Day 1: The Arrival

After faring a red eye, 3 members: Marissa, Jennifer, and Donna arrived at the Minneapolis Airport and met up with Cindy who arrived earlier that morning via Florida. We all made it, safe and sound with all our luggage. It was a good start to a week long adventure.

Weary-eyed, we got into our red minivan rental and met up with, Jomar, a St. Paul curler, at a cafe called the Bread and Chocolate where we ate delicious cinnamon swirls with dangerous frosting and warmed up with some steamed milk. Jomar offered to take us to the St. Paul club where we got to see an almost 100 year-old club (founded in 1912) complete with a window built in the 2nd floor men's bathroom where you can still watch curling below as you wash your hands. Brilliant!

We made a quick trip to Mickey's Diner (where they filmed "Mighty Ducks") to snap a quick picture for Cindy's dad.

Finally, we made our way south to the Mankato Curling Club. All is a blur since, I fell asleep, but not without first taking in the snow covered landscapes, iced over rivers, and real Christmas trees. Lucky for us, we brought the California sunshine, but don't let that deceive you. It's COLD over here, especially when the wind blows. I learned that you have to cover every exposed skin, or else it'll freeze off. At least, that's what it seemed like to this thin-blooded Hawaiian.

We spotted a familiar sight, Target, and bought some necessities, water, snacks, and joint juice. We ate some lunch. We took a quick refreshing nap after checking into the hotel. Last minute, a traditional, we quickly sewed our patches on our new fancy jackets embroidered by our Utica Mom, Liz. After a few hundred blood offerings to the curling gods, we were finally ready.

Practice started at 8 pm. We saw a ton of familiar faces. It felt so good to see them all again, kind of like a family reunion. There were some new faces as well. Don't worry we'll get to know all of them really soon. We tried out our new practice routine on all the sheets. We get 10 minutes starting on Sheet 2 to throw everything we needed to throw to figure out the stones, run of the ice, weird observations, and to dial in on our weight. It was a very good practice on such nice dedicated ice. It's good to be back again!

We ate dinner at Baker's Square and brought home some pie.

We ended the night with some funny photos and videos. You can see them posted on our facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bondgirlscurling

Not bad for our first day back in tournament mode.

Tomorrow's Schedule (Central Time):

11 am - Club Nationals Team Meeting

1 pm - Opening Ceremony (We're going to test out our live streaming equipment)

8 pm - 1st Team Bond Girl Game with Team Wisconsin

Here's the link to our webstream:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/team-bond-girls-curling-club-nationals

We might have a treat for you guys. Jomar and Travis from the St. Paul Curling Club might be our guest commentators for the game for all you curling fans out there. YAY!

Bond Girls are Back! Stay Tuned.

- Domino