Friday Flashback: Super Bowl XLIII

Super Bowl Sunday is just a couple of days away, and I can honestly say that this year, I could care less about the actual game.  Sure, I plan to watch it (or at least attend a party where it will be the feature event), but I'm just not into the actual football.  In fairness, that's my typical reaction...unless of course my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers are playing.

Luckily, after spending year after year of my youth hoping and praying that I would see the Steelers win a Super Bowl, I have actually seen them win two within the last few years.  Their last victory, back in 2009, was seriously one of the most fun/best days of my life...

My whole family are diehard Steelers fans.  My dad was born and raised (until his teens anyways) in Pittsburgh and raised each of us to love the Steelers like he did.  So when the Steelers made it to the Super Bowl back it 2009, it was a big deal not just for me, but for the entire family.  We all agreed that you never know when these things are going to happen again and that we needed to really take advantage of this one.  Obviously, tickets to the Super Bowl are crazy expensive, so we hatched a new plan...

We decided to rent a big ole van and pile the whole family in (mom, dad, me, Josh, my brother, sister-in-law, and sister).  We left Va. Beach early Saturday morning and drove the 9ish hours to Pittsburgh.  The Super Bowl was in Tampa, but we figured it would be fun to be in Pittsburgh, surrounded by other Steelers fans and right in the midst of the excitement.  People thought we were crazy (shoot, even Josh that it was a ridiculous idea), but it turned out to be brilliant...

 We picked out a bar to watch the game in.  But clearly, we weren't the only ones who had this idea...we had to pay $250 just to reserve our table!  And by reserve that meant you still had to be there by 11 AM or they wouldn't guarantee your table (the game didn't start til 6:30!).  So we hung out at the bar aaallll day, playing cards, drinking, chatting...just me and my family.  Needless to say, the place was packed, but the energy level remained pretty low until the game started.

And then everyone kicked it into high gear.  People were dancing on tables, cheering like crazy, throwing out beads, etc.  It was Steelers fan heaven!

And then they won...I'll spare you the details, but it was kind of a nail-biter, last second thing and the place went crazy.  We were hugging people we didn't even know, waving our Terrible Towels excitedly.  Even Josh, who is not a Steelers fan, was hugging some guy who kept telling him "we did it, man!"  Classic...

dancing

more dancing...

mom and sister-in-law dancing

my sister celebrating the winning touchdown

Josh posing with the final score (too bad you can't see it)

Even though it was a long drive, and the day was long and pretty expensive, these are the kind of memories I will keep with me always (and I think each of us that was there that day agrees).