....but it was worth it. My wife and I are a couple of very frugal people. Most of our vacations are inexpensive 3-4 day weekends rather than weeks (one full week a year, maybe 2), we don't eat out too much, have a pretty modest house and cars, and we save, save, save. In fact the only thing we really spend lots of dough on is our daughters. However, I added a few months of work by going to the SUPERBOWL this year.
As an avid Ravens fan here in Baltimore, my brother and I had promised each other for the past 5 years that we would hit the super bowl whenever and wherever if the Ravens went. Well, go figure, the year we were very under-doggish, we go running to New Orleans.
My awesome wife was perfectly fine allowing me the weekend away from the fam (not to mention the expenditure involved
) to pursue this endeavor.
Now, to explain my excitement. It really couldn't have been a better year to go for me....
1) Superbowl was in NO. Weather in NO was 65-70 Saturday and Sunday. It became overcast and rainy on monday...but who cared at that point. A year ago, it would have been in cold Indy....next year, very cold New Jersey. This year, we were walking down bourbon street in short sleeves and my Ed Reed jersey.
2) I'm not a big gambler, but as a true believer in compound interest, my brother and I began with a 200$ bet on Ravens (line bet) at 3.5 to one odds against denver. Then we took that winning and placed it on Ravens against NE (same 3.5 to one odds...go figure). When are you ever going to find a team that beats the number one team in a division (denver) ending up as 9 point underdogs in the next game. Unbelievable. Then.....
3) We wanted to cash out our winnings and be done with it....BUT the site would not allow us to take out any more than 2500 at a time....so, we figured we'd roll the dice on the final game. San Fran favored 1.5 to one. So, we payed for our tickets (plus a little more) because the ravens we so poorly favored by the big wigs in Vegas.
4) My brother found a legit broker that got us tickets without the commission charge found on sites like stubhub (these charges can be several hundred dollars). Not only that, but he was wise enough to wait a week until the excitement died off....essentially getting us lower level seats for the same price as 600 level seats were a week before).
5) Ravens win!!!! I know there are many Bay Area FIRE people on this forum, so I am very sorry if my excitement offends....that's not he point at all. But having gone through the time and energy (and STRESS!!! It's tough planning one of the biggest yearly events like this 2 weeks before gametime when you finally know your team is going) to make this happen, it would have been really sad to see us lose. Especially since the game would have been remembered as a Ravens Choke. But what an exciting game!!
6)The only hiccup in the whole process was my flight home was delayed from 12:30 until 7. I'm still awaiting a refund of some sort from US airways. We shall see how that turns out.
7) Now for the kicker. As soon as I got home, I got a sore throat. I figured it was laryngitis from all the screaming, but it developed into a pretty miserable cold that has lasted until today. On saturday, come noon....I developed my wife's GI bug that had me in the bathroom every 30 minutes or so until 9ish. If it had happened a week before, my trip would have suuuuuucked!
8) Oh, a few famous-people sightings (and some C-listers)..... I saw: Phil Simms, Stifflers Mom, Barry (from Storage Wars), John Ogden, and finally, I high-fived Jerry Rice (although I think it was somewhat forced b/c he saw me in a Ravens jersey)
Anyway, thought I'd give my little anecdote. We spend so much time saving that we can sometimes plan for tomorrow at the expense of today. I'm very glad I didn't do this (and there were times I questioned it in the planning stages) in this case. Now, I have to go think of a really nice THANK YOU to offer my wife.
Thanks for reading!
Gasdoc
As an avid Ravens fan here in Baltimore, my brother and I had promised each other for the past 5 years that we would hit the super bowl whenever and wherever if the Ravens went. Well, go figure, the year we were very under-doggish, we go running to New Orleans.
My awesome wife was perfectly fine allowing me the weekend away from the fam (not to mention the expenditure involved
) to pursue this endeavor.Now, to explain my excitement. It really couldn't have been a better year to go for me....
1) Superbowl was in NO. Weather in NO was 65-70 Saturday and Sunday. It became overcast and rainy on monday...but who cared at that point. A year ago, it would have been in cold Indy....next year, very cold New Jersey. This year, we were walking down bourbon street in short sleeves and my Ed Reed jersey.
2) I'm not a big gambler, but as a true believer in compound interest, my brother and I began with a 200$ bet on Ravens (line bet) at 3.5 to one odds against denver. Then we took that winning and placed it on Ravens against NE (same 3.5 to one odds...go figure). When are you ever going to find a team that beats the number one team in a division (denver) ending up as 9 point underdogs in the next game. Unbelievable. Then.....
3) We wanted to cash out our winnings and be done with it....BUT the site would not allow us to take out any more than 2500 at a time....so, we figured we'd roll the dice on the final game. San Fran favored 1.5 to one. So, we payed for our tickets (plus a little more) because the ravens we so poorly favored by the big wigs in Vegas.
4) My brother found a legit broker that got us tickets without the commission charge found on sites like stubhub (these charges can be several hundred dollars). Not only that, but he was wise enough to wait a week until the excitement died off....essentially getting us lower level seats for the same price as 600 level seats were a week before).
5) Ravens win!!!! I know there are many Bay Area FIRE people on this forum, so I am very sorry if my excitement offends....that's not he point at all. But having gone through the time and energy (and STRESS!!! It's tough planning one of the biggest yearly events like this 2 weeks before gametime when you finally know your team is going) to make this happen, it would have been really sad to see us lose. Especially since the game would have been remembered as a Ravens Choke. But what an exciting game!!
6)The only hiccup in the whole process was my flight home was delayed from 12:30 until 7. I'm still awaiting a refund of some sort from US airways. We shall see how that turns out.
7) Now for the kicker. As soon as I got home, I got a sore throat. I figured it was laryngitis from all the screaming, but it developed into a pretty miserable cold that has lasted until today. On saturday, come noon....I developed my wife's GI bug that had me in the bathroom every 30 minutes or so until 9ish. If it had happened a week before, my trip would have suuuuuucked!
8) Oh, a few famous-people sightings (and some C-listers)..... I saw: Phil Simms, Stifflers Mom, Barry (from Storage Wars), John Ogden, and finally, I high-fived Jerry Rice (although I think it was somewhat forced b/c he saw me in a Ravens jersey)
Anyway, thought I'd give my little anecdote. We spend so much time saving that we can sometimes plan for tomorrow at the expense of today. I'm very glad I didn't do this (and there were times I questioned it in the planning stages) in this case. Now, I have to go think of a really nice THANK YOU to offer my wife.
Thanks for reading!
Gasdoc
