Oakland Raiders Game

Sunday, November 15:

After our late night of driving, and full day in Malibu of working/running errands, we deserved a little bit of fun on Sunday, right?

Shannon's family are diehard Raiders fans with four season tickets.  Only her dad (who I call "Raider Don") was going, so of course we were pumped to take the other three.

We got to sleep in a little bit and Shannon made us green smoothies and one bowl of scrambled eggs to share.  It was so funny -- all three of us huddled around the bowl.  I don't remember if the other dishes were dirty or what, but it worked.  Just a little comical.

We hopped in Shannon's car and drove to the Bart station in San Leandro.  I guess it's hard to get to the games by driving.  Heck it's hard to get anywhere in the Bay Area by driving.  Bart was clearly the way to go.  Everyone there had on Oakland gear and was heading to the game.

On the train to the game!

We had to carry whatever we were going to want/need for the day -- all in a clear plastic bag to go in to the game.  So I packed up my "life bag" as they call it with snacks and sunglasses and credit cards...and a big box of wedding cake samples (from yesterday).  Because that's totally normal tailgate food.  

It doesn't hurt that the Bart station is directly across from the stadiums (A's play there, too).  You just walk off the train, and walk across the road on an elevated sidewalk right to the gates/parking lots.  Too easy.

These Raiders fans take tailgating seriously. 

Raider Don drove up a few minutes later and the three of them started dragging stuff out.  

They had the whole set-up done in minutes...complete with a working tv!  Fancy fancy.

After watching some football and snacking on some very Unhealthy foods, Shannon and I decided to walk around and check out some of the more rambunctious tailgate areas.

I guess Raiders fans are "Footballs most notorious fans" and have a section called The Black Hole.  We checked it out and got a little too deep in to the action.  We were surrounded by big, loud, drunk men yelling.  I was pretty much just clinging to Shannon with my face buried in her coat.  Ready to go. ;)

One thing I noticed:  there were these towers set up all over the place with security guys on them -- watching for fights to break out I guess!  Never seen that before!

Back at our tailgate, we broke out the wedding cake, and it was a big hit.  Such a big hit, in fact, that we gave some to the neighboring tailgaters!

Thank goodness Raider Don brought two extra coats for Shannon and I -- because we were not prepared for the cool weather!}

On our way in to the game, we saw more than a few interesting characters, and of course stopped to take pictures with the ones we could get to stop.

Security line was easy and we were in the stadium and at our seats in no time.

The players ran out to fireworks (or maybe it was just fire?) and there was a flyover by a military plane.  Pretty typical NFL game start I think.

There was this little guy sitting in front of me who would not leave me alone.  And that was fine with me.  He was cute and his dad was WAY too in to the game to entertain him.  So I did!

Wearing my hat!

He even came and sat on my lap!  Such a friendly little dude. (And he kept me warm!)

The Raiders ended up losing, but it was still a fun and exciting game.  Raider Don sure wasn't happy, but I was.  I mean just happy that I got to go to the game -- not about the losing!

He drove us back to our car at the San Leandro Bart stop because the stop at the stadium was totally insane.  I guess it takes like hours for people to get on the trains after the game.  No, thank you.

There was a beautiful sunset on the way home.  I think Shan and Ry are tired of me always taking pictures of not only them, but the sky.  Every. Day.  :)

We grabbed some groceries from the little local Mexican market down the street from their house, and made some dinner.

Then it was back to the wedding prep.  Invitations were up tonight.

Ryan designed them and did a great job, but he asked my opinion.  So I gave it to him -- and made him change it up quite a bit.  This is his first draft.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the finished product.  They turned out awesome!

Seriously.  I had no idea how much work weddings were.  Every spare minute these two had was spent on wedding prep.  We were all so tired, but Ryan had to get batteries in all the candles, and Shannon had to fill out a questionnaire for the photographer.  Never.Ending.  {Someone please remind me to never get married.} ;)

Our goal was to be in bed "early" Sunday night.  I guess if you call 11pm early then we made it.