"Even the Bridges are Yellow"

Pittsburgh has a unique distinction in the professional sports world. There are three professional teams here, the NFL Steelers, the NL Pirates and of course the NHL Penguins. All are Black and Gold. While the modern Pen's gold is more mauve than yellow-orange, its a tribute to this city that its black and gold. Mary Jane Kudrick summed it up best "Even the Bridges are Yellow".

Bridges are of course an important part of this city as the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers join in downtown Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River. But this trip isn't about running water, its about frozen water, so the teams boarded their buses and headed about 20 minutes into downtown Pittsburgh for a stop at Mellon Arena, further known as "The Igloo".

The Igloo's name comes from its large igloo like dome. Much like "The Joe", the Igloo holds a lot of hockey history. But of course naming rights make the building owners a lot of money, in this case, not the Penguins which is why they are fighting for a new arena, so they can get out from their current contract at Mellon.

The teams disembarked the buses and made their way through the players entrance/loading dock area and proceeded up to the top of the lower level. Igloo officials directed the team to a corner section away from any player entrance, and the team and parents were confined to the area. The team was rushed into the arena because another charter bus had to unload its hockey team. This team however got to park in the loading dock!

The Penguins were already on the ice doing their pre-game skate. Several of the younger players worked to get players attention, perhaps none as hard as PeeWee goalie Kaitlin Cain. Her hero, Pen's goalie Marc-Andre Fluery wears the same bright yellow/orange pads that Kaitlin does. She had hoped to get him to autograph her blocker. But alas no autographs today. One PeeWee did score a broken stick from one of the Penguins. The Midgets basically sat and watched, calling out to a few players.

Ed. Note: Sydney Crosby "IS" that good! His shot release is so quick the staff photographer for the Lightning covering the event was complaining about not being able to get good shots.

The Hurricanes took the ice next to a loud cheer from the 80+ people in attendance. Again, it would not be possible to score any autographs from the session, so the players sat and watched the players do their thing. The teams were eventually escorted out of the building and back to the buses.

In an interesting chance meeting, Craig Adams, winger for the Hurricanes sporting one nasty black eye, stopped PeeWee Coach Ted Cook and asked him what was up. Adams seemed to take a bit of an interest in what we were doing and probably talked with Coach Cook, and a few others about the kids for several minutes before he boarded his charter bus.

The next stop was the Spaghetti Warehouse, very similar to the same place the team ate at in Toronto. After leaving lunch, the buses took the Duquesne Incline. The Incline is similar to a cable car, but on rails that moves people up the side of a mountain. This location provides one of the greatest views of the Pittsburgh skyline.

After the incline, a decision was made to skip the Sports Museum and head back to the hotel which had pre-checked us in. Everyone pretty much took the time to regroup and recharge their batteries before heading back to the Igloo tonight.