NYC prelude

My husband is a huge ice hockey fan. Specifically, a Detroit Red Wings ice hockey fan. He's got the jersey, he watches old games, he himself plays for the Norwest Emporers and he's even imposed 'distance from ice rink' as a criterion for where we live.

Suffice to say, watching a real live National Hockey League (NHL) game would be the dream for him. So six months ago I started planning a surprise trip to America for his 30th birthday. The Red Wings were playing a home game in Detroit on the night of his birthday. I booked Delta flights to New York, flights to Detroit and one night's accommodation at the Detroit Greek Casino Hotel. The Red Wing's home rink was the Joe Louis Arena, and I discovered that the rink offered fan tours to the locker rooms and commentators boxes. (Booked.) I found out that for a $50 donation, I could have a special birthday message come up on the video board during the game. (Locked in.)

Everything was planned and booked, and MP had no idea! All he knew was that he had to take a week off work as we were going away. As I had got the whole family in on the surprise, his guess was that I had organised a big family trip to Ayers Rock (which he wasn't quite thrilled about).

Then... disaster hit. NHL announced a lock out.

From my simple understanding of the lockout, there was/is a dispute between the hockey league and the players, over money. So as no one was/is yielding, all games have been suspended until further notice.

One of MP's good mates Jae (another hockey fanatic who had been helping me organise the trip) was the one who alerted me of the lockout. His advice was that I had to tell Merv so that he could keep on top of the lockout news.

So much for the surprise. I had planned for him to find out where we were going once we arrived at the airport and I told him which flight number we were boarding. Then he would have checked the board to find out which check-in aisle we needed to go to, then "SURPRISE! We're going to New York!"

Instead, I pulled up the Flight Confirmation email on my iPad and a picture of the Joe Louis Arena seating chart. Whilst he was reading in bed, I handed my iPad to him. The shock look of surprise lasted for approximately 1.5 seconds before pure disappointment hit.
"NOOO! There's a stupid lock out!"


... Which is how we ended up spending two weeks in New York City.

Stay tuned for our NYC trip in the next post.