Pace has been working at some Pats’ games to earn money for a school trip.
We signed him up for the Saturday game not thinking that it would be Frost Festival at REAL but luckily I popped into the Exhibition Grounds on Friday night on the way to supper with some friends and realised that I wouldn’t be able to get to where I normally drop him off right by the Agridome because of the festival.
(I popped by thinking I might get a single ticket to the Connor Bedard show but when I saw the roads were blocked closer to the stadium, didn’t want to walk in to the ticket office just to be told it was completely sold out as been the case for most games since Bedard came back from the World Juniors. Too bad I missed it – another five points for Bedard.)
Anyhow, when I dropped Pace off for the start of his shift, I was able to go right to the barricade but told him I’d have no idea where I’d be when his shift was over since people would be leaving the Pats game and Frost would still be going on so it might be chaotic.
I arrived back early and went right to where the road was blocked to traffic, turned down a parking lane and managed to find a single spot that was pretty amazing – *right* at the edge of the “Fireworks Fallout Zone” which is a huge area of the parking lot where they were setting off the fireworks.
I had no idea how to describe this area to Pace so decided to walk to the stadium and meet him there. As I said, I was early so went to the Frost gates, prepared to try to wrangle my way in without a wristband using “I’m only killing ten minutes to wait for my son” as an excuse but the security guard happily told me it was free admission after 9pm!
So I wandered though everything at Confederation Park and it was better than last year – seemed to have more “elements” for lack of a better term. (Also helped that when we went last year for Elvis Stoyko, it was -30 or something ridiculous and last night was like -2.)
After exploring for a bit, went to wait where I normally pick-up Pace at a side door of the Agridome and since people were steaming out, I popped in to warm up (even though it was only -2, I hadn’t really dressed for cold weather thinking I’d just wait in the car for him.)
Looked like the Pats had an after game skate going, likely connected to Frost, so watched that for a bit then Pace showed up. He was pretty tired so we just did a quick walk through Confed Park then back to the car since the fireworks would be starting within five minutes and we had a front row seat – literally!
