I mentioned to Jen a few cities that I wanted to travel to and see the Blackhawks play. Montreal, Toronto, Boston, New York, and one other of those cities is Detroit.   Jen, having connections in the Detroit area, hooked us up with some FANTASTIC seats.  And hey, it was Jen's birthday weekend, where else would she rather spend it than in beautiful downtown Detroit watching a hockey game with me, her friend Tina, and my Uncle Willard (who drove in from Cleveland to meet us)?

Was a decent game, Hawks won 4-1.  But the highlight was being 8 rows behind the Hawks bench.  Able to hear them yell on occasion, watch the line changes, watch the equipment guys throw stuff back and forth, and see my 2nd NHL arena outside Chicago.  Fun trip.

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Wanted to do this for years. Thanks to a Groupon discount, I finally got around to it. Although, whatever i saved on the drop reservation, I gave back to them with the video package. But hey, figured I'd only do this once, so might as well take as much away with me as possible, assuming the parachute opens up and I land on my feet and walk away.

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Sure, after the jump my ears wouldn't fully pop until five days later, and it gave my girlfriend Jen whiplash, but it was AWESOME!

Tribune Media Group hosted a Press Pass day at Soldier Field on Tuesday, October 5th. Much like the Sox Park Press Pass day, it included a stadium tour through the fancy seats, the visitors locker room, on the field, and a dinner & panel discussion. This one featured Super Bowl champion Keith Van Horne and current Bears QB Caleb Hanie. Fun night.
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Sure, this happened over a month ago, but better late than never...   check out a video of DeKalb from above!

A while back my girlfriend Jen and I were chatting and I mentioned that I needed a vacation. "Go back to Ireland" she says. Soon I'm getting links to vacation package deals from her, and one catches my eye as a good deal with travel and accommodations for a week and I really started considering it. And, we got to stay a night in a CASTLE!

"Want to go?" I asked her, and before you know it, both of us were booked for our third trip each over the pond to Ireland for a week of driving on the left side of the road, zig zagging from east to west to north to south. From Dublin to Galway to Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland to Doolin to Blarney & Cobh before heading back to Dublin.

Here's some pictures from the trip... enjoy.

Tribune Media Group hosted a Press Pass day at Sox Park on Sunday, July 25. Wasn't sure what to expect, but I had a trip walking through the ball park. Winding from the Scout Seats lounge area, out to the field behind home plate, down into the visitors dugout & locker room area, and then up to the Stadium Club for some food & listen to Moose Skowron and Ron Kittle talk baseball.

Fun day, have to say.
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Been less than a month now since the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, and I think I've played Kaner's game winning goal 1,000 times on TiVo.

Since the Hawks brought home the Cup, I've managed to see it three times:  once in the parade, once in the Tribune newsroom during it's media tour day, and once at the United Center during a Blackhawks Standbys meeting.

Never got to linger around it long enough to read all the names...  but at least I got to touch it.  Twice.  As little as four years ago, I wasn't sure if that would ever happen.  Now, if I only had a good camera shot of me & the Cup...  ha!

Thank you, Blackhawks.

2010 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks playoff & parade photos

Much like I did in October 2005 when the White Sox won the World Series, I took the day off of work and walked amongst thousands of other Blackhawk fans (and other people who were not hockey fans but don't need an excuse to converge with a crowd) to watch the Hawks parade up Michigan Avenue with the Stanley Cup.

Also, here's a view from half a block south on Michigan Avenue as the Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup rally kicks off with the standard National Anthem. We could barely hear anything that was being said on the stage where we were standing (poor speaker placement), but you can kindof make out the voice of Jim Cornelison in the background.


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If these videos don't get you ready for Blackhawk hockey, I don't know what will...


The Logo


Testify by Rage


91 All Star Game Anthem

Now, these last two aren't Blackhawk-centric, but I still dig them.


Stompin' Tom Conors


Cup Raise

It was a long way to go to see the Blackhawks lose a hockey game, but the chance to see the city of Vancouver was worth it nonetheless.