Harper's First Basketball Game - Eastern Conference Finals Game 1

Monday morning I got the itch.  I poked around the Internet over Mother's Day weekend researching Eastern Conference Finals tickets.  Minimum prices were around $200.  A tad unjustifiable at this particular stage.  Monday morning I noticed two new rows of tickets up in the corners for a reasonable price; compared to $200.  I sent my wife a quick message asking permission to go to the game, she said "yes", and I bought tickets for Wednesday's Game 1.

It's roughly a three hour drive from La Crosse, on the Mississippi River, to Milwaukee, on Lake Michigan.  It took much longer yesterday.  Two stretches along the interstate where we merged down to a single lane created serious gridlock.  We were literally in the middle of nowhere, yet barely moving.  Frustrating.  When we reached the State Fair Park area we hit real gridlock; evening commute traffic city-style.  While crawling along Harper tells me she has to go potty.  Stuck in traffic with a four year old who needs to go potty - a real parenting challenge.  We exited by Miller Park, where I happened to work before moving to La Crosse, and hit the surface streets.  Fortunately, we found a McDonald's by The Rave, a place I used to attend concerts, and all was well.  A few more turns and we were parking the car near the MSOE campus for only $20.  In the end, road construction and traffic turned a three hour trip into a nearly four trip.

I had hoped to arrive at the arena when gates opened at 6:00.  Given all of the delays we didn't arrive at the gates until 6:45ish.  TNT was broadcasting live outside and eliciting hoots from the crowd.  Once inside we found our seats and settled in.

Heck of a game.  Bucks started slow.  Giannis was finding open guys outside but the shots were not falling.  In the second half the shots finally started to fall.  Splash Mountain in particular got hot and the Bucks pulled away for the win.  Harper was great throughout and we made it all the way until the final buzzer.  Not bad for your first game; a win in the conference finals.

Following the game this little girl slept pretty hard as we drove to Nana's house to spend the night.