Helis NFL Trip

mikemac1

Is that another stadium in the background? Is it where the Mariners play?

helimachoptor

Yep that's safeco field, haven't seen it up close but by all accounts a great stadium, century link was awesome, heading to bed now as I'm shattered! One more day in Seattle and then off to NYC

BKWDR

Browns @Patriots is a GO!

Delira

Vikings

Couldn't take many pictures at the gators/razorbacks game because the camera battery died on me. Some atmosphere though!

corblimey

Did helimachopter ever come back from the States, anyone know?

helimachoptor

Yes i did :pac:

I will do a good write up of my trip at some point this week, pictures and a new monitor for Corvus included

Son Of A Vidic

helimachoptor wrote: »

a new monitor for Corvus included

adrian522

Well any advice Heli?

My trip is pretty much set now,

Football shall be:

30/11/2013 Notre Dame @ Stanford
01/12/2013 Rams @ 49ers
08/12/2013 Seahawks @ 49ers

Outside of football no real plans as yet but will be in the northern Cal region pretty much the whole time!

helimachoptor

Maybe we can get some beers in before then?
How long are you over there for in total?

adrian522

2 weeks total, yeah I'd be up for beers before then anyway!!

helimachoptor

So.. my trip..

Let start with the flight from Dublin, the immigration office was a Chiefs fan so we had a little chat about the upcoming game and sufficed to say he didnt care much for Fitz and was pretty sure they'd win.. damn he was psychic!

The planes entertainment system wasnt working which was crap but there was free wifi which made the trip more pleasant.

Stopped off in Chicago for a couple of hours and then onto San Fran, had a couple of beers and some food but went to bed around 9:30 which was 5am irish time, so nearly 24 hours up at that point.

My wife got up and went to the 7/11 around the corner.. she was then involved in an armed robbery (with a knife) no harm done but she was pretty shocked :eek:

We headed off to the game, we got the special metro bus service as it was just around the corner from the hotel, i think it was $4 return and took about 20 mins or so.

My wife was quite shocked then to get the magic wand treatment, but we went in and got up to our nosebleed seats and imo they were great



anyone know what the story with these guys is? presume they won a competition or something



I think this was 2nd and goal for the 9'ers


It was a very pleasant evening, San Fran for the day we were there was about 25 degrees and it stayed warm in the evenings too


Got chatting to an ex-marine and he was gobsmacked that i flew over for 2 games, for him even as a marine the furthest he'd been was Hawaii for some training exercise.

One of the biggest pains which the concierge told us about was post game getting out of Candlestick he said sometimes by car/bus it can take 2/3 hours so if the game is over as a contest you should leave early in the 4th, which we did and we were lucky.. there was a long wait for public buses.

We did a lot of walking in San Fran, I had my first ever Subway! and it was pretty damn rotten
I'm a serious cheesecake hound and i'm quite adept at making them (mint Aero is my speciality) so when i found out there was a cheesecake factory around the corner i couldnt resist!
Top is Snickers and bottom (mine) is Reeses fudge


I'm a keen cyclist and a few friends had recommended getting bikes and going across the Golden Gate which we did, about a 22k round trip which was fine and as i said our time there involved great weather


We ate in this place (Crab House) down by Pier 39.. I had Crab and my wife had mussels and it gave her a bad case of food posoining later on



We headed up to Napa then and the Avenue of the Giants



Grapes everywhere!


Driving through some famous tree


The trees on avenue of the giants are just huge

helimachoptor

Seattle

Seattle has a monorail, which baffles me as it's like the Luas, it goes from the Space Needed to downtown every 10 mins but it takes 10 mins to walk there so it seems a bit redundant

Can anyone guess what college this guy went to?


Myself and the wife on the way to way to the game, decked out in Hawks gear :pac:



So I was pretty much the only Titans fan i could see.. (met a a friend and his other half in Seattle for the game too)





This is CenturyLink and Safeco Field


The best part of the game was the Seahawks fluffing the kick at the end of the 1st half.. McCourty scooped it up and ran 95 yards for the TD, i was jumping up and down screaming my head off and everyone and i mean everyone turned around to look at me

We had some good chats to the people around us and they were super friendly, give the articles about the undercover cops dressing up as away fans, my friend insisted upon chatting to each new person informing them that i was a cop.. they believed him.. until i spoke :pac:

My wife was very gracious and said she'd get all my beers so i didnt miss any of the game.. well at HT myself and the other guy went down and we spent 20 odd mins in the Q.. we order 2 beers each and they ask for ID and we of course hand them our passports which they dont accept "only US/canadian licence or passport are allowed to be served" and that was the rule of the Washington State Liquor board rules, we spoke to a manager but the reply was the same. One of the good things about Century link was that you have the in stadium concessions along with what amounts to a market on the councourse too with craft beers and the like. We went to one of those.. they actually poured us pints and we had before this we had Irish passports, so with 4 poured beers they wouldnt give them to us.
Now me especially dont like look i'm anywhere near 21.
Finally we found a guy serving beer who looked like he should be on Moonshiners and he served us!

Got me a game day programme


Century Link was awesome, Seattle was awesome and if anyone goes please ensure on game day you go to a bar called Cowgirls, it's literally around the corner from the stadium you'll understand when you get there.

my wife also really enjoyed both games, but especially the Seattle one, the noise was incredible she has promised me that if the Titans make the play offs... we can go and see it.. I dont believe her :mad::mad:

Corvus i think your monitor may have got stopped by customs.. sorry buddy :P

I also picked up some Titans gear in a Moddels which they are shipping over to me at a pretty good price

adrian522

Great post, Did you take the bus to candlestick yeah? I guess that's probably the best option?

helimachoptor

adrian522 wrote: »

Great post, Did you take the bus to candlestick yeah? I guess that's probably the best option?

Yep, he's fine to get their, but coming out can be painful, i think its about a 20 min walk to the nearest BART station which would be an option too

Son Of A Vidic

helimachoptor wrote: »

Corvus i think your monitor may have got stopped by customs.. sorry buddy

No bother, got a call from customs this morning and they said the 62 inch monitor couldn't be shipped. Which is just as well, because I probably would have broken it anyway when Adrian fills us in on his trip.

Great post btw and the picture of you amongst all those Hawks is class.

Dohnny Jepp

Sounds to me that the point of this trip was to try and get your wife killed!

UnitedIrishman

Great posts Heli, looks like a savage trip. Must try do the same in the next year or two!

BKWDR

Great posts and updates, really enjoyed them! You both seemed to have a blast!

That's one thing that struck me about the US, they nearly would walk 20 minutes to get a metro / train to just go two stops in a journey that would have taken them 20 minnutes from the first place. Both me and my gf walked everywhere in Boston last year and people would be gobsmacked to hear you walked 5K across the city!

BKWDR

Great tip on Modell's Sporting Goods, had a look on the site there, am going to order some stuff delivered to my friends address and then bring home. Very decent prices on everything! Just don't think I will have time to get out to one of their stores

helimachoptor

BKWDR wrote: »

Great posts and updates, really enjoyed them! You both seemed to have a blast!

That's one thing that struck me about the US, they nearly would walk 20 minutes to get a metro / train to just go two stops in a journey that would have taken them 20 minnutes from the first place. Both me and my gf walked everywhere in Boston last year and people would be gobsmacked to hear you walked 5K across the city!

Yep fully agree.
We met friends of ours in our last night in San Fran and my mates GFs sister lives there, she couldnt believe we had walked.

I'd over the trip we comfortably walked 50km with about 20km or so of biking

helimachoptor

BKWDR wrote: »

Great tip on Modell's Sporting Goods, had a look on the site there, am going to order some stuff delivered to my friends address and then bring home. Very decent prices on everything! Just don't think I will have time to get out to one of their stores

I went to their store on times square, they didnt have some of the stuff i wanted, but as i bought some stuff delivery (even to ireland) was $10, it should arrive in the next couple of weeks, though i'm sure customs will get their grubby hands on it

corblimey

How long ahead of the game at Candlestick did you arrive? Was there stuff to do in and around the stadium (apart from tailgating)? Did you check out the 49ers shop and/or buy anything?

shamrock55

That trip looked amazing, which game had the best atmosphere, have you been to a titans home game?
whats the capacity of each of the stadiums,century link looks deadly

helimachoptor

corblimey wrote: »

How long ahead of the game at Candlestick did you arrive? Was there stuff to do in and around the stadium (apart from tailgating)? Did you check out the 49ers shop and/or buy anything?

Got to SF the day before the game, got to the stadium about an hour before the game. Stadium is showing its age, the concourses are tiny and people are really in their like sardines.

shamrock55 wrote: »

That trip looked amazing, which game had the best atmosphere, have you been to a titans home game?
whats the capacity of each of the stadiums,century link looks deadly

Definitely the Titans/Hawks game. It was a defensive slug fest but when the Hawks fan see Wilson or Lynch take off running the noise is insane same with when they got their 2 picks ..

However the noisiest person in the stadium was me when McCourty ran back the muffed FG.. you could hear a pin drop, hell i'd say Mccourty heard me!

Havent been to a Titans home game, however a friend of mine is getting married next year to a girl from North Carolina, now he's not sure if they'll get married there (i think its likely) but it'll be late august or early september so i'll get myself in a game.

I think Candlestick is bigger but not by much, Century Link is very impressive though

helimachoptor

3 years ago this weekend I was boozing in Seattle

SHOVELLER

Nothing like going to NFL games alright.

Plus you go to see Candlestick which is gone now.