Tonight we attended the first annual Wild season ticket holder BBQ on Raspberry Island in downtown St. Paul. Two trolleys ferried people from the River Centre parking ramp on Kellogg down to the entrance where we found:

• Coupons for a free brat or burger, chips, drink and Kemps IttiBitz ice cream
• A tent selling discounted Wild merchandise
• New owner Craig Leopold flipping burgers
• Tables with swag from channel 45 and the Pioneer Press
• Two caricature artists doing free drawings
• Lots of tables and chairs to sit and eat
• A stage for a live Hockey Unplugged with Kevin Falness, Dan Terhaar, Mike Greenlay and Craig Leopold
• A screen set up for the movie Miracle

I chatted briefly with Mike Greenlay (who plays in the Tapemark Charity Pro-Am) and asked him about the new owner. He said he worked with him before in Nashville and he thinks that Bob Naegele found a great successor in Mr. Leopold.

It was fun listening to Hockey Unplugged again, although a few of the questions asked weren’t the greatest (glad I don’t have to come up with answers for those).

The only disappointment of the night was the one caricature artist who said he had to quit at 8PM – right as my daughter got to the front of the line after waiting an hour. By itself that wouldn’t be so awful, but the guy did one more drawing after we left for a couple who offered him $10 to do a “free” drawing. Jerk.