Congratulations to the Carolina Huricanes for an outstanding season that ended in the playoffs with a win. For the first time in history Lord’s Stanley’s Cup will reside for a time in North Carolina. I am proud not only for the team but for how the fans latched on to this team and propelled them to the win. The hurricanes looked aweful in Edmington, and yet when they came home, they were looking good again.

I think its great to have a pro team in the triangle. The fans here are so into their teams, but up until now the fans all divided between UNC, Duke, and NC State. When a pro team comes to Raleigh, you combine all those fans and get them pulling for the same team, and your 7th man becomes quite formidible. My hope is that someday raleigh will get an American League Baseball team. There is already a baseball contingengcy that loves to go to Durham Bulls games, and they would automatically be on board if an MLB team came here. In addition you would have fans of the three schools who are board because there isnt much going on in the universities over the summer. A local baseball team would be just the thing for them.

Here is to the Carolina Huricanes and their success this year, and here is to the future of pro sports in the triangle. Lets see it happen.

Well we made the treck out to the beach and had a great time riding the waves. We left around 8:30 and arrived in Wrightsville around 11:00. The most dificult part about going to the beach in the summer is finding parking, and it took a little while driving around before we found a spot. We then got some lunch, rented a board for Brad Kinnison for $15, and headed out to the beach.

At Wrightsville there are designated surfing areas, and we quickly found where we found where we could surf. We went to the line between where the surfers were and the swimmers and started watching the guys that were already out there. They made it look so easy. A wave would come and they would hop up, and casually ride it all the way in to the shore. It is not easy however, and although we enjoyed riding the waves on our bellies, we didn’t have much success standing.

The water at Wrightsville was so beautiful, I have never seen it looking so nice before. The sand was perfectly smooth under your feet, and the water was a light greenish blue. When you were standing in 4 or 5 feet of water and everything was still, you could look down and see pebbles in the sand below you. I have only seen water like that once before and it was in the Caribean. Of course the Caribean was a lot more amazing, but this past Saturday was the most beautiful I have seen in North Carolina.

So anyway we body surfed and belly boarded and “surfed” the afternoon away, and left around 6 to head home. We had a great time, got our tan on, enjoyed the waves, and dubbed the year officially summer.

We are planning on going out again not this Saturday, but next, if the weather permits. One thing we would like to do next time is leave earlier, so that we can find a good parking spot quickly. If we left at 7 we would be at the beach by 9:30, probably a little while before most people arrive. Other then that we would hope everything would be just like this past Saturday, because it was such a perfect day to be riding waves at the beach.

Tomorrow, Sunday, and next Saturday the REI’s in Durham, Cary, and Raleigh (respectively) will be having their spring garage sales.  Basically at the garage sale REI sells cheap all of the stuff that was returned or damaged or anything like that over the past three months.  It is for REI co-op members only, but a membership is only $15 and it lasts for life.  So head on over to REI Durham tomorrow.  If we get back from the beach before 5 then I will definately be out there.  Also I’ll be heading out to Raleigh next saturday to check out what they have over there.

By the way the weather looks perfect for the beach tomorrow, and the wind is supposed to be west, which is good for surfing… we’ll see!

Try making your own little Zen garden online. If you need to do some serious unwinding try a weeks stay at the hotel.

Martin Nystrom is putting together a trip out to the Gulf Region to help with cleanup and reconstruction in the area. This is a very exciting opportunity to put your back into what you believe and help those in need. It will be organized by Samaritans Purse and will probably involve taking a few days off work, but they will be the best spent days off work taken all year. I am planning on going and Jillian would like to go as well, as long as it doesn’t coincide with her Costa Rica trip. If anyone is interested in making the trip down there and helping out, get in touch with Martin and he will make sure that you are included. Currently there is no definate date set, but the plan is to go down sometime in August or later. We shall see how things play out, and I’ll keep the bradlands updated on the subject.

Well it is on in Omaha, and 4 teams from the ACC made it out of the regionals and super regionals to go to Omaha. Unfortunately after knocking out Reigning World Series Champions Texas, NC State lost to Standford and was eliminated. However I am still pulling for all of the ACC teams to do well. It would be great if they could make a statement that the ACC is a college baseball powerhouse. Anyway here is a link to the CWS bracket to follow the progress and we’ll see who comes out on top. Personally I am pulling for Georgia Tech.

We are planning on going to the beach this Saturday and the weather looks fantastic. I have found web sites that are updated every day that give surf reports for wrightsville beach and some other beaches nearby. Here are some links:

Wrightsville Beach

Carolina Beach

Emerald Isle

Topsail Island

From what I have observed from checking the surf reports lately, winds 5-15 mph are good, and West winds are good. For Emerald Isle North winds would be good since that beach runs east to west. The idea is that winds comming from behind the waves are desirable. Good waves for NC beaches are waist high to a little over waist high. Head high is scarry and lower then waist provides some fun but not too many big waves. In feet, waist high translates to about 3 feet.

So far Saturdays weather report for Wrightsville Beach is that it’ll be totally sunny, and high 80s. Crossing my fingers that the winds and waves provide for some fun.

Here is something I thought was interesting.  Basically the UN has said some things about the US that we dont want to tolerate.  Thank you Bolton for standing up for the American people.  If you read all the way to the end, the article provides some interesting background on the relationship between the US and the UN.

Here is a link to pictures of James in Iraq.  I am so proud of him and what he is accomplishing over there.  Pray for him constantly, he is always in danger.

This is the day that has been awaited for four years by the entire soccer community (the world). Today the World Cup begins in Germany with a match between Germany and Costa Rica and a match between Poland and Ecuador.

Basically how this works is there are 8 groups, with 4 teams in each group. All of the teams in each group play all of the other teams in the group (six games per group) and the two teams with the best records advance to the next round. The US plays its first game on June 12th against the Czech Republic, and then it plays Italy and Ghana. We will need to win two of those three games two advance. Ghana isnt expected to be very good so we pretty much have to kill them. We then need to win one over either Italy (preferably) or the Czech Republic to advance. One thing that would be very nice is if Ghana beat either Italy or the Czech Republic, because its possible to end up in a 3 way tie if three teams end up with a 2-1 record and one has an 0-3 record. I am not sure what they use as a tie breaker but I think it might be whoever racks up the most goals.

So we shall see how the US does this year. For the record, the best that the US has ever done is advanced beyond the first round, and that has only happened once in 1994. They then were eliminated by Brazil, the eventual winner of the world cup. So we shall see if we can best that record, advance once again, and win it all for the first time in history. Go USA!