Weekend Rewind: The one where the Hawks lost SB49

Hello hello.  How is everyone doing today?  I’m finally feeling about 99.5% better from being sick last week.  The cold hit me like a ton of bricks on our way home from Phoenix.  But we had a fantastic weekend and I’m ready to start fresh this week.

I’m also finally ready to talk about our trip.  Because let’s be honest, it did not end how I would have liked it to.  So instead of recapping this past weekend I thought I’d recap our trip to Phoenix for the Super Bowl.

Our flight left bright and early Thursday morning so we were in Cali by 10:00.  We flew into Santa Ana and drove to Phoenix.  It’s about a 5 hour drive, so we thought we’d get an economical car to save on gas.

Yep.  That’s the car we got.  Huebie is a bit of a sweet talker and he talked the lady into this brand new 2015 Mustang with 300 miles on it for the same price as an economy car.  I have to say I don’t love the previous generation to this but the 2015 is gorgeous.  And really comfortable actually!

Our first stop was food since we hadn’t eaten much that morning.  Everyone always raves about Chick-fil-a so I figured we’d give it a shot.  I mean it’s good, but it’s not like the best food I’ve ever had. But it’s good.

We met our friends who were driving from San Diego on the drive and caravan-d the rest of the way to Phoenix.  Our friends have a vacation house there so that’s where we all stayed.  3 couples.  One of which included my ex.  I know, most people think it’s so weird, but actually we’re still good friends still and it wasn’t weird at all.  And his girlfriend is a sweetheart so that helps.  🙂

Friday we headed to the stadium to check out the set up and get some swag.  Then we headed downtown to the NFL experience.  They had a few blocks closed and you could just go walk around.

They had giant corn hole that you used a cannon thing to shoot the big bags out:

And giant beer pong that you used a sling shot to shoot footballs at:

And we went to the most amazing pizza place EVER called Pomo Pizzeria.  One of my sales reps said it was awesome and he was so right.  The owner is Italian and imported the pizza oven from Italy.  It’s bomb.  True, Italian style pizza.  And then the owner gave us Limoncello cream shots. #dontmindifido

Saturday there was a rally at the Diamondbacks’ stadium for Seahawks fans.  They anticipated around 5,000 people showing up.  Oh no.  20,000 Seahawks fans were there.  It was insane just trying to get in!  They gave out a bunch of Seahawks gear including 12th man flags and 12th man capes.  You will see the cape make many appearances in this post.

Then we headed to the NFL Fan Experience at the convention center.  I wish we’d gone Friday because it was PACKED on Saturday.  We somehow got in line towards the front and only waited about 10 minutes to get inside. Later we heard people waited 3 hours to get in!

And this is how my husband walked around the entire time:

If you know him I’m sure you aren’t surprised.  I was most excited about this though:

I am a big Seahawks fan, but I’m also an HUGE JJ Watt fan.  I love that man.  He is just so humble, kind and hello, an amazing player!  I was pumped to find all his stuff during the experience.

I also may or may not have about bid on a game worn, signed jersey of his.  It was a little high for my budget though ($7,500 starting bid!).

And I also found this gem:

I mean come on.  You know a few ladies saw this and were like, “YES!  This is my jam!”  I honestly don’t even know what it was (tunic, sweater, dress?) but it was amazing.

For dinner we met our best Phoenix friends who are expecting their first little one in April.  If you haven’t been the The Yard in Phoenix, do it.  Such a cool atmosphere.  We called Saturday an early night because we were getting up bright and early to tailgate.

We got to the stadium around 8:30 and walked around for a bit just to check things out.  The morning was turbo foggy, so you could barely see the stadium from any distance.  We found the bar we were going to watch the game from right next to the stadium and gave away our lives to get a place to sit.  We later found out it was the Patriot’s bar, but it ended up being about 50/50 Seahawks/Patriots fans.

Then we headed back to the car for drinks and to walk around the tailgating area.  There’s a hotel right in the middle of all the action and they had a bunch of Super Bowl “things” set up.  Including a bloody Mary bar.  A $14 bloody Mary bar.  Lord.

After this we needed to refill back at the car, but on the way this happened:

I also discovered that an entire bottle of wine will fit into a venti iced Starbucks cup.  Just in case you ever wondered, now you know.  You’re welcome.

Meanwhile this was taking place:

Then this happened:

Yep.  That’s Huebie running around with a giant 12th man flag.  I think he ran this flag around a few different times.  I mean he literally ran around the entire day with his cape on, jumping off sidewalks, high fiving people.  My girlfriend took an amazing video of him and put it in slow mo and I so wish I had it to show you.  That’s my husband!

I ended up playing a hand Rummy with this guy and his sweet dad.  They were very nice about me sitting in for a hand. #lordhelpmydrunkself  Then I somehow found these guys who went to high school with my uncles.

And then it was game time!  We had a great time and met some great Patriot’s fans that we hung out with. It really was a great game until the last 20 seconds, but I don’t want to talk about that anymore.  I’m still proud of my boys and the great season they had.

Monday we made the 5 hour drive back to Cali to catch our flight.  We went a different route back and ended up driving next to Mexico for a large part of the trip.  I wish we’d had time to cross the border just to say we did.  All in all, it was an awesome trip and we had a great time.

Have a great Monday friends!  Is it football season yet?!