Happenings to the East

Last week, Jonell and I snuck over to Duluth to visit Jake for the afternoon. As soon as we hooked up, I joined Jake and a couple other of the CSS skiers for a ski at Snowflake.For early season skiing, conditions were great. It was a blast to hook up with Jake for the skate ski workout.

Cruising along.

 

    Jonell and Jake in front of the main building at CSS. One of the coolest buildings in Duluth IMO. A short trip but good to catch up and visit.

Over the weekend, Jon had a tourney in Bemidji. With a wedding going on at Maplelag, we weren't able to make it over except for Sunday. I caught the morning game at Nymore which is just a few blocks away from the new Sanford Center where BSU plays. A win that morning put them in the Championship for the afternoon.  Nymore is a older arena with some good character. The parents of the teams don't seem to like watching games there but the kids like playing there because the ice is good. Cold, hard and fast.

The Champ game was at the new Bemidji Community Center arena. The new arena is next to the high school and since I was there last year, they expanded on the upper level, putting in a huge concession area with a nice window to look outside. Jon walking past getting ready for the game. Didn't get more and better pictures to capture the feel but the lobby heated viewing area with a panoramic view is one of the best in the state.

The kitchen for the concession stand is the largest I have seen in any arena in the state.

The newly expanded area features the banners of the state tourney visits and also one of the late George Pelawa who was Mr Hockey in 1986 and drafted later that summer in the first round of Calgary. George was a SR when I played hockey as a sophomore. I remember the year we went to Bemidji to play the hs. I was trying to crack the varsity lineup but didn't play that game and played the jv game. In the lobby in between periods of the varsity game, there was a group of us and someone was mouthing off. George's brother Joe was nearby and thought it was me and next thing I know, I was slammed up against a wall and did some fast talking to Joe to get myself out of that situation. Anyways, a memory I never forget and no harm done. Maybe saw George play 4-5 games including the state tourney. He was a player not seen like him and there has been no one like him since.  Very sad story, click here for video.

The corner bar is a good memory from the summers working in Bemidji during college. A super small burger joint that had the best in town but now rebuilt with 10 times the space and accommodating the college scene at the nearby BSU arena.



The championship game had Jon's team facing off vs the tourney host Bemidji. Jon squared off most faceoffs with a summer teammate on the CanAm team who was a center for Bemidji. Lakers lost 1-4 but a nice runner up finish in the 12 team tourney.