it's paddytime

Wings Championship Parade

June 6, 2008 at 10:22 pm Leave a comment

This morning I woke up with a mission.  I had to go to the Red Wings championship parade.  The past 3 times they’ve won the Stanley Cup, I missed out on the downtown celebration but this time I vowed to make it.  Having gone to the parade when the Pistons won in 2004, I knew it was gonna be crazy and a good time, and really, its a great way to top off the whole party. 

So, after another attempt at fixing my flat tire, time was running out, so I took my dad’s van down.  According to the traffic reports it wasn’t too bad of a drive down, so I took the Lodge to MGM casino, parked and had a nice stroll over to the beginning of the parade at Hockeytown Cafe.  There were so many people, it was great, so many smiles.  I decided to make my way down Woodward and find a spot to watch closer to Hart Plaza.   

The parade made its way down, saw a bunch of random people in nice cars, then Mickey Redmond the great broadcaster, a float here and there.  The first real excitement was seeing Steve Yzerman, I love him.  Then more players, Jiri Hudler was great, he’s so pumped.  Then all the rest, till Datsyuk, Zetterberg, then Lidstrom came down all with their trophies, the last being the cup of course.  A beautiful sight. 

After all that goodness, it was time to pack into Hart Plaza for some rallying.  It was God-awful hot, so I wasn’t sure how long I could hang around.  I think I might’ve been edging toward a heat stroke.  I’m glad I stayed long enough to join everyone in drowning out Kwame’s speech with boos.  I was actually surprised that he came.  I couldn’t hear any of what he said, but I found it on youtube, it was a dumb speech anyway (wed wings?), I could go on and on about it, but the day was about celebrating the Wings so it didn’t really damper anybody’s spirit.  Here’s what it was like in the crowd   After hearing the usual thanks to the fans and introductions of the players I decided to call it quits and head back. 

So, mission accomplished.  The only misfortune was forgetting to bring sun block.  Oh well. I love the D and the Wings for making the city rock.  Here are the pictures I took with my phone.  Here are some more amazing pictures from the Free Press. 

-p.

Entry filed under: fun, sports. Tags: Championship Parade, detroit, hockey, kwame, nhl, red wings, sports, stanley cup.