The HoopHall Invitational

We got to Miami several hours before the game. I had been able to park in the closest parking lot (available on ParkWhiz) to American Airlines Arena by using a 50.00 gift code ParkWhiz had given me to be used on the Thanksgiving holiday. Josh and Shelby had already arrived from the Fort Lauderdale Airport. We walked over to the Biscayne Shopping area next to the Stadium. They had a Five Guys so we headed for that to eat. It was a madhouse, but we finally got our food and ate. We walked around the shopping center and then went and saw the harbor. We then walked to the arena. We had to go through metal detectors which were not too bad except for the fact that they impounded Jonathan's nail clippers. We got to our seats and they were as good as I'd hoped. We were only a few rows from the court. Kentucky would be playing South Florida coached by former UK assistant Orlando Antigua. One of their players was the brother of former UK player Darmarcus Cousins. UK was expected to win easily. The Arena was roughly half full and most of them were UK fans. The Miami Heat mascot Burnie entertained everyone and seemed to have a special rapport with Josh.

The game was somewhat close throughout the first part of the game. Kentucky ended the half on a 15-0 run to take a 42-21 lead at the half. However, there was a scary incident in the first half. In a scrum for a loose ball, Tyler Ullis came up holding his arm. He left the court not to return until the second half (with his arm in a sling). Tyler is the player UK can least afford to lose. It turned out he had a hyperextended elbow. Uk ended up getting as much as a 31 point lead before winning by 21. We stayed and watched a little of the Memphis/Ohio State game and then left.

We walked back to the car to head to Fort Lauderdale. I had the bright idea of stopping by a Krispy Kreme on the way back. One, I wanted doughnuts and two, I thought it'd be something for us to eat for breakfast the next day. I got off an exit on the north side of Miami and we finally found it. Unfortunately, it was in a area that can be best described as "sketchy". Donna and Cheyenne didn't want to get out of the car so Jonathan and I went in to get doughnuts and milk. We got back and could tell they were really uncomfortable. They had seen several scary looking people wandering around so we hurriedly made our way back to I-95. We made it the rest of the way with no problem. We checked into to our resort and the room was as nice as I hoped. We were right on the beach. Josh had gotten food from Wendy's so we ate and crashed out.

We got up the next morning and I headed out to see the ocean and to run on the beach. I ended up ditching that plan after running about a mile on the sand and ended up going to the sidewalk for the rest of my run. Donna and We then went to a Wal-mart neighborhood Market for food for the week. We found out that we had to watch for drawbridges when we crossed back over the Intercoastal Waterway. When a tall boat/yacht went over, we had to wait just like one does for a train. We finally got our groceries and came back. We spent most of the day going back and forth to the beach and enjoying getting out in the surf. The only bad part of the day was keeping up with the UK Louisville football game. UK jumped out to a 21-0 lead only to have Louisville come back and win 38-24. So much for our hopes of going to a bowl game. I ended up ordering pizza out from a recommended place called Heavenly Pizza. The pizza was excellent. We watched a little TV and then went to bed.

We got up the next morning and headed for the worship services at Sixth Street church of Christ. We found the building with no problem. The brethren there were very welcoming and hospitable. One of the elders preached the a lesson about grace and it was one of the best ones about that topic I'd ever heard. Afterwards, we went back to the resort. It turned out the Jets game would be on early and the Cardinals game late. So, we watched football. The Jets won easily over the Dolphins. We kept up with the Giants who dug a deep hole against the Redskins and almost came back to win. We watched the first half of the Cardinal game. They struggled to a 6-3 lead at halftime. We headed for evening worship services at Sixth Street again. Afterwards, I found out the Cardinals had pulled out a 19-13 win. We went and got chicken from Popeyes. It was good but unfortunately, we were shorted a couple of pieces of chicken. We had enough though. We watched a little of the New England Denver Sunday night game and then went to bed.

In my next post, I'll let you know about what we did during the week.

UK Weekend

When Josh was at UK, I started what has become a tradition (in 2010). I end up going to the first UK home game of the year. It’s become my birthday present each year since it’s always close to my birthday. The earlier games in the season are generally easier to get tickets to. Josh was able to swing tickets for me the years he was there. Last year, I was able to get Lower Level seats via Ticketmaster. This year, Josh’s former roommate (the recently married Bryant Clemons) got tickets for us. This year for the first time I ever remember, UK had two home games on two consecutive days to start the season. Bryant got us tickets for both games so we were set! Josh and Shelby would get there Friday and Jonathan and Cheyenne on Saturday, so we’d get to have our whole family together.

Donna and I left out Friday morning. The trip up was pretty uneventful. The one big change on the trip is the interchange for the Western Kentucky Parkway and the Pennyrile Parkway (well, now it’s called I-69). I don’t really know how to describe it other than to say it’s no longer a simple interchange and you should really pay attention when you get close to make sure you go the way you want to go. There was some road construction and New Circle Road was busy as usual, but we made it fine. I had found a new Towneplace Suites over in the Hamburg area that I decided to try. It was about 15 minutes from Rupp Arena and about 5 minutes from where we’d be going to church Sunday. I rented a two room suite so we’d enough room for Donna and I, Jonathan and Cheyenne and Josh (Shelby would be visiting with friends and her parents). The hotel was very nice but the suite only had one bathroom which concerned me a bit for getting ready Sunday morning. Josh and Shelby got there about 4:45 and we headed out to eat dinner. We went to one of my favorite places to eat – BDs Mongolian Grill. You fill up a bowl with as much stir fry stuff as it’ll hold. I usually go heavy on the meat, but there are vegetables and sauces you can add as well. You then take it to be grilled and take it back to your table. The server brings rice and tortillas to wrap your food in. I had a coupon for a free bowl for my birthday so it was even better. We got done eating and headed for the game.

Our hope was to park in our usual spot at Memorial Coliseum. When we got there, the lot was completely full and we didn’t know why. We ended up having to park over by the K-Lair, so it would be about a mile walk. Fortunately, the weather was fine for walking and a lot of the walk was through campus. I found out later that the Lady Kats had a game at Memorial that night as well. We managed to make it to Rupp Arena a few minutes before tipoff. Our seats were excellent. We settled in to enjoy the game against the Albany Great Danes. Kentucky played OK but you could tell they weren’t a cohesive unit yet. They won by 13. We stayed for the Star of the Game interview (Derek Willis) and for Coach Cal’s post game show and then headed back. Josh took Shelby to a friend’s house to spend the night and we went back to our hotel for the evening.

We got up the next morning to have the hotel breakfast. I was not impressed by the choices so I made a side trip to Krispy Kreme. Jonathan and Cheyenne had left early that morning and got to Lexington after noon. We decided to go to Canes for chicken tenders. Bryant met us there. We had a really enjoyable time catching up with him. We went back to the hotel to rest a bit. There was a Culver’s within walking distance of our hotel so we went out for ice cream later. I kept up with the UK Vandy game on WatchESPN (amazingly enough I couldn’t find it on any of the cable channels in the room). It was just as well, UK played pretty poorly. Jonathan, Cheyenne, Josh and I headed to Chick-Fil-A to eat and then to the game. We were able to park in our usual Memorial Coliseum spot this time. Kentucky played NJIT this time. They had beaten Michigan last year and were one of the top three point shooting teams in the NCAA last year. They jumped on top 16-10 in the first four minutes hitting just about every shot they took. UK came back and ended up by 8 at the half. UK played much better in the 2nd half and ended up winning by 30. We didn’t stay for the post game shows since the game started so late (8) so we went back to the hotel.

The next morning we got up and went to North Lexington church of Christ (sharing the bathroom to get ready didn’t end up being an issue like I feared). This is where Josh attended while he was at UK. It’s a special place to us; they took really good care of Josh while he was there. It was good to see many of our friends there – it had been two years since we last visited there. One of Josh’s buddies – Davey Moster – came down from Cincinnati to see us. His brother Jake is a current student at UK and attends there. After services and taking with several people, we decided to go to one of our eating institutions – Five Guys. We had a great time there and posed for our usual Five Guys photo. But alas, all good things had to end. We all had to head for home. Our trip home was uneventful and we got back in plenty of time to go to services at our home congregation.

We had a great trip as usual, I am already looking forward to next year.