My Epic Big Game Weekend In Pictures

What a fantastic Super Bowl Game that was! I LOVED THE HALFTIME SHOW! That was probably my second favorite halftime show of all time. Second only to U2 in February 2002, when post 9/11 they played Where The Streets Have No Name while displaying on jumbotrons the name of every single 9/11 victim. 20 years later that touching tribute still brings me to tears. They had some terrific commercials too. One of the best parts about it? I kept reminding everyone, one year ago, we couldn't have Super Bowl parties. Now we can again! If you think about it, our whole lives we probably took seeing each other for Super Bowl parties for granted, right? I remember how different it was last year when I was just alone in my place watching the game. It definitely felt weird, that's for sure. My 1st winter here 8 years ago I also watched the game alone (ironically that's when the Super Bowl was in New Jersey at MetLife, Seattle crushed Denver.) That was because I had only been here a month at that point and hadn't made friendships close enough to get me invited to a Super Bowl party. Looking back, my goodness does time fly!

Friday night I had plans to see besties Jasen and Brendan who were entertaining family visiting in town. Talk about a fun time of year to visit. Just parking at Minerals Resort Hotel you can enjoy watching skiers and snowboarders coming down our mountain at Mountain Creek's Granite Peak. I then had a wonderful surprise running into my friends Carrie, Christine and Chris. I hadn't seen them in months! I knew we were going to get together for The Super Bowl party at Carrie's, but this was a welcome bonus sighting. We had a fun drink together at Kite's. Great friends, with many laughs. Talk about just what the doctor ordered!

Saturday I went grocery shopping at ShopRite Of Sparta. The place was a zoo, crazy busy. I then thought "Steve, you're the dumb@$$ who's grocery shopping on Saturday of Super Bowl Weekend! Whoops. On top of that, I found myself out and about, therefore missing one of my favorite things to do. Saturday was the first day all season where it was warm enough to watch skiers and snowboarders at Mountain Creek from my deck. I enjoyed watching them for a few minutes, hopefully next weekend when my parents visit it'll be warm enough for us to watch them.

I was hopefully going to meet up with a friend near Monroe, New York. This led me to have some adventures in Warwick, NY. I went to Price Chopper and found quite the amazing surprise.

Remember when we did our pizza challenge a few months ago, where I bragged about how superior New England pizza is compared to these parts? (Again pizza places, you know I love and support you and frequent all of you very frequently.) I brought frozen Cape Cod Cafe based in Brockton, Massachusetts all the way from New England to here, giving one to our 102.3 WSUS morning host Steve Andrews and one to our 103.7 NNJ morning host Borasio. They both loved them. Andrews wouldn't admit that my pizza was better than anything around here. He admitted his daughter Kim felt it was better than anything local. His granddaughter Gracie loved hers. The next afternoon, Andrews texted me and said "Steve, I'm screwed, my granddaughter just said 'Grandpa, can we have that awesome pizza we had last night again." Well now that Price Chopper has these frozen pizzas, boom we are in business. I brought one pepperoni froze Cape Cod Cafe Pizza to the Super Bowl party at Carrie's last night and it was a HIT!

Saturday afternoon I then ventured further into Warwick and ended up having a Guinness at Halligan's. As I was enjoying the well poured pint, it dawned on me I really haven't been in downtown Warwick since prepandemic. WOW. I honestly forgot how much fun you can have in downtown Warwick. There are always several options for yummy food, beverage and fun.

Saturday night was a quiet night in, trying to rest up for The Super Bowl.

Sunday morning I woke up way too early, had breakfast and rolled back to bed. I think I was up from 4-6am trying to sleep to Super Bowl previews on NFL Network. Fun right? LOL. I'll totally admit that I used it as an excuse to be lazy and wait out for the snow to melt so I wouldn't have to shovel or brush too much off of my Jeep Compass. Sunday afternoon I tried retail therapy but it didn't quite line up the way I wanted. I tried both TJ Maxx in West Milford, NJ, then TJ Maxx in Middletown, NY. Struck out both times looking for a pair of light denim jeans. All good. I'll keep on trying them and other options. I find that my rule of thumb with TJ or Marshall's is that 2 out of 3 times you'll come home empty handed, but that third time boom!

(I'm probably the only person ever to end a sentence with the word "boom," whilst talking about TJ Maxx and Marshalls. lol)

My favorite commercial was The Soprano's Chevy commercial! You want to talk funny. I've been mentioning how after football season ending I have been planning on trying to binge watch The Soprano's. Growing up in New England and not having HBO, I haven't seen an episode. I've been watching tons of clips from the show. Ironically, the guy who hasn't seen an episode, hushed up the whole Super Bowl party in Vernon, New Jersey because I immediately recognized The Soprano's theme song. I also have had a little crush on Jamie Lynn for over 20 years or so. It was such a touching tribute to the late James Gandolfini, you can see Jamie tearing up while hugging her TV brother. You know where both of their hearts were. You can see it by clicking here. While researching The Soprano's, I learned that James Gandolfini would call both of the kids managers/agents up to make sure they were doing well and not spending too much of their money. He would also order the managers to not tell them that he was calling to check up on them, making sure they were okay.

My biggest regret this year? NOT betting on the freakin game. I successfully predicted many things about the game. Although I was wrong predicting that if it was close, Cincy would win, but if not close LA Rams would win. Rams won 23-20 of course. I got the coin toss right, predicted the Odel Beckham Jr touchdown, Cooper Kupp touchdown, Cooper being player of the game, etc. All things I could and should have made money on! Ugh ah well. Still great game with terrific halftime show. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THE HALFTIME SHOW!!! I was screaming at the tv with my friends singing along to every song loving every minute of it. Success.

Thank you for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures. Time to start planning next weekend when my parents return to Jersey!