A Dance with Lord Stanley.

My blogger nightmare became a reality two days ago. Out of absolutely nowhere, my phone decided to implode, selfishly taking with it all of my pictures and videos from the last several months. When I took its lifeless corpse to the Verizon store, the worker looked at me with sympathetic, knowing eyes before informing me he couldn't fix it, couldn't access the files, and yeah, idiot. Why didn't you buy insurance?

In other words, all my pictures from our trip to see Hamilton in Chicago, my Grandmom's memorial in Eau Claire, and the Indy 500 are gone. Fortunately, I saved several pictures I wanted for this post prior to the apocalypse, so without further ado, I bring you Bucket List Item #50 - Attend the Stanley Cup Final.

The day after the Indy 500, Wheat and I piled ourselves back in the car and took off for Pittsburgh. Let me rewind a bit - Ever since I fell in love with hockey, I've desperately wanted to go to the Stanley Cup Final (duh). When it looked like the Pens had a good chance of beating the Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference Finals, Wheat not only agreed to buy tickets to the Final, but he even had to convince me it was okay to spend that kind of money on a once-in-a-lifetime experience. In hindsight, he was absolutely right.

So, we took a deep breath, thanked God for our tax return, and clicked purchase with the knowledge that if the Pens advanced to the Final, our bank accounts would be a little emptier. Sure enough, they beat the Senators in overtime in a vomit-inducing Game 7 and we were headed to Pittsburgh for Game 1.

We took it as a sign from the universe that the Pens' opponent was the Nashville Predators (Wheat's hometown and other favorite team), playing in their first ever Stanley Cup Final. Side note: He wore a Predators shirt under his Phil Kessel shirt and I never would have forgiven him had the Pens lost. We arrived several hours early, so we took the opportunity to walk around PPG Paints Arena, peruse the gift shop, and soak in the electric atmosphere. I successfully fought the urge to buy a plush Sidney Crosby, but did cave and buy a Crosby Final t-shirt.

The entire city was brimming with excitement for the series. Storefronts had signs of encouragement for the team, everyone was dressed in Pens gear, and I felt like I'd died and gone to hockey heaven. NHL Network and NBCSN were doing live pre-game coverage right outside the arena, so we saw Jeremy Roenick, Steve Mears, Kathryn Tappen, and Mike Rupp. There was also a watch party set up outside the arena and it was amazing to see how many people crammed into the area to support the team.

When the gates opened, we were given yellow rally towels (I will NOT call them terrible towels. Ever.) and gold Penguins t-shirts. I insisted that we watch warmups from the lower level, so we staked out a spot and waited for the team to hit the ice. Insider tip: If you can't afford good seats, show up early and watch warmups from the lower level. It's the best way to get a good look at the players, see how fast they actually skate, and tell Sidney Crosby you'll wait forever for his love. Ahem. Seriously though, the players actually interact a bit with the fans, bumping into the glass or tossing sticks and pucks over to fans.

After warmups, we made our way upstairs to our seats, which were conveniently located about ten rows from the top but provided a surprisingly good vantage point of the action. I was starting to wonder if I might actually pass out from anticipation when the lights finally went off and the arena announcer proclaimed, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Stanley Cup Finals." Cue the water works. It was that exact moment that I finally realized where I was and what I was doing. We were treated to an incredible laser light show on the ice and a pre-game video intended to hype the crowd. I felt like I could run through a brick wall.

Players were introduced, the national anthem was sung by Jeff Jimerson and the entire arena, and the puck dropped. I'll be honest - the Pens didn't play their best game. Far from it. The first goal of the game appeared to come off the stick of Nashville defenseman PK Subban, but it was overturned when Coach Mike Sullivan successfully challenged that a player was offsides. The end of the period saw three quick Penguins goals - one from Evgeni Malkin on a 5-on-3, one from Conor Sheary, and another one off a bad shot (by Nick Bonino) that bounced off the back of a Predators defenseman and into the net. We'll take what we can get.

I was thrilled and very cordial with the Predators fans sitting next to me. Then, because I was having such an amazing time, the Penguins didn't register a shot on goal for the next 37 minutes. THIRTY SEVEN MINUTES! ...and the Preds began to chip away at the deficit. A power play goal from Ryan Ellis, a goal off a deflection and credited to Colton Sissons, and the tying goal - a blast from Frederick Gaudreau. My heart sank and, according to Wheat, I sat in complete silence until the Pens broke the tie. Our Predator-loving neighbors began to frustrate me and I bit my tongue. A Preds fan threw a catfish onto the ice, which promptly exploded and sent fish guts flying in every direction.

We’ve got a (really gross) catfish in Pittsburgh pic.twitter.com/BuQWs7nvcW

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) May 30, 2017

Things were looking pretty bleak and I was absolutely dreading overtime when rookie Jake Guentzel answered my prayers with a beautiful goal. The arena erupted, screaming, waving towels, and singing along with Andrew W.K.'s "Party Hard," which the Pens have hilariously adopted as their goal celebration song. Bonino scored an empty-netter to seal the 5-3 victory a couple minutes later, despite the team being outshot 26-12 in the game. My word.

The drive from Pittsburgh to Columbus, Ohio after the game can only be described as euphoric. We excitedly discussed each goal, each penalty in detail and arrived around 3:00 AM. We checked into our hotel, slept for four hours, and hit the road again at 7:00 AM. And by "hit the road," I mean that my saint of a husband drove while I slept in the passenger seat and dreamed of hoisting the Stanley Cup.

Spoiler Alert: The Penguins soon did just that when they beat the Predators in six games to win their second consecutive championship and the fifth in franchise history.

And man, being there to watch Game 1 was worth every single penny.

Happy Thoughts Thursday

Summer is coming. I can feel it in the air, guys. Our evening strolls along the canal leave us glistening with sweat and we finally caved and turned on the air conditioning this week. Game of Thrones has been killing it, Wheat isn't working any Fever games this summer, and the sun stays out longer and longer every day. How could I possibly complain when life is this good? Here are some of my recent happy thoughts:

+ My Sister Came to Visit! In reality, she came home for the first time since October to meet our beloved niece, but I'll pretend it was to see me. We spent some time together in both Ohio and Indianapolis and it was beyond wonderful to see her beautiful face. When she and my mom visited Indy, we took them to Scotty's for dinner, devoured some frozen yogurt, country line danced in the living room, and laughed until we cried. I think it's about time that I booked a trip out to Arizona...


+ Last Weekend. It was the perfect mix of relaxing and exciting, calm and cool. Our leasing office gave us free tickets to see the minor league baseball team on Friday night, so we watched the Indians beat the RailRiders (who actually had Nick Swisher for the series), 5-1. It was a drizzly evening, but our seats were sheltered, so we enjoyed some ballpark food and the fireworks that followed in complete comfort. We also won a $10 gas card and two Grand Slam breakfasts from Denny's, so I consider the night a total win. On Saturday night, we went to the drive-in theater for a triple feature because we're insane. If you're wondering, Jungle Book was amazing, Keanu was stupid, and The Nice Guys was funny and entertaining.


+ Honeymoon Planning. Wheat and I are mostly booked for our honeymoon next month. We're officially hitting London, Amsterdam, and Munich and I spend every second of every day dreaming about what we're going to do. Do you have any suggestions for me? Must sees and dos, restaurants, etc.? I've been to London before, but it was over ten years ago, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Prepare yourselves for the blog posts to come...

+ Chalk Competitions. I found out that Garfield Park and Conservatory was hosting a chalk art competition this weekend, so I forced asked Wheat to check it out with me. There were intricate drawings of Bernie Sanders, the DeLorean from Back to the Future, and more cats than I can count. The ones below were my three favorites:


+ Indianapolis. With the 100th running of the Indy 500 this weekend, my adopted city has turned the charm on full blast. Decorations and signs welcoming race fans adorn storefronts. The JW Marriott pulled out all the stops with a massive decal on its facade. Even the geese and ducks knew it was time to show off, so they've been waddling around with their new babies. It's a great time to be alive around here.


Have you been to London, Amsterdam, or Munich?
Do you want to squeeze my niece, too?
What's making YOU happy this week?

You can find me in St. Louie

For Martin Luther King weekend, Wheat and I visited my good friend Hannah in St. Louis. I'd been meaning to make the trip since she moved there a few years ago, so it was long overdue. Despite my delay on the visit, Hannah didn't hesitate to flex her hostess muscles when she put us up in an enormous suite at the Crowne Plaza hotel downtown. Much to our surprise, our room was essentially an apartment with a separate living room, kitchen, bedroom, and balcony overlooking the Mississippi River. Even better, we could see the Gateway Arch from the hotel's outdoor courtyard.

The night we arrived, we headed to The Loop, a strip of bars, restaurants, boutiques, coffee shops, and more, for dinner. The annual Loop Ice Carnival happened to be going on, so we walked up and down the strip admiring ice sculptures as we waited for our table. We made a quick stop at Blueberry Hill, a popular St. Louis restaurant and music club, before heading to Salt + Smoke, a Texas-style barbecue joint, for dinner. My pulled pork sandwich and potato salad were things of absolute dreams. I'm a sucker for all things barbecue, but this was honestly some of the best I've ever had. Plus, who wouldn't love a place with a sauce called 'I Can't Even?'

The next morning, Hannah and Connor picked us up for a tour of the Anheuser-Busch brewery. The free, 45-minute tour included a stop in the famous Clydesdale stables, a peek into several of the brewery's buildings, and two free drinks, which for me is code for soda. Even as a non-drinker, I'd absolutely recommend the tour to anyone who's interested in the history of the company or the brewing process.

After the tour, we made our way to Ballpark Village near Busch Stadium for lunch and the NFL playoffs. Fittingly, we decided to eat at the Budweiser Brew House because the massive screen in Fox Sports Midwest Live! was too awesome to pass up. The two-level entertainment complex houses the Fox Sports Midwest broadcast studio, a piano bar, the Cardinals Hall of Fame, a mechanical bull, several restaurants, and the perfect atmosphere to watch a game...and by perfect, I mean they replace commercial breaks with entertaining YouTube videos on the main screen. We spent a couple hours there, watching the Panthers beat the Seahawks, eating lunch, and sampling toasted raviolis (deep-fried raviolis that you dip in marinara sauce), a St. Louis staple.

Once we'd had our fill, we decided to explore the building a little more. We stumbled across an incredible mural of Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan Musial made entirely of Rubik's cubes. Think about that: Someone positioned hundreds of Rubik's cubes to create those pictures. We also snuck up to the closed outdoor bar to check out the incredible view of the ballpark and decided that'd be a pretty dreamy place to catch a game.

The rest of the evening was filled with bowling (I refuse to disclose my scores), an Uber ride back downtown, and a nice dinner date with Wheat. Despite the subzero wind chill, we decided to walk to Bailey's Range, a hipster burger place where we split a delicious craft burger, fries, and milkshakes.

The next morning, we checked out of our hotel and walked to Pi Pizzeria, the home of President Obama's favorite pizza. Seems weird since it's not Chicago deep-dish, but once it was delivered to our table, we immediately understood why it has the presidential seal of approval. Drool-worthy much?

After lunch, we knew we had to work off some calories, so we made our way to the City Museum. It's nearly impossible to describe this place to someone who hasn't been there, but it is truly one of the coolest things I've ever seen. The closest comparison I can come up with is Discovery Zone for adults. Unfortunately, due to the low temperatures, the outside areas were off-limits, but we spent hours climbing through massive tree houses, caves, and spiral staircases. We watched fish, went down incredible slides (including a 10-story spiral slide), listened to a massive pipe organ, and played like kids on a playground for the first time in years. Every twist and turn revealed something new to explore and I desperately want to go back in the warm weather to take advantage of the ball pit and other areas. The upper levels serve as a quasi-museum with random things on display, including Big Boy and other figures, the world's largest pencil, a functioning circus school, and old pinball machines. An indoor skate park with rope swings and a warped wall were teeming with kids enjoying their holiday and I shrieked as I attempted to walk on the hamster wheel. If you take one recommendation from this post, it should definitely be to check out this incredible place and architectural wonder for yourself.

Afterward, we drove to Hannah's apartment, where she gave us a quick tour of the beautiful Forest Park area and I was reminded that January probably isn't the best time to visit. As if Hannah hadn't already outdone herself, she also got us tickets to watch the Penguins play the Blues at Scottrade Center that night. So, we headed there early so I could drool over warm-ups and marvel over our awesome seats. I'm seriously spoiled. The Penguins lost, 5-2, but it was really cool to watch them play in a different arena. Evgeni Malkin and Chris Kunitz scored the two Pittsburgh goals and I mourned over the fact that Miami alum Jeff Zatkoff started in net over Fleury. Regardless, we had an amazing time, even with the heckling from behind us.

Now I'm daydreaming about my next visit and thinking of ways to repay the favor when she comes to Indy. We don't have Obama's favorite pizza, but we do have some pretty delicious breadsticks at Kilroy's. Hopefully that will count for something.

NHL All-Star Weekend in Columbus

If you know me at all, you know about my Canadian-like love for hockey. So, when I first learned that Columbus was hosting the 2015 NHL All-Star Weekend, I made a mental note to attend, at the very least to check out the festivities. Then, quicker than I expected, that very weekend rolled around and we found ourselves in Buckeye-land for some icy celebrations of both the sport and dessert variety.

First things first, we stopped at the Greater Columbus Convention Center for NHL Fan Fair. Despite the long lines for everything, the convention completely exceeded my expectations. With interactive games, autograph and Q&A sessions, and collectibles galore, the event was my personal version of hockey heaven. Although both Crosby and Malkin backed out of the weekend celebrations due to injury, they were all over the fan fair in the form of pictures, statues, and hockey cards. I took copious pictures. Duh.

While Filip Forsberg signed autographs, I tried to force Wheat to flash him the Predators shirt he was wearing underneath his pullover. No such luck. I bought hockey cards, played Puck-O (which was a giant version of Plink-O), won a Rick Nash 5x7 picture, admired the All-Star Draft stage that was used the night before, and ate pizza. I got autographs from two members of the U.S. Women's Olympic Team in Sochi (goalie Brianne McLaughlin and defense(wo)man Gigi Marvin), held their incredibly heavy silver metals (USA! USA!), hung out with the Oscar Mayer wienermobile, admired the Stanley Cup from afar, and compared my hand size to some of the NHL's finest.

Best of all, I forced begged Wheat to indulge my CROSplay fantasy -- see what I did there?! -- and try on full Sidney Crosby gear and pose for a picture kissing me. I asked the unsuspecting stranger behind me to take the picture and explained that I wanted it to look like I was kissing Crosby himself. Like the best friend I never knew he'd be, he responded, "Understandable."

Once we had our fill of hockey, we made our way to TJ and Tasha's apartment where, yet again, Tasha put all other hostesses to shame by popping a bottle of champagne and feeding us s'mores cupcakes in honor of our engagement. Excellent.

After a couple hours of conversation, we decided to head to dinner at The Old Mohawk, where we watched the Skills Competition and I ate a grilled cheese sandwich stuffed with mac & cheese and pulled pork. Yep, it was as good as it sounds. We promptly pretended that the cupcakes earlier weren't actually dessert and made our way to Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. If you haven't been, go. Run. Don't walk. You can sample as many flavors as you want, but I highly suggest Brambleberry Crisp and Riesling Poached Pear Sorbet.

I know we're getting old because we called it a very early night, but Tasha impressed yet again by treating us to a delicious breakfast and warm, mulled apple cider the next morning. Despite the rain/ice hybrid that was falling, we decided to check out the Winter Park near Nationwide Arena. The park, complete with bonfires, a giant snow slide, an ice skating rink, concessions, a replica Blue Jackets locker room, NHL 2015 on XBox, a live country band, and more Canadian beer than I can name, was absolutely perfect.

We opted with Katzinger's Deli for lunch, where I devoured an authentic reuben, a pickle straight from the barrel, and my very first cheese blintz. We closed the trip with a quick stop at Pistacia Vera, the cutest little pastry kitchen in the German Village. I don't even like the chocolate and peanut butter flavor combo, but I couldn't resist buying a Buckeye macaron. When in Rome, eh?

I didn't want to leave, but heavy snow was threatening. So, we bid our farewells with the knowledge that we'll back in one short month for their Columbus wedding! Hooray!