About 2 months ago Scott and I were at the Devils vs. Hurricanes game in NJ at the Prudential Center. We met during the intermissions with some friends, whom we met in London who are living back in the states. We were chatting about the 'lack' of entertainment at the Devils games (i.e. contests, prizes, etc) compared to Hurricanes games. I guess they weren't impressed with our Nathan's hot dog eating contest or our Devils Dancers....I am not either but what can one say. After the end of the game we met up with them and wished them safe travels back to Philly that night and they said if we ever wanted to come down to give a shout!
Check out what you could get!
A few weeks go by and Scott and I looked at the NHL schedule and saw that his Buffalo Sabres were playing in Raleigh at the beginning of April. We decided to take up the offer and go to Raleigh for the weekend!!
We got in on Friday night and the city of Raleigh was hoping with a concert (some teeny-bopper concert) and the Queen's Motorcycle Convention or something like that. There were people everywhere.
We were met at the hotel by our friends and headed out to Poole's Diner. http://www.poolesdowntowndiner.com/ The food was awesome. I had a baked mac and cheese for dinner and it was to die for. I can never turn down a mac and cheese and this is now on the top of the list. After dinner we headed out to have a few beverages at The Raleigh Times (the Old Newspaper Building). The place was packed but we scored a table after some patient waiting and plotting to move to a quitier table! After a few local brews it was time to head back to the hotel only now seeing it was 2am....where did the time go????
Saturday Scott and I had a fantastic breakfast at Big Ed's in downtown Raleigh and did a little sightseeing down to the Capital building and the North Carolina History Museum. 
After a little sightseeing, we met for lunch and then headed to Fullsteam in Durham to test out a few of their brews. Scott tried his luck at a pinball machine and I think his luck as a child with that game ran out years ago....sorry hun! We took a tour of the Durham Bulls stadium and then walked down by the old Lucky Stripe plant which is a grogeous area with reastaurants and offices.
Love this old sign for an old lunch spot. "Home of the 15 cent lunch"
Check out what you could get!After our tour of Durham we headed back to Raleigh to watch the Saturday night Hockey Games and also the Final Four games. We got to Tobacco Road Sports Cafe with everyone else in Raleigh. The place was busy for the same reasons we were there....go figure. We waited patiently with our name on the list for a table (45 min wait) but waited more patiently for 4 people to leave so we could sit our butt's in some plush leather reclining seats with our own personal TV's.....and we SCORED!!! 5 opened up and we were in. We all got to watch our respective teams and called it a night after the games were over.
Sunday was the big day.....Hurricanes vs. Buffalo at the RBC Center. We were greated by a white SUV with Hurricane flags waving in the air. Scott was sporting some Buffalo gear so the trash talking started.
We had an superb tailgate with Carolina ribs, coleslaw, pimento cheese dip (a new favorite) and some local Carolina beers! Scott and I were introduced to a new game, washers. Game faces on it was time for us Jerseyites vs. Caniacs in a game of washers! Scott and I were having what we were told was some "beginner's luck" I would like to call it skill. Same thing right? There was a 3rd period timeout called by the Caniacs in which they rallied to a nice win over the Jerseyites. Close game and a rematch is on sometime.
We went into the arena for a game of skill and watched some exciting periods of hockey. We will leave it at that.
After the game we headed out for some dinner and had a nice time sitting outside. We said out goodbyes and thank you's for a great weekend and invited them up to Jersey for a Yanks vs. Red Sox game. Looks like the game would be in Sept. 23-25th which is the next series that is played back in NYC. Invitation is open some come on up!
