NBA All-Star Sunday

This past weekend was a long weekend in Ontario and we spent some time relaxing, but also did some fun things like go to the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday night!

NBA All-Star Weekend is an annual event full of basketball festivities, crazy slam dunks, and players just generally showing off their skills. This year was the first time the weekend was hosted outside of the US, and it culminates in All-Stars from both the Eastern and Western NBA Conferences facing off in the Sunday night game.

Tickets were very​ hard (and expensive) to come by, but Luke's friend, Steve, hooked us up with tickets to the event so this blog post could easily have been called "Steve Sunday"... it does have a nice ring to it... Thanks, Steve!

So, the NBA All-Star Game was insane. It started off with a little Cirque du Soleil performance, then Drake (along with 30 scantily clad NBA dancers) greeted all of the players as they were introduced. Then Ne-Yo did a lovely rendition of the American national anthem, while Nelly Furtado put her own personal touch on O Canada. It was interesting.

Before the game even started, Magic Johnson introduced Kobe Bryant and there were a couple of speeches... and if this sounds like a lot of name-dropping, it's unbelievably difficult to write anything about the All-Star game without doing so. Since we're on a role, Michael Jordan was there. And so was Ben Affleck. And Jon Stewart. Oh, and Sting did the half-time show. 

The game itself is essentially an opportunity for players to show off their skills which results in many 3-pointers and slam dunks. It's pretty amazing, but the game doesn't end up being overly competitive - after all, nothing is really on the line. It was just for fun, and ended up in a final score of 196-173 for the West. 

It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and we soaked it all in. Well, except for the $16 beers.

Quick flashback to a fun event we went to on Friday night at Ripley's Aquarium - Friday Night Jazz. On the second Friday of every month, Ripley's Aquarium gets a live jazz-style band in to play some tunes starting at 8 pm; this month it was Lady Be Good, and they were good. Not many bands can pull off an awesome cover of "Say You'll Be There" by the Spice Girls. We enjoyed it. Especially Luke.

The event was lots of fun; we enjoyed sipping on drinks, watching sharks and jellyfish swim around, and listening to some jazz to kick off our long weekend.

Now flash forward to the end of our long weekend, which we also spent with a few drinks, this time it was pub-hopping with two of our pals from Newfoundland. 

Despite all that, we still had lots of time to chill out. Here are some more photos from our eventful weekend:

​(SLIDESHOW)

This time last year we were learning how to make the traditional Newfoundland craft of Pillow Tops, and in 2014 we were painting away at a Clay Café! February seems to be a crafty time for us.

Also, this was our second trip to Ripley's Aquarium, check out our first trip here.