Northern Lights Qualifier – Day 1

The girls don’t start pool play till 3PM today so Jen and I started off with a nice walk around Minneapolis. The weather was a beautiful 58 and sunny just perfect for a nice stroll around the city. I get up here quite a bit on business so I was able to navigate around and show Jen some of the buildings and sites that I am familiar with. Matt and I are coming up here in July for the Twins Sox game so I wanted to take a walk over to the new Target field a check it out. Wow. Even from the outside it was a very impressive structure. We were able to stop in the gift shop and pick up an opening day shirt for Matt but that was all we could really see. Can’t wait for July. We made a quick Target stop for supplies and then went back to the hotel to meet the team for lunch ($5 foot longs for everyone).

The first match was against STC Xplosion a  team from St. Charles, Missouri. Both teams were pretty evenly matched as far as skill and size but in the end they out hustled us and we lost the match in two games. The next match went better against High voltage, a team from Texas. We won that one in three games. The final match of the day against Legacy Lightening from Michigan also ended in a victory for our girls. The girls took it to three games but outlasted the opponents and came away with the win.

The coach was in a foul mood today and she made the girls do pushups in the final match during the timeouts and after the game she made them run lines on the court and a full lap around the complex. It was funny hearing the comments from some of the other teams parents asking why the girls were running when they thought we had won the match. We did. Good thing they didn’t loose.

We all went back to the hotel and got cleaned up before the planned dinner. Tonight we had a reservation at ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ on 9th just off of Nicollet. Hell’s Kitchen reminded me of a cross between the House of Blues and Dick’s Last Resort. You enter off street level then take an elevator or stairs down (going into ‘Hell’) to the actual entrance. Once inside you are greeted with a funky combination of eclectic art, cabaret style seating in front of the stage (they have live music) and  cozy table in the main room and two ‘anti’ rooms.

The girls all sat at one table with the coach in the main room near the stage and the parents were ushered into the fireplace room away from the girls. We did not see them all night until a few of them showed up at our table asking for cash to pay their bill, which was the plan.

The food here was excellent. I thought Ted’s Montana Grill had the best Bison burger but this place has taken over as my choice for the best non beef burger. I ordered mine medium rare, with Blue Cheese and a side of Sweet Potato fries. They got the doneness just right which is not easy to do. At first look, the meat was brown all the way through but when you bit into the burger you then see just a tough of pink so it was perfect. If you have ever cooked bison, it can be tough to get the temperature or doneness correct. Since bison is so lean there is not much fat to make the burger moist. When we cook them we usually put a saucepan top over the meat when it is on the grill or griddle. This helps retain the moisture and makes for a nice burger. Other people will cut up sun dried tomatoes or other types of vegetables and mix them in with the meat to give the patty extra moisture.

Everyone at the table was complimentary towards the food and the wait staff. Highly recommended.

They also have awesome homemade peanut butter which I am getting all over the keyboard as I type this.

We got back to the hotel at about 11 so the girls had a quick team meeting to talk about tomorrow then we were all off to bed as they were pretty wiped out from the first day of play.

Tomorrow …pool play day two.