All Blacks v. Eagles

Three weeks ago, something awesome happened.

Are you on the edge of your seat?  (Hint: the answer is in the post title.)

That's right, I saw the New Zealand All Blacks play the USA Eagles.  T and I hopped in the car early on Saturday morning and made the trip on the first really cold weekend of the year.  And what a day to spend out in the fresh (cold!) air at Soldier Field!

We were there in plenty of time to enjoy the tailgate, and managed to catch up with M&M, the friends I was going to visit.  (Ahh, the wonder of cell phones and a good old fashioned jersey on a pole.  Makes it so easy to find people.)

Listen to this small world story: the game was sold out.  That's over 61,000 people.  Some significant percentage of that number were out tailgating in the parking lots around Soldier Field before the game.  Other than the group I was there with, I knew exactly one (1) person who was going to be at the game.  And he was at the tailgate right next to us!

We departed our tailgate about an hour and a half before start time to be sure we had plenty of time to get to the stadium, through the gate, and to our seats.  We undershot that by a lot.  We stood in line forever, and might still be standing there if people hadn't started pushing past the purse-checkers and ticket-takers because no one wanted to miss the Haka!

After having a few beers and standing in line all that time, I was in a bad way.  As soon as we got through the gate, I immediately found and employee and asked where the closest restroom was.  There were a few people who ended up pretty far behind me in line, so I just said that I'd meet them at the seats and dashed up the stairs that the woman had pointed out.

The stairs ended right at the last row of seats one level up.  Lucky for me, as soon as I got there, a Kiwi standing behind the seats saw me looking around.  "You want to see?" he asked.  "Yes!"  He and a buddy each grabbed me by an arm and lifted me right up over the last row of seats and stood me on the chairs so I could see the famous war dance.  For a video of the Soldier Field Haka and some history, click here.

The game was pretty much a slaughter.  74-6 was the final score, but the utter defeat of the Eagles didn't make it not awesome. Even the Eagles agree that it was just an awesome experience.

Just a couple quick pictures, because it's late and I want to go to bed.  And also, it's really something you should see for yourself!

And there was some other stuff in Chicago too, including brunch the next day at Dixie Kitchen in Evanston with J, T, &A.  And of course it was awesome to see M&M!