When I was first replying, I had written getting "a room in the arena near a
concession stand" and we could just eat arena-food while conversing with new
and old friends, but with arena-food comes arena-drink, so I erased it with
a shutter from the thought. IF there is a place in a two block walk that has
a buffet style service, then that would work in the short amount of time. It
is the ordering of food that takes such a long time, and if they have just
have sandwich-makings we can kill both birds with one stone -- eat and talk.

But locations further distant or slower on the service side may require a
more radical departure from the normal schedule. What was that one
restaurant two blocks from from the Boston Garden that we used twice or more
times -- that was great because we had the whole downstairs to ourselves. In
Anaheim, there was ONE restaurant across the street from the Duck Pond (and
the next one over a mile away) and fortunately we were able to get in there
(but with a shoehorn). This group is fairly flexible, and you have a captive
audience since we get to see each other just once a year.

If the time between games does not work out, then I think a lunch before the
first game on Thursday might be the easier option, particularly for you. You
are the cruise director and we are the Love Boat or the Minnow, which ever
one goes from port to port.

Nathan Hampton