Super Bowl XLV Frid and Sat

Well, What is there to say, except... AWE - SOME... A surreal trip and adventure of a life time. Who knew that Dallas and Houston would get hit with snow and throw our plans into a slight snafoo... Needless to say, I was incredibly crushed on Thursday when all flights to Houston were cancelled and there were no other flights to Dallas. Thus, Thursday night was spent at home. I cried... I know, those of you who know me are just SHOCKED - MK, Cry - No... Yes, we all know that I am a HUGE cry-baby and have always been one. I was so incredibly sad that our adventure had to wait a day... But... It began on Friday morning:

We got to the Airport around 9:40 a.m. and were able to relax, the CLE is quiet on a Friday morning (well, the CLE is pretty quiet all the time). We had coffee and then ran into our friend Susan F. who was on her way to Florida... Nice little chat. Once we settled into our seats amid all the Packer & Steeler fans, we received a phone call from Tom at the Plain Dealer and we did our phone interview. What a great guy! What a fun interview. ( http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/02/terminally_ill_cleveland_brown.html ) Then, we were ready to board our plane, with 50% Packer Fans (o.k., including us, 51%) and 49% Steeler Fans... They boarded the plan as follows, first class & Elite One Pass members, then the guy at the counter asked for all Packer Fans next - TOO FUNNY... Hmmm, why are the folks in black & yellow not laughing. No sense of humor those Steeler fans. I guess when you have a quarterback like Ben, there's not much to laugh about is there!? So, up up and away we went.

Now - landing in Dallas a whole 'nother story... What A Zoo. As we were landing we could see cars that had skid off the highway covered in snow - O M G... Did we just fly north by mistake. It was a sight to behold. Next, we go and get our luggage, try to figure out the massive airport and find our way to the rental car shuttle. We Squeeze into the rental car shuttle, and I do mean squeeze, it was crazy. Then, as all the other folks went to their big-name rental car agencies with fairly long lines, we went to Advantage Rental... No one there but us! We had our car and our GPS in a spiffy little minute. Nice car too, a Nisan Ultima (sp?), it was a very nice ride!

We headed off to our hotel which was just minutes from the airport, but due to the ice and snow on the road took a bit longer. Man, it was crazy driving, mounds of sand followed by big patches of black ice... At least everyone was going really slow so we didn't look foolish by not knowing where we were going! We cleaned up and then we hit the snow/ice covered roads again to head to Krissy & Raul's house for an authentic Texan Brisket dinner and some much needed cocktails... It was a blast... Thanks guys for the hospitality - we had so much fun. We hit the road again back to our hotel about 10:30 p.m. cause we were bushed.

Sat. a.m., we got up and had a little coffee and continental breakfast surrounded by, again, a nice 50-50 split of Packer/Steeler fans... Let's just say the Steeler Fans were none to impressed by my Cleveland Browns t-shirt, and by george, they had snotty comments to sling our way - Too Funny. We just smiled politely and said, hey, we support our team just like you do! Now, the Packer fans - not knowing which team we were supporting just thought it was cool that we were showing our colors and love of our team! The folks from Wisconsin, my kinda people! We were met in the lobby later that morning around 11:30 by Dick and Sally, Dick is a Board Member of the Dream Foundation. These two people are by far some of the nicest people we have ever met. They took us out for a nice lunch and we just had a fabulous time. We talked about everything under the sun... Kids, Grand kids, Haircuts, Football, and really funky Texas weather!

After lunch, Ed and I hit the road to check out the drive that we would be taking once the sun went down... We wanted to scope out our drive early. It was easy as apple pie... and it was a sunny, but chilly, afternoon. Most of the snow/ice mix on the highway was melting and drying up which was really nice! We headed back to our hotel to take a rest before getting ready for Jim McMahon's fund-raiser Super Bowl party. While we were resting, we did another phone interview with a reporter from the Milwaukee Sentinel (I think - sorry Marty)... Marty Hendricks was too sweet. He would also find us on Sunday to talk to us some more during half-time!

On to the McMahon Bash!!! O.K., This was so much fun I tell you... (http://www.swangwear.com/concert) We were a little early so we were standing in front of the Theater when Jim, his lovely wife Laurie, and another couple arrived. We watched them exit their very nice ride and have some pictures taken. We talked with a few autograph seekers prior to Mr. McMahon's arrival and they were pretty excited when he arrived as well. A couple minutes later, they opened the door for the VIP ticket holders (that was us - yeah)... and we went in. What a beautiful old theater. Reminded me of our theater's but smaller in scale, the architecture was beautiful. We were milling around and looking at the silent auction items which we unfortunately couldn't afford to bid on. Some were pretty cool! I noticed the one lovely lady that had arrived with the McMahon's standing pretty close to Ed and I so I decided to go introduce myself and Ed and ask her to let Mr. McMahon know that we were very excited that we could afford tickets to his fund-raiser/party and how much were were looking forward to the evening. I explained to my new friend Jennifer about Ed's condition and how we made it to town for the Super Bowl (i.e. dreamfoundation.org); Well, she immediately whisked us off to meet her husband Phil and the next thing you know, Ed is meeting Jim McMahon himself, his lovely wife Laurie and Phil is having Jim sign an NFL football for Ed.... SURREAL folks. It all happened so fast, I didn't even get a picture. Let me tell you though, Mr. McMahon whispered something in Ed's ear that just had him cracking up in agreement. Let's just say it was a colorful remark about a past Browns Coach that NONE OF US MISS! Ed was like a little boy in all his glory that night. We had so much fun. Turns out Jennifer and Phil Lopez are from Macedonia Ohio - What Are The Odds! Again, the trend of just meeting more nice people continued... They wanted us to join them at their after-hour party which started at midnight, but we decided that with the big game coming up so quickly the next day, that we were headed off to bed! We got to the hotel about midnight and hit the hay! It was an incredible evening, with incredible entertainment and incredible people! By the way, Phil and Jennifer Lopez also host a fund raising event in the Cleveland area for Akron Children's Hospital
(http://lopengolf.com/ - The LOPen is the brainchild of Phil Lopez and Brad Croce. These great guys were looking for a way to give back to the community. They figured the best way to do so would be to hold an event that everyone would enjoy and raise funds for a cause everyone would get behind. So, they got some friends together to play some golf and raise some money. They decided upon Akron Children's Hospital as their cause, and specifically the Showers Family Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders. To date, the annual LOPen events have raised over $250,000 for the Center. In 2011, the bar is being raised. The goal is to do a single-season donation topping $100,000 to the Hospital. With support of friends, family, the community and our generous sponsors, we are confident that we will meet our target.)

I feel blessed to have met Phil and Jennifer Lopez and Jim and Laurie McMahon... However long Ed is with us, this memory will be our special memory, just for the two of us, and when he is not with me, I will always have that very special night. XO It was a GIFT! There were no reporters and no phone calls from anyone that night - just Me and Ed and the party we were at with incredibly nice people!

Now - The other spectacular gift was the actual day long event that IS THE SUPER BOWL... Unfortunately, I am truly exhausted and will try to get to those crazy events tomorrow! Luv to you all! We continue to encourage each of you to check out pancan.org - you may want to help and this may be the organization you would like to support! I know that now, our favorite organization list has grown by two more after Super Bowl XLV.... :)

Peace everyone - MK & Ed (oh, Ed would kill me if I didn't plug his band's upcoming gig on Sat. Feb. 19th at the Winchester in Lakewood, OH - 8:30 p.m., 'cause we start early - we're old... You guys all know the drill, loud bad rock-n-roll with free pizza in the rear... Newport will have 4 new original songs to share, don't miss out! Oh, and Newport will also be featured on an internet radio show on Tuesday evening (2/15) starting at 7:30... check out scrubradio.com to hear my sweet Edwards voice along with the rest of the band - Thanks Stephanie M. & John - my cleveland pancan pals!)