New York, New York! Super Bowl weekend!

I’ve said it probably 576 times already, but the only way I can describe the weekend is amazing.  Absolutely 100% amazing.  Not only did we get to go to the Super Bowl, but we got to spend time in NYC, my most favorite city in the US.  My only wish is that we could have spent more time there.  It was a short trip.

I’ll give you a full recap of the weekend as well as the Super Bowl festivities.  There were some amazing things that happened to our friends that made this trip even more special.  I didn’t bring my camera so all the photos are cell phone pics.

We left bright and early on Saturday morning and were somehow lucky enough to get a direct flight to JFK.  Thank goodness for coffee!  Huebie had a business trip the week before and didn’t get home until 10:30 Friday night.  We were on the road at 5:00 am Saturday morning.  He’s lucky he has such a nice wife to pack his clothes for him.  🙂

Yes, I’m standing in the bathroom taking this photo.  This is as big as the room was.  The window is directly on my right.

But with an amazing view:

They had already started taking down Super Bowl Alley when we were walking down to the train around 1:00 that afternoon.

We had to take a train from Penn Station to New Jersey, then transfer to another train that took us directly to MetLife Stadium.

But the first train was delayed by about 25 minutes.  And it was hot.  Really, hot.  And we were standing.  And had been drinking our walking beverages, so we all had to use the facilities.  But then it took off and we were on our way.  Chanting SEA!  HAWKS!  the whole way.  Because there were mostly Hawks fans on the train.

When we transfered trains there was a large police presence.  With large weapons.  It’s hard to tell in the photo above but those 2 officers have machine guns.  They were taking the security very seriously.

Then we arrived.  MetLife Stadium is huge:

It seats about 15,000 more people than Century Link (Seahawks stadium).  So many people.  But the concourse is much smaller than our stadium so it felt way more crowded.

Once we got to the stadium there were 6 or so pavilions you had to go through to get in.  This was security, bag check, etc.

Gigantic XLVIII sign:

They had lots of beer gardens set up, bands playing, ice sculptures, entertainment, etc.  It was one big party. 

We saw some friends that we tailgate with:

Our friend between Huebie and I organizes our tailgate.  He’s the biggest Seahawks fan I’ve ever met.  He’s also our real estate agent 🙂

After getting a drink we found our way to our awesome seats for the start of the pre-game:

Amazing seats.  Row 2 in the end zone!  Closest I’ve ever sat at a game and it was at the Super Bowl!  So cool.  My only issue with sitting in the end zone is you can’t see what’s happening down field, but they have huge screens that show the plays so you can watch those.

And you all know the outcome of the game:

The Seattle Seahawks are world champions!  I did feel bad for Peyton Manning a bit during the game because I really do like him.  But we stomped the Broncos.  We held them to less points in this game than we did when we played them in pre-season.  The half time show was great, the crowd was great, the fireworks were great.  Everything was just perfect.

We stuck around for awhile and some of the players, cheerleaders and Blitz (our mascot) came by for high fives.  They also announced that we needed to stay inside because the line for the train was too long.  We eventually went out, somehow got to the beginning of the line and got on the 2nd train out. 

Ray’s Pizza to finish the night off.  Perfect end to a perfect day.

Monday we woke up to snow.  Lots and lots of snow.  So we started to make our way to Central Park, only about 3 blocks north of our hotel.

But decided to stop at a little Irish bar for a warm up. 

And proceeded to stay for a few hours.  Oops!  But the sweet bartender was Irish and we were having the best time just chatting. 

When we finally made our way to Central Park, there was probably about 6 inches or so of snow on the ground.

Huebie got to hang with the ladies while Uncle Seany had to go to work. 

The Plaza Hotel.  Home Alone 2 anyone?

It was absolutely gorgeous.  Lots of people out just walking and enjoying the snow. 

We ended up back at the Irish bar for lunch.  We just couldn’t get enough of that place.  Then decided to head down to the World Trade Center.  Unfortunately by the time we got there it was closed, but we were able to go into the visitor center.

Still unfathomable to me to this day. 

We went over to the Hudson River to see the view of Jersey, then headed to Korea Town for dinner.  I was in desperate need of some dumplings.  They did not disappoint.

After dinner we walked up 5th Avenue to Rockefeller Center.

By this time it had stopped snowing, but it was still pretty darn cold.

We ended our night with drinks by our hotel.

I felt a Cosmo was needed.  Afterall, I was in the city.

I feel so very blessed that we got to be part of such an amazing weekend.  Not only did we get to see the Seahawks win their first Super Bowl, we got to be in NYC and spend time with some of our best friends.  I couldn’t have asked for a better mini vacation.