Do You Come From The Land Down Under

I don't often travel for work. I've been to Chicago twice for training and that's it. Those trips were both great and I enjoyed them, but I just found out today that I'll be heading to Australia at the end of next month to help with an audit for two weeks!! I'm kind of freaking out! I've never been down under before, but I have a friend who lives there and I've always wanted to visit her! Yet for some reason, it's never been high on my list of "Places I Must See NOW!" (it's on it, there's just a lot of other countries ahead of it). I think as much as I want to go, it's so far and I always seem to gravitate towards cheap, third world countries. But now I finally can make it happen!

I'll have two weekends there that I don't have to work, so I'm hoping to get a bunch of site seeing in. I've already found a free walking tour of Sydney and messaged my friend to see if she's free to play tour guide for a day or two. Still trying to figure out if there's a way I can dive the Barrier Reef one day, too! But I suppose this is more unlikely.

I really can't believe I actually get to go, and in just a few weeks, too! Just trying to keep calm, but I probably won't be able to sleep tonight! I'll be sure to write about my experiences and post pictures while I'm there!

Heartbreak Hotel

It's taken a few days to process, but I think I can finally talk about it without crying. That Super Bowl. What a way to go. I don't want to get into all the shoulda, coulda, woulda. I just want to talk about how great the experience was otherwise. I mean, I went to the freaking Super Bowl!! It was a major bucket list item and I can't believe I actually got to go! The whole weekend was like being a celebrity! Our house had 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, a pool and a hot tub. Swank-EE! Then, THEN! We were able to get club level seats for FACE VALUE!! Seriously, tickets were going for upwards of $10k! I couldn't believe it when my dad told me we had real tickets and didn't have to pay that much for them. Well, they were still unbelievably expensive, but not that expensive.

We got down to the stadium about 4 hours early to enjoy the whole experience. There was live music, opportunities to throw the football around, gear to buy. It was very festive. My brother and I walked around the entire stadium, saw all the different analysts giving their pre-game predictions, and bought some Super Bowl gear. When we got to our seats, they were amazing! More leg room than my 6'4" brother and dad needed, with great views of the field! And to perpetuate the celebrity theme, we were two sections over from Chris Pratt and Anna Faris! 

The game itself was 59 minutes of pure excitement and 1 minute of the world ending. Even when the Seahawks were down earlier, the game was absolutely thrilling. We were yelling and screaming our heads off and just having a wonderful time! And there were easily three Seahawks fans for every Patriots fan. It was undeniably one of the most amazing things I've gotten to be a part of.

On Monday, my brother went home early, my dad and his friend went golfing and my mom and I drove out to the Superstition Mountains. It was really beautiful and the saguaro cacti that dot the landscape are so cool! It was a good distraction, no sports involved at all! I flew home that night with a 5 hour layover in Denver. Slept on the floor to pass the time with about 15 other Seahawks fans heading home as well. We were a sober group, especially in the middle of the night!

 

Katy Perry and Lenny Kravitz

Obligatory Left Shark photo

Now that I've had a few days separation, I can appreciate what a great experience it was. So few people ever get to do something like this and I feel so lucky that I got to be a part of it. And even though we lost in such a heartbreaking fashion, I love my team and I love how much the city gets behind them, how it brings us together. In the end, Pete Carroll knows more about football than I do, and while I don't understand the call, I have to believe there was a reason for it. I think we're just at the start of several years of great runs for us, and I really look forward to the next season. And I hear the Mariners and Sounders should be pretty good this year, too!

(Apologies for the weird photo setup. Blogger doesn't let you arrange them very well!)