Not sure if you noticed yet, but I do a lot of traveling. Hardly a month goes by without me taking a trip for one reason or another, with most reasons being for work. Most recently, Ben and I took a vacation to St. Paul, MN. It may not sound exhilarating or tropical, because its not. Although, in comparison to Boston, it did feel slightly tropical. Anyways, we went for the men's Frozen Four. My dad and I started going to the Frozen Four in 2007 when it was hosted in St. Louis. It is held in a different city each year with it being at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN this year. My dad enters the lottery for tickets each year. So far, he has gotten tickets in 2007, 2010, and 2011. It's in Tampa next year, so we're hoping for a three-peat.

This year, my dad and my brother, Alexander, attended the games. At this time last week, we were unsure if Alexander would even be attending with us. He was hospitalized with a spontaneous pneumothorax on Friday, April 1 (was not a very funny April Fool's joke). On Sunday, it recollapsed meaning it would take him that much longer to be released from the hospital. Fortunately, they let him go home Tuesday night without any complications. This was great news considering the semi-final games were on Thursday. The bad news is that my brother is the biggest nerd I know. My parents had to force him NOT to do homework on the day of my wedding. Missing school for three days obviously did not sit well with him, so he decided to stay in Kansas on Thursday and Friday to attend school and meet up with us for the final game on Saturday.

Thursday morning, Ben and I flew out to St. Paul along with a plane full of other Boston hockey fans. There wasn't a whole lot of time to burn before we had to head over for the games. We made our souvenir purchases as soon as we got there as they usually run out quickly. The first game put UMD against Notre Dame. It initially seemed like an evenly matched game, but UMD pulled away for the win in the third period. The next game featured UND against Ben's Michigan. Being an Ohio State alum, I was rooting for anyone who played Michigan. Also, UND had a solid team, so I just figured they would win the whole thing anyways. Turns out, after a lucky goal and solid goaltending for Michigan, they advanced to the final game.

On Friday, my dad had to drive back to Kansas to pick up Alexander. Ben and I worked out in the morning and then spent the most part of the day at Mall of America and Ikea. We were told it was the largest Ikea in America, but I'm not sure it was that much bigger than the one in Boston. I love shopping, so I loved the mall. However, it wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be. Primarily, its big because it has two of every store that comes in a typical mall and there are roller coasters in the middle of the mall.

On Saturday, we all got our frozen custard fix (the rest of the country really needs to hop on that band wagon) before heading over to the MOA again. My dad and Alexander aren't as big into shopping as I am, so we went to the Frozen Four festival for a while before going to the game. As I had hoped, Michigan lost in overtime to UMD. Overtime didn't last very long, but you could tell from the get go that Michigan was tired. You knew it wasn't going to be a very long overtime. And unless there was a miracle, it wasn't going to end in Michigan's favor.



Our flight home wasn't until Sunday evening, so Ben and I just hung out at the MOA just to waste time. We got back to the great town of Boston and were greeted with a bustling T ride. We were confused as to why the T would be so busy on a Sunday night until we got closer to home and realized that a Red Sox game had just ended. They had just won their second game of the season. Unfortunately, its their eighth game overall. Glad I'm not a Sox fan...

...or this could be me every day.