Royalty is going to freeze watching hockey & football in the Upper Midwest in December!

The King & I are getting ready to hit the road again in December. This time we plan to freeze. We can hope mother nature isn't too cruel to us.

Here's the game plan:

Saturday December 6th we have a flight booked on Delta Airlines that departs LaGuardia Airport at 10:05AM Eastern Time we're scheduled to arrive in Minneapolis/St. Paul at 12:14PM Central Time.

Upon arrival, I'll be renting a car from Alamo for the weekend.

Saturday December 6th Alaska Nanooks at Minnesota State Mavericks 7:07PM Central Time or
                                               
                                      Colorado College Tigers at Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs 7:07PM Central Time 

Sunday December 7th Jets at Vikings 12 Noon Central Time

Monday December 8th Falcons at Packers 7:30PM Central Time
          
We'll be flying back home Tuesday morning. Our flight on Delta Airlines departs Minneapolis/St. Paul at 10:10AM Central Time. We arrive at LaGuardia Airport at 1:54PM Eastern Time.

Please feel free to check back for all the details of how this getaway turned out. It's going to be a frosty good time.

If you want to join us, please let me know so I can arrange to make it happen.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

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

Royalty w/o 11/28 in review

LIU Basketball

After the busy Thanksgiving weekend, I got some much needed rest.

I went home after work Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday night.

Thursday night after work I went to see some college basketball in downtown Brooklyn at Long Island University (LIU). They played a local rival from Staten Island, the Wagner Seahawks.

Wagner came into the game with a record of 6-1. After they left Brooklyn, they were 6-2. The Seahawks lost to the Blackbirds of LIU, 78-73. The score didn't indicate the domination. The Blackbirds played really well from start to finish in beating up the Seahawks.

It was a nice night out thanks to the company of our friends Eddie Pelle, Phil Butleman and Frank Anichiarico who were also there with the King and I.

Friday morning the King and I left for our big trip to Minneapolis-St. Paul and Winnipeg.

Stay tuned as I'm going to be doing some special posts recapping that memorable weekend getaway.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman