February...what has happened in February?
Well, after the Green Bay Packers won the NFC championship, Jed and I decided we couldn't pass up the opportunity to travel to see our team in the super bowl. After all, it was only in Dallas, TX. A mere 5 1/2 hrs from us. So we searched online for tickets, but after searching and searching and searching, we found nothing we wanted to buy. Tickets were going for $2500.00 a piece. And that was in the nosebleeds! A friend of ours, actually Jed's best man in our wedding, Matt Whipple, and his wife Christy, live in Dallas. They let us know we were welcome to stay at their house for the weekend. My parents said they could take our kids for the weekend too. The stars were aligning! So we drove the kids to grandmas and papas house on Friday, Feb. 4Th, and headed to Dallas Saturday morning. Well, it had snowed the whole week before super bowl Sunday, a lot. Oklahoma received about 18 inches of snow in just two days. I guess Oklahoma just decided not to clean off the roadways, because it was a mess. There were times when the road was just carved out of the snow. Anyway, needless to say it took 7 1/2 hrs to get to Dallas...ugh!!!
Matt and Christy's house...It is too cute! Exactly what I think I would like if I didn't have kids. Real chic and adorable, white furniture, breakable decor, I could just eat it up. Obviously, they'll have to change it all someday when they have kids, then again, they just might be contempt with their little orphaned dog Myla. She's so ugly, she's cute. I think she was part rat terrier and part chiuaua?!?! Feisty little thing. I wanted to bring her home with me, Jed said no. :(
Matt and Christy's furnace blew the day before we arrived, so when we got there, the repair man was figuring out what was wrong. $600.00 later, they had heat! It was getting pretty cold in the house, I think 52 degrees? Jed even put on his packer snow gloves!
Saturday night we decided to go to downtown Arlington and check out the stadium and go to Tailgate Tavern. The Tavern is owned by Christy's friends dad, Mario. Mario is a ticket broker, and we were told he might have extra tickets to the game for us. Well, usually ticket prices go down the day before and the day of a big event like this, but in this instance, ticket prices were skyrocketing. No one had any tickets to sell. They were going so far above face value it was ridiculous! On Saturday night Mario's' tickets were selling for $3200.00 a piece. Face value was $900.00! So we just partied the night away.
Sunday morning came, and I really wanted to go to Ft. Worth at 6:00am to hang out at the ESPN desk and watch the 'Mike & Mike Show' live. But I didn't want to go alone, and everyone else in the house (i.e. Jed, Matt & Christy) had too much fun parting the night before, and were not getting up. So I just went and got some Whataburger for breakfast and watched Mike & Mike on TV. (Which, I'll have to admit, was way warmer).
Everyone finally started to get up and moving around 11am. Everyone that is, except Matt! Matt was struggling to stand vertical for long periods of time. I think he forgot he was 36 yrs old for one night. This is the reason that I didn't participate in the festivities so much, but chose to be the DD instead. Smart choice I do believe! We finally got rolling to the super bowl around 2pm. (About 8 hrs after I wanted to be out experiencing it all). Anyway, parking down at the stadium was outrageously priced. Some spots went for as much as $500.00 a parking spot! But J' Gilligan's sports bar parking was free. (We did our research). And J' Gilligan's was the chosen "Home" bar for Packer fans. We figured if we couldn't score some tickets into the game, then we would just watch from the bar.
We walked the 1 mile to the stadium. And I have to say, it was truly amazing to be walking among the other fans. Everyone was giving high fives, shouting "Go Pack Go!" "Go Steelers!" and such. We saw a lot of fun costumes. Packer Elvis, Titlebelt Packers, fans on stilts, every jersey on the team pretty much. (Yes, there were some idiots wearing a Favre jersey). I'm sorry, but you can't be a true Packer fan if you're going to wear the jersey of the one who played for the arch rival. That's just wrong. I even spotted a #74 Kampman jersey. Gave that guy a high-five! (Our son Kampman is named after Green Bay Packer, Aaron Kampman, who no longer plays for Green Bay, but he did when we named him).
Pretty much everyone on the street was looking for tickets. People had signs saying "I need 2 tickets" "I need 4 tickets" Some people were holding up 2 fingers, some 4, and some just 1 finger. All, looking for tickets to buy. There were none, which drove the price up even higher. After walking through the crowd for awhile, we decided to find a place to watch the game from. We ended up back at Tailgate Tavern, eating their amazing spread of fresh seafood and such, and enjoying free drinks.
The pregame began. Jed and I were both so nervous. I couldn't get my leg to stop shaking. I couldn't eat or drink anything in fear of being sick with anxiety over the game. Pretty silly to get so nervous over a football game, but it's our team! Lea Michelle sang the pregame song "America The Beautiful". Which is actually my favorite over "The Star Spangled Banner". And as we all know, Christina Aguilera totally ruined "The Star Spangled Banner". I'll add a YouTube of Lea Michelle to this blog.
The owner of Tailgate Tavern, Mario, went to the game and ended up selling his last two tickets outside the entrance gate, after kick-off but before the first quarter ended, for $5000.00 a piece! And those tickets were way at the top of the stadium!
The first half of the game was great! Green Bay put some points on the board and they were playing with confidence. Then just before the half, Pittsburgh started to make a comeback. Boo!!! The Packers struggled a bit in the third quarter, but never gave up the lead. I had my head down in my hat for pretty much the entire fourth quarter. I would listen to the bar, if I heard loud cheers I knew it was something good and I would look up to watch the replay.
After the win, there was a lot of celebrating going on in the bar. And I have to say I was mighty impressed with the Steeler fans. They were nothing but nice to the Packer fans. Some even gave us congratulatory handshakes and said "good game." Jed and I walked through the crowd back to our car so that we could experience the winning atmosphere. It was great! Lot's of people cheering, "Go Pack Go!" and "Titletown" and "We're bringing Lombardi home again."
Monday morning, Jed and I drove back to Kansas, picked up our kids, and headed back to Mulvane. Back to reality. But we had an experience to remember for all of our lives and our beloved Packers were the World Champions!!!
Well, after the Green Bay Packers won the NFC championship, Jed and I decided we couldn't pass up the opportunity to travel to see our team in the super bowl. After all, it was only in Dallas, TX. A mere 5 1/2 hrs from us. So we searched online for tickets, but after searching and searching and searching, we found nothing we wanted to buy. Tickets were going for $2500.00 a piece. And that was in the nosebleeds! A friend of ours, actually Jed's best man in our wedding, Matt Whipple, and his wife Christy, live in Dallas. They let us know we were welcome to stay at their house for the weekend. My parents said they could take our kids for the weekend too. The stars were aligning! So we drove the kids to grandmas and papas house on Friday, Feb. 4Th, and headed to Dallas Saturday morning. Well, it had snowed the whole week before super bowl Sunday, a lot. Oklahoma received about 18 inches of snow in just two days. I guess Oklahoma just decided not to clean off the roadways, because it was a mess. There were times when the road was just carved out of the snow. Anyway, needless to say it took 7 1/2 hrs to get to Dallas...ugh!!!
Matt and Christy's house...It is too cute! Exactly what I think I would like if I didn't have kids. Real chic and adorable, white furniture, breakable decor, I could just eat it up. Obviously, they'll have to change it all someday when they have kids, then again, they just might be contempt with their little orphaned dog Myla. She's so ugly, she's cute. I think she was part rat terrier and part chiuaua?!?! Feisty little thing. I wanted to bring her home with me, Jed said no. :(
Matt and Christy's furnace blew the day before we arrived, so when we got there, the repair man was figuring out what was wrong. $600.00 later, they had heat! It was getting pretty cold in the house, I think 52 degrees? Jed even put on his packer snow gloves!
Saturday night we decided to go to downtown Arlington and check out the stadium and go to Tailgate Tavern. The Tavern is owned by Christy's friends dad, Mario. Mario is a ticket broker, and we were told he might have extra tickets to the game for us. Well, usually ticket prices go down the day before and the day of a big event like this, but in this instance, ticket prices were skyrocketing. No one had any tickets to sell. They were going so far above face value it was ridiculous! On Saturday night Mario's' tickets were selling for $3200.00 a piece. Face value was $900.00! So we just partied the night away.
Sunday morning came, and I really wanted to go to Ft. Worth at 6:00am to hang out at the ESPN desk and watch the 'Mike & Mike Show' live. But I didn't want to go alone, and everyone else in the house (i.e. Jed, Matt & Christy) had too much fun parting the night before, and were not getting up. So I just went and got some Whataburger for breakfast and watched Mike & Mike on TV. (Which, I'll have to admit, was way warmer).
Everyone finally started to get up and moving around 11am. Everyone that is, except Matt! Matt was struggling to stand vertical for long periods of time. I think he forgot he was 36 yrs old for one night. This is the reason that I didn't participate in the festivities so much, but chose to be the DD instead. Smart choice I do believe! We finally got rolling to the super bowl around 2pm. (About 8 hrs after I wanted to be out experiencing it all). Anyway, parking down at the stadium was outrageously priced. Some spots went for as much as $500.00 a parking spot! But J' Gilligan's sports bar parking was free. (We did our research). And J' Gilligan's was the chosen "Home" bar for Packer fans. We figured if we couldn't score some tickets into the game, then we would just watch from the bar.
We walked the 1 mile to the stadium. And I have to say, it was truly amazing to be walking among the other fans. Everyone was giving high fives, shouting "Go Pack Go!" "Go Steelers!" and such. We saw a lot of fun costumes. Packer Elvis, Titlebelt Packers, fans on stilts, every jersey on the team pretty much. (Yes, there were some idiots wearing a Favre jersey). I'm sorry, but you can't be a true Packer fan if you're going to wear the jersey of the one who played for the arch rival. That's just wrong. I even spotted a #74 Kampman jersey. Gave that guy a high-five! (Our son Kampman is named after Green Bay Packer, Aaron Kampman, who no longer plays for Green Bay, but he did when we named him).
Pretty much everyone on the street was looking for tickets. People had signs saying "I need 2 tickets" "I need 4 tickets" Some people were holding up 2 fingers, some 4, and some just 1 finger. All, looking for tickets to buy. There were none, which drove the price up even higher. After walking through the crowd for awhile, we decided to find a place to watch the game from. We ended up back at Tailgate Tavern, eating their amazing spread of fresh seafood and such, and enjoying free drinks.
The pregame began. Jed and I were both so nervous. I couldn't get my leg to stop shaking. I couldn't eat or drink anything in fear of being sick with anxiety over the game. Pretty silly to get so nervous over a football game, but it's our team! Lea Michelle sang the pregame song "America The Beautiful". Which is actually my favorite over "The Star Spangled Banner". And as we all know, Christina Aguilera totally ruined "The Star Spangled Banner". I'll add a YouTube of Lea Michelle to this blog.
The owner of Tailgate Tavern, Mario, went to the game and ended up selling his last two tickets outside the entrance gate, after kick-off but before the first quarter ended, for $5000.00 a piece! And those tickets were way at the top of the stadium!
The first half of the game was great! Green Bay put some points on the board and they were playing with confidence. Then just before the half, Pittsburgh started to make a comeback. Boo!!! The Packers struggled a bit in the third quarter, but never gave up the lead. I had my head down in my hat for pretty much the entire fourth quarter. I would listen to the bar, if I heard loud cheers I knew it was something good and I would look up to watch the replay.
After the win, there was a lot of celebrating going on in the bar. And I have to say I was mighty impressed with the Steeler fans. They were nothing but nice to the Packer fans. Some even gave us congratulatory handshakes and said "good game." Jed and I walked through the crowd back to our car so that we could experience the winning atmosphere. It was great! Lot's of people cheering, "Go Pack Go!" and "Titletown" and "We're bringing Lombardi home again."
Monday morning, Jed and I drove back to Kansas, picked up our kids, and headed back to Mulvane. Back to reality. But we had an experience to remember for all of our lives and our beloved Packers were the World Champions!!!
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