I warn you that this is going to end up being an extremely long post. I could always break it up into smaller parts but I know if I did that, then I would never finish my explanation of what went down. You understand that, right?
Okay.
So we got up at 3:30 in the morn' on Saturday to get ready to leave by 4. Tamara woke me up by telling me the Sabres lost in OT to the Bruins and I was like 'k'. I mean, we figured that they at least got a point so it was no biggie. We drove over to Tim Horton's after we were all packed and ready to go, and got some much needed caffeine and sugar for the hours ahead of us. Then we were on our way to Ottawa.
The drive was not bad at all. I thought for sure we might hit traffic or tons of construction at one point (thank God for it being a weekend though). The only hiccup that occurred was that the Denny's we were planning on going to had been closed for 'training in progress'. TRAINING IN PROGRESS! Who the hell closes their Denny's because of that? You're supposed to have people train by serving customers, that simple. We had to opt for a McDonald's instead. Poor Tamara didn't even eat her McMuffin and I don't blame her one bit.
We made it to the border and the second lady we had to go through asked who was the Sens fan in the car. Tamara and I looked at each other, and were like 'neither of us.' We could have said there was one in the backseat with Patty the bobblehead being back there but then that's when they would have pulled us over.
At one point on the road, this massive bus had passed by us on the highway in Canada. Both Tamara and I looked, and it was the Kitchener Rangers bus! Their logo was on the side and it through us off because we just saw the 'RANGERS' and thought it was the New York Rangers for a second. It was pretty neat. We tried to follow them since we figured they knew where we were going but that didn't go quite as planned.
After not that much time, we ended up in the city of Rideau, which is a part of Ottawa and headed to our hotel. Not the best thing in the city but we're college students and we're cheap. It had to do. We couldn't check in yet so we went to the Rideau Shopping Centre that was a few blocks down from the hotel. This Centre was HUGE! It had three floors and definitely puts the Galleria to shame. They even had a whole store dedicated to the Senators. We went in there and Tamara wanted to ask about any Heatley shirts but then we probably would have gotten killed.
I tried my first thing of poutine at a place in the food court, and it was delicious. Tamara told me that it's an acquired taste but when I tried it, I liked it immediately. I'm not even fond of gravy. It was extremely yummy and I almost ate the entire thing if it hadn't filled me up so quickly.
After we ate, we headed out to Stiddville to pick up one of Tamara's friends that she went to college with. She was incredibly nice, and showed us a shortcut of how to get to Scotiabank Place, haha. It is seriously just over a hill and out in the middle of nowhere. It's also EXTREMELY huge. I couldn't believe how big of an arena it is, but we're getting to that later.
We swung back over the hotel and hung out a bit before then going to Swiss Chalet for lunch. You have no idea how much I adore that restaurant. It might be my most favorite one ever. It's a shame that there's like, three left in the Western New York area but they have amazing food. I was so excited when I found out we were going there. When we arrived, we noticed how on the wall they had a little wooden plaque that had a few of the Senators from the pre-lockout years and Patrick Lalime was on it. We were going to try and buy it off of them but that didn't turn out as planned.
Parking for Scotiabank Place sucks for the record. It was crazy getting out of there after the game. We saw a few Sabres fans while getting out and heading to the doors, and we walked in. It's a beautiful arena and we walked around the entire place (I think). They only had two floors and to get to the third level, you had to walk up some stairs from the second level to get up there.We sat in the kiddie section so I think that saved us with the heckling. We DID get the occasional 'Buffalo sucks' comments though, but whatever. The only time we said anything against the Sens fans was how Dany Heatley had more goals than Daniel Alfredsson.
Let me tell you something though. I'm sure this is the same with all Canadian arena, but Scotiabank Place put the HSBC Arena to shame with the noise in there. It was incredible. We should be ashamed of ourselves for not being loud enough. I loved the atmosphere there, and even though the Sabres lost, I think I would love to go back and watch a game there again sometime.
The next day was full of fun filled events as well, but Tamara pretty much covered what happened then. This trip was loads of fun and when I officially unpack at my new house and get the desktop computer up and running, I will have videos and photos.
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