Super Bowl Wrap-Up

You might have noticed that blogging has been on hold since last Tuesday. This was mostly because I was in Jacksonville at Super Bowl XXXIX. My company ran a contest last year to find the most well-maintained communities in our portfolio. Each winner won a trip to the Super Bowl. Since I ran the contest, I got to go too.

It was a lot of fun and a lot of work, as I was sort of the "tour guide" for the group.

Here are my impressions of the Super Bowl:
1. Jacksonville did the best they could with what they had. There was some grumbling about the city not being able to deal with the traffic and crowds, but I think they did as well as could be expected.

2. The game is great, but if you take away all the fanfare, it is still just a football game. I know it is the championship game, but if your team isn't in it, it is hard to get really hyped about it. It still was fun to be in the Super Bowl atmosphere.

3. The whole spectacle is all about money. The restaurants trotted out new menus with higher prices, every street was full of merchandise for sale, and some people actually mortgaged their houses to afford a ticket. I know I wouldn't have been there had my company not sent me, and I am sure that most people there were in the same boat.

Overall, we had a great time and for most of the guys on the trip, it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.