The Big Game

So much of this trip is visiting my, as we say in Oz, Rello's(relatives), that I decided to take Grant to see an American Football Game. So I researched on the net before we came away and saw that there was one city that would be holding a Pre Season Game and that was Washington DC. So I purchased 4 tickets and we went with Jan and Larry last Saturday to see the Washington Redskins play the Baltimore Ravens...

To get into the spirit of things, Jan had purchased Redskin T Shirts so we could look the part. Grant wanted to do the body paint, but it was a good thing we didn't have any as he would have sweated it all off anyway.

The game was due to start at 8pm so we needed to get away by 4.15pm. We found our parking station about 2 miles from the stadium and our parking fee included bus transport to and from the car park....They were utilising office car parks which is very smart and had people everywhere to tell us where to go and park.

We had taken a picnic dinner with us and we watched the party start. Everyone gets there early and has 'Tailgate Parties' ie they lower the tailgate on their Utes and BBQ etc. They start all this up to 3 hours before the game.

We arrived at the stadium and no bags or Esky's allowed, so we had our cameras and poncho's, thunderstorms expected.....

Sat around for a while and watched the warm up and interviews happening before the game and about 7.45pm we were all asked to leave the stadium and go to the concourse area due to weather concerns.

Tens of thousands of people were standing an many of those were circling around. It was like being in a great big washing machine. It was extremely hot and humid. We stood for about 3/4 hour and the wind came up so at least we cooled down. Then we were glad we were right down on the ground level as the storm hit. Lightening hit the stadium and the rain came in buckets. Apparently it was a level 5 storm which is pretty much a level 1 hurricane.

After it passed we had to wait a while for safety concerns, then we were allowed back in. They played National Anthem and for me that was great and the game started at about 9.30pm.

As it was so late the half time entertainment was cancelled and the 2nd half(3rd qtr) started. Just after Redskins scored a touchdown which put them in the lead--YAY--we had another lightning strike which put out the big lights...we were once again asked to go to the concourse and we just took off running for our bus as it was already 11.30pm and had a long way to go back to Jan and Larry's.
We had a great night and I actually wouldn't have changed a minute of it as I am sure I will remember it allot better than just going to watch a game.

Here is a photo's for Melissa especially.

I put as many BUTTS into the photo as I could for you........