Madison, WI trip report -- Part Four -- Hockey

Our last night in Madison, Husband and I went to see the UW Men's hockey play. It was only the second time ever that I've been to a hockey game.

By contrast, Sister's first date with her boyfriend was to a hockey game. Her boyfriend was trying to tell her what was going on, but she snapped that she knew what was going on, after all, she plays hockey. With men probably twice her size.

Anyway, here's a picture of the Kohl center, which we had to slog through slush to get to. The sidewalks weren't cleared, despite the city or university knowing that there would be many people trying to walk from the parking ramps to the Kohl center. My patience with the snow was wearing thin.

Once inside, it was nice and toasty warm. Look, they have art by Dale Chihuly, a former UW student and world renown glass artist. Love his stuff. First time I saw his art was in Taiwan years ago. Didn't know Chihuly was a UW alum until just now when I looked up the Kohl Center. Gotta love the internet.

Brother-in-Law had mentioned that the concessions sold beer, but we didn't see it. Surprisingly, we didn't go looking too hard.

I like this picture because you see 2 very Wisconsin Zambonis:

I came prepared with knitting. It's a strip of the sashing from Brother Two's afghan. Basically 20 rows of stockingnette, 20 rows of reverse stockingnette. Practically mindless.
My favorite part was watching the UW band and the students dancing in the student section. I'm not a sports fan and so didn't realize that there were dances for specific songs, like the arms moves for "YMCA." It was fun to watch an entire seating section moving en masse. Some songs I knew, like "Tequila" "On Wisconsin" and "When You've Said Wisconsin, You've Said it All" which Budweiser stole for a jingle (replace Wisconsin with Budweiser, and you might remember this).

I also heard one I didn't know -- "If You Want to be a Badger" which Husband said he learned in elementary school. The Wisconsin mascot is the badger. It was fun to see an entire student section doing these dances in unison. Again, gotta love the internet. You can find almost anything on YouTube. These videos were not taken by me, just to be clear.

During one of the breaks in between periods, some pee wee hockey was played. So very cute. Kids falling, running into and over each other. I could tell at least one was a girl. The long hair gave it away.

Yes, there was some actual hockey being played. There was a tie, and then overtime with no scoring and then double overtime with a shoot out. Wisconsin lost in the end. It was a fun time anyway.