimosas.  They had waffles, pancakes, fondue, strawberries, cupcakes, etc.  It was good enough to hold us over until we made it lunch.

It was fun to pretend for a little while.  We spent the rest of the day at the San Diego Harbor checking out the USS Midway and Star of India.  We wrapped the night up with a carryout pizza and making each other laugh at the condo.

We are easily entertained…

We are early vacation risers so the days started at 7am, a few mornings were 6:30.  We enjoyed the sunshine, tried food we couldn’t get at home and absorbed as much of California’s beauty as possible.

Mission Beach

We did get a little taste of Seaport Village, San Diego Harbor, Pacific Beach Shopping, Mission Bay (we rented bikes and explored), as well as, a tiny peak at Coronado Island.

We really enjoyed La Jolla Cove and the seals with their pups.  It was fascinating, with the exception of trying to find parking among all the others there to enjoy the views.  We could have spent all day there.   We drove further north near Scripp’s Institute of Oceanography* and hung out on the beach.  We got sandwiches from the cutest deli and just relaxed.

Besides that I’d have to say that Chuck’s other favorite thing we did was the USS Midway.  He even saw a plane that had been on the navy carrier his dad served on during the Vietnam war.

On our extra night in San Diego we stayed downtown.  We walked around looking for a place to get something little to eat and stumbled upon a hockey bar, Stout Public House.  The bar was filled with hockey memorabilia mostly of the Vancouver Canucks.

Stay tuned for my Delta Airlines rant and the mischief we got into on Valentine’s Day.
You can also view a  gallery of photographs I took.  More to come as I upload them.

*sidenote – Many people don’t know that  I wanted to be an oceanographer when I was in high school.  A part of me wishes I would have looked into it more seriously.

We’ve been talking about going to California for a long time now, it just seemed out of reach for our “budget”. I use that term loosely because, really, I’m horrid at actually setting a budget. The best I can do is estimate that either yes we can make it work or no we can’t.

I used to plan vacations months in advance. Now? I don’t want to wait more than a month, two, tops. So San Diego, here we come!

via peasap

Would you believe me if I told you I found a studio apartment to rent in Ocean Beach for $75/night? I did. They didn’t have any vacancy but there were others. Boy were there others. I have a whole list of places I’ve emailed and called. All for under $100/night.

Chuck and I aren’t picky about the size of the place we stay at. Mostly, it’s just a place to crash after a fun day. We’d much rather stay in a condo, studio or apartment than a hotel. That is just us. We like to be able to cook our own food so we aren’t eating out 3 meals a day. I like that a lot of rentals come with extras like boogie boards and bikes. It’s like borrowing someone’s home.

The first time we did it was on our honeymoon in Hawaii and we vowed never to stay in a hotel again, unless it was some place like Chicago or New York. For fun we’ve looked at villas in Tuscany. There are vacation rentals everywhere! Even in northern Michigan.

If you are planning a vacation and are thinking about looking into a vacation rental I use VRBO,  Home Away and Vacation Rentals.

Oh and in case you are wondering, I wasn’t asked to write this post, I’m just amazed that more people don’t know about these websites and what they have to offer.