Everything Nathan wrote!

Detroit doesn't have a chance to match the DC adventure, I'm afraid. :-(

We walked and walked and walked.  It was so appropriate when I opened a 
bottle of Snapple and found (paraphrasing) "The average American takes 
18,000 steps per day".

Special thanks to John and Mary Beth MacKinnon for all they did to 
ensure we had a great time in DC.  You and DC were most outstanding and 
gracious hosts. Thank you!   We are so lucky to have our "Cruise Directors".

In addition to what Nathan wrote and personal for my family ...

    * Thanks to Adam Woden and Mike Machnik
      (http://collegehockeynews.com/) for taking in the Hockey-L
      Dinner.  It was great to see you, chat and get up to date with
      hockey and family stories.
    * Friday evening we took in "Ion" at the Shakespeare Theatre Co,
      across from the Verizon Center.  An extended family member
      (Elizabeth) who works there gave us a back-stage tour after the
      performance. It's an impressive facility and company.  Recommended.
    * Elizabeth told my 14-year-old Ben how great a "Matchbox" pizza is,
      so we had to try it.  H and 7th NW said my GPS, close to the
      Verizon Center and in the heart of Chinatown. When we got to the
      corner, the place was nowhere to be found.  We went down each
      street for a block and no "Matchbox".  Damn!  I asked a police
      office where it was and she cheerfully (DC people are much more
      cheerful than they drive) pointed it out.  It was another
      hole-in-the-wall, with the name prominently in Chinese, with the
      "Matchbox"  name in English vertically (as a match, I suppose)
      high above the street.  Using a brick oven and wood fire, the
      pizza was great and the people friendly.
    * Saturday we learned why the Embassy Suites Convention Center
      check-in time is 4pm.  When cleaning staff came to our room to
      clean, I told them we would be out in 30 minutes.  For 30 minutes
      the cleaner waited outside our room. reading and calling friends
      and family.  ESCC never told us anything untrue, but the only
      apparent reason we saw the beginning of the Thursday 5pm game was,
      after 5 hours of waiting (most of it somewhere between the hotel
      and the tidal basin), was requesting an audience with a manager. :-(


So, it's back to work to recover from our vacation.  Congratulations to 
all of the tournament teams and especially to National Champion Boston 
University!

cheers, wayne

Hampton, Nathan E. wrote:
> I know people probably wanted personal/event accounts AS they were happening, so I thought I would just throw the first stone out there and see what kind of ripples it makes.
> (1) The City: Loved it -- right up there with Anaheim and Boston as towns with so much to do, you cannot do it all in the few days you visit. Eric and Paula made the right move and got there early and are leaving late. DC is so good it made me sore -- physically aching legs from walking around so much. The monuments, the museums ("1934 A New Deal for Artists" at the National Portrait Gallery was my favorite), the cherry blossoms (particularly around the Tidal Basin where the FDR and Jefferson monuments are), and the weather we all so good that you have to go back for more.
> (2) The Venue: The Verizon Center is fine (no arena is great, except a few). Right on the metro stop, 2 blocks from the hotel, and right next door to the Hockey-L dinner.
> (3) The Dinner: great fun. Plenty of room for even the kids to run around, and the willing adults to table-hop (it was Easter afterall). The food kept coming, and  I really liked it. Two problems (differences) - first of all we are becoming a very small group, and the networking skills and abilities that Hockey-L presents are best when the group is big. We really need to work on that. We should have a person-occupied table with flyers (much like USCHO did a few years back in Boston) to let the thousands of college hockey fans that we exist and how to join. Secondly, The structure of the event did not allow for what is my most fun thing about the Hockey-L dinner (and one tradition we have not kept up), which is the standing up and introducing yourself and your group and where you are from. However, John and Mary Beth were tremendously gracious hosts and kudos to their choice.
> (4) The Games: better than expected, advertised, and some other frozen fours. I told my wife (who hates OT) when Miami got up 3-1 that "the way all the regional have gone this year, the game will get tied up in the last minute and we will go to overtime." The final was the FINAL, a great game of a great season. Bemidji State fans stayed and cheered, the Vermont-BU game was incredibly good fire-wagon hockey throughout the third period (and I am not a BU fan), and the locals who attended saw a tremendous display of what college hockey has to offer.
> (5) The Hotel: very nice and convenient. You are two to four blocks from hotel front door to Verizon front door. Plus they had a bar where the Vermont faithful gathered before the semifinal game. And it was right on the edge of Chinatown, with some incredible restaurants (a great restaurant is a hole in the wall, and these were). Plus less than two blocks from the Metro stop, which when arriving at 11PM at night, really helps.
>
> Nathan  
>