The Hotel is Filling
Is there a game in town this week or something? There are Eagles hats and jerseys all over the place. Where are all the Packers fans I ask? This puzzled me somewhat, at least until I remembered a little something. We are living in a hotel so who should we expect to see here but fans that also need to stay in a hotel? I.E. the visiting fans. Feeling somewhat stupid I am relieved by my recollection that home team fans sleep in their homes as opposed to hotels just for the sake of it.
The hotel is filling up now. There are alot “McNabbs” (Philadelphia QB for all you Aussies) walking around the lobby this morning. Haven’t the Eagles got any other players worthy of a replica shirt??? Now hold on, the barbs stop there. I don’t want to turn this site into a tit for tat over who’s the better team. I mean we know the Packers have actually won Superbowls right, sorry that’s the last one I promise.
Anyway, outside of the big one on Sunday I am totally living it up on the College and High School football broadcasts. I still can’t believe how into High School football everyone is here. It’s incredible. I just want to go and watch Varsity Blues and Friday Night Lights over and over and over again. No, seriously I really do think it’s incredible. I’d have loved to bring my 17 year-old style to the park each week and kangaroo hop my way to the end-zone. In fact any Aussie kid would give his little sister to play in front of the sorts of crowds and cameras that these kids get to play in front of. I was flicking through a few channels last night so I didn’t get the specifics but man what a spectacle. Back home most schools sports, including the big two, Rugby League and Australian Rules, both codes of football, are played for the most part during school hours so you don’t get any real crowd participation at all. From what I’ve seen so far of Varsity Football I can say it’s a great way to showcase what you have worked so hard for each year.
With respect to travelling I think it’s safe to say that we have all settled in nicely now. Touch wood the jet lag is gone and the normalcy that has started to creep back into our lives since arriving here will remain. At least until we head home anyway.
Today, after a little unrest last night and this morning we made plans for our future accommodation and the Giants game in New York next week. To put into perspective what we’re actually doing here we left the pressures of our everyday lives at home. At least we thought. As it turns out, all we’ve done is trade the worries of my job, Kelly’s day to day life with the kids and our mortgage for the concerns of what times should we travel, where are we going to stay and what are we doing to save money 2 weeks into a non-working 20 week vacation?
Alot of people, when coming to terms with what we’re doing here tend to comment on how lucky we are. And we are. In saying that though, making decisions like those above with the boys, our sanity and what little funds we have in mind certainly keeps the entire trip in perspective. Anyway enough of this morning’s decisions ‘cause they don’t make for the best reading.
We went walking today, as you can see by the pictures, over the Fox River, past “Foxy Lady” the Titletown Brewery and down to Fort Howard Elementary School. It was a relief for all of us when Ben climbed his first ladder onto the playground equipment they have there. A day burning the energy of a 3 year old who’s ready to explode is a day well spent if you ask us.
We stopped by a playgroup for toddlers that Kelly was told about by one of the women that works at the hotel too. Though we thought it would be fun for them to mix with new kids, they were significantly more interested in all of the toys than they were anything, or anybody else.
Back home in time for the everyday ritual of bathing, feeding and sleeping we are lucky enough to meet another one of our “email” friends Paul. Through Paul we have been introduced to the wonders of Yahoo messenger and the cost savings of making calls via the PC. We knew this existed but thanks to living at home with all of our friends and family close-by we never had the need to look in to it. Paul, again after numerous “please don’ts” brought us a little something also. A 1961, Wisconsin Tissue place-mat of the first Championship team coached by Vince Lombardi. As I said earlier, this is another one of those something’s I never even knew existed so I wanted to extend my thanks to Paul here.
With 2 sleeps to go until one of the biggest days of my life I’ll leave it there. Plus those darn Eagles fans are out there hooting and hollering again. It’s sounds like they’re spelling out their name E-A-G-L or something like that. It’s about the 50th time they’ve sung the same thing. Don’t they.....hang on, I made a promise didn’t I?
