Going Back to Raleigh...

...to Raleigh, to Raleigh. Going back to Raleigh - I don't think so.

(my apologies to L.L. Cool J)

Actually, we did take a trip three hours across state to head back to Raleigh on Saturday of this past weekend. Part of our family Christmas gift was tickets to the Carolina Hurricanes hockey game. The other part was incentive for our son to get back into the groove of walking after six weeks from his knee surgery (he's out of the wheelchairs and now getting around just fine - no running yet, but the surgery seems to have done the trick).

We took off in the van on Saturday morning, had lunch at Kanki (our favorite Japanese restaurant - since the Japanese in Hickory stinks on ice) at the mall, then shopped around a bit (didn't buy a thing though). Then we drove up to Wake Forest to check out the old houses we lived in (mostly just a drive by for old times sake). Then before the game, we checked into the North Raleigh Hilton where we were staying for the night and got changed into our jerseys.

The game was a lot of fun. Carolina was wearing their new, black home jerseys though (more merchandising for the fans to purchase I guess). They were playing the Boston Bruins, who were very good and beat us 4 to 2. Still, for us, the game isn't about winning (though that would be nice). We so enjoy going to hockey games in person, so you can scream and get psyched and just have a blast. Much better than watching hockey on TV.

We got back to the hotel around 11pm and flipped on the TV. Found Star Trek: First Contact on so we watched the last hour. The Hilton has these fantastic, widescreen LCD TV's in all rooms - and most of the channels were in HD to boot. It was a nice way to unwind before bed.

Before driving back home on Sunday, we had to hit another favorite restaurant for brunch. This time it was the Twisted Fork where kids eat free on Sundays. So, we had a little savings. Good thing too as my son ate more than any of us at Japanese the day before. It's tough having a growing pre-teen. He slept on the way home, and my wife watched some Grey's Anatomy episodes on her iPod. Thus, I made great time driving home while listening to the First Wave channel on XM/Sirius.

It was a fun little trip and a great edition to the vacation time.