Life as a Spectator
Full disclosure: I am not an athlete. In sixth grade, however, I was on the basketball team. In high school, my favorite PE activity was archery. In college, I took bowling for my PE credit (and I readily admit that my skills were sorely lacking, but I showed up and that’s what counted). My favorite athletic endeavor as an adult was participating for several years in the Desert Springs Middle School teachers dart league (seriously, are darts considered a sport?). This was a really fun social activity even though it got a bit competitive at times.
One of my most memorable spectator events was our trip in 2006 to the Chargers vs Chiefs game. It was the start of Christmas vacation so we were in the mood to celebrate. A group of eight of us decided to rent a limo to travel to the San Diego stadium. We were able to get amazing seats so the adventure was on. On the day of our trip, everyone met at our house for a toast. Gary made everyone shirts so we were in a festive mood.
We put on our “Bill” shirts and our limo journey began. Since we were in a limo, we had a picnic with amazing homemade food (thanks Steve) and plenty to drink. Of course, we were early so our limo driver delivered us first to the Hotel del Coronado. People surrounded our limo to see who these famous people were. Then it was off to the bar to catch the current Giants football game. We were actually approached by complete strangers who saw our milk carton shirts and sincerely offered to help us search for our missing friend (who really was missing in action at that point because he decided he’d rather drink in the limo than join us in the bar). I was impressed that complete strangers would be willing to give up their time to search and support us. Of course Gary’s response was, “Have you read the shirts?” We all got a chuckle as we again thanked everyone. This just reinforced my belief that most people really are good.
Another fun spectator event was a different Chargers game. This time, Steve and Sandy joined Gary and me as we decided to spend the weekend in San Diego and combined the Chargers vs Broncos football trip with shopping. The stadium tickets Gary found included a parking spot in the tailgating parking lot so we decided to do our unique version. Almost everyone around us were doing burgers and beer. However, we went the true California route and created a charcuterie board with quality wine. Some Broncos fans wandered over and said, “Oh, so this is how you really tailgate in California?”
Gary’s parents are huge hockey fans and steadfastly support and cheer for the Colorado Avalanche. When we moved to Vegas, the Golden Knights were the latest start-up team in the league. So a rivalry ensued.
We’ve been fortunate to join Gary’s parents in attending several Knights vs Avalanche games in both Las Vegas and Denver. Hockey fans are great; we always feel supported when we wear our Knights gear.
Other than the Golden Knights, our version of being sports spectators is that we wear the gear of the home team and adopt that team for the evening. Enjoy the video to see some of the home team highlights.
Looks like loads of fun! Thanks for sharing!