Royalty returns to the Twin Cities and Winnipeg over the first weekend in December!

Prince outside Target Field upon arrival

The last time the King and I went to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area was in the summer of 2010. That time we visited Target Field, the new home of the Minnesota Twins. We met up with other sports travel legends, Andrew Kulyk and Peter Farrell from Buffalo as well as Sean MacDonald who came in from Japan to join us along with his good friend, Peter Sharp aka Sharpie who still lives in Ottawa where Sean is originally from. The King and I were joined by our friends Bryan Gilligan and Lloyd Ramsland.

This time around, it was just the King and I as we returned to see hockey and football in the Twin Cities.
After almost an eleven year absence, we got to see the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul again. That's the home of the Minnesota Wild.

Back in 1989, when the State of Hockey as it's called, had a team called the North Stars who played at the Met Center. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to see a game there against the Pittsburgh Penguins who had Mario Lemieux at the time. Now that team is long gone as they moved to Dallas hence the Dallas Stars back in 1994.

In 2000, the NHL came to their senses and they decided to bring hockey back where it belonged in the State of Minnesota.

As a result, the King and I saw a Wild home game for the first time in February 2001.

This past summer the NHL decided that the team that was located in Atlanta needed to be relocated. They decided to bring back hockey north of the border this time. That's how the new Winnipeg Jets returned to the NHL to begin play in October.

With that being said, the King and I had to figure out a way to return to Winnipeg to see the new Jets play a home game. The first and last time we went to Winnipeg was back in March 1996 when we saw the old Jets play a few games in their old barn in the suburbs near the airport.

This time we went to downtown Winnipeg where the MTS Centre, home of the new Jets and former home of the Manitoba Moose of the AHL is located.

In addition, we returned to the Metrodome aka Mall of America Field as it's now known in Minneapolis which is the home of the Minnesota Vikings and former home of the Twins to see football.

Stay tuned for all the details of this amazing revisiting getaway to the Upper Midwest.

I'll be writing separate posts highlighting this epic excursion for your reading pleasure and educational needs.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman