Ice meets metal

Nothing more Californian than going to a party. Not just any party, of course, but a Stanley Cup Championship party! Rayla and I made the trip down to the Honda Center on Saturday to join in the festivities with the Anaheim Ducks and their hometown fans.The Honda Center is an impressive place. Although, parking was tough to find, especially since the parking lot was being used for the party! But, a local business was kind enough to open up their parking lot for the evening, which meant we didn't have to walk to far, and it only cost $10. Damn enterprising Americans ;).
The crowd was already crowded around the red carpet that the players would walk up. The attendance was estimated at 15,000, and I'm pretty sure most of them were there before we were. Still, there was plenty of room to walk around and check out the Honda Center, and do some people watching.

I must admit, it was quite surreal looking at the Stanley Cup banners on the building surrounded by Palms.

There were a couple bands performing on stage as people waited for the players to show up. After the bands, we got a couple of speeches, which took us to the arrival of the players.

The players were paraded down the street behind a firetruck with sirens blaring. The boys rode in this double decker bus with an open top. They basically drove up the street and parked out in front of everything.
I'm not sure how they got from there to the red carpet though, but they did. Especially after the cup arrived. Which, of course, arrived in a helicopter. Trust me, these people know how to entertain! The helicopter was a police helicopter and landed on the street beside Honda Center. This was a four lane street, surrounded by people (well, surrounded by lots of cops, who were surrounded by people). The street also had street lights on it. This was not a very big area for this helicopter to land. It was an impressive site.

This picture doesn't do it justice. If you look in the rear side window of the helicopter, you can see a shiny thing. That's the Cup. Even from where we were standing, you could see it through the window without any problem.

The players (who somehow made it down to where the chopper landed) then walked the Cup up the red carpet. I tried my best to get a couple decent shots. However, I had the camera over my head, the light was fading and I was in a crowd of folks doing the same thing. Here's the best I could do.

I also managed to get a very weird shot. Not that I could ever replicate it, of course. Lets's call it art :).
And, of course, what's a party in Southern California without a star sighting. Although, it's also a politician, so I'm not sure if the Governator counts as a 'star sighting' anymore. The light was low at this point, so I had to take a picture of the bigscreen.

For good pictures, check out the official slideshow.