SBLI

Just a few weeks into the new year I was off to work Super Bowl LI (51) in Houston, Texas.  My new work space was just a few hundred yards from NRG stadium.

This year we were staying about a 30 minute drive from the stadium in Sugar land.  Our hotel was pretty nice, complete with a full kitchen and even had a fireplace.  Sadly I didn't get to spend much there, and was mostly there just to sleep each night for a few hours.

I thought I was escaping the rain and actually flooding we had been having back home....BUT, just a few days into our stay in Houston they were hit with some torrential rain.  This was the forecast heading into work one day.  The hotel desk warned us to just stay put...we of course did not listen.

 This is our street to get to the Super Bowl...

they were actually fishing people out of the bus here.  We quickly were stuck in the middle of flooding just about everywhere we turned.

We tried several different routes and almost all were flooded.  But when your in a rental car you have a bit more confidence in braving the deep...and it barely worked but we made it there in a few hours.

It was a lot of long days literally counting down until the big day.

I did get a chance to pop in the stadium and take a look around.  Nothing really special about this stadium really, the fact that it has a retractable roof didn't really wow me, and I guess it just now feels like if you've seen one field, you've seen them all.

Finally the big day arrived, and it was a beautiful day outside.  As always this is the only thing I really get to see of the big game, the flyover.

I honestly never get tired of seeing this, it is pretty cool.  The fact that the timing and precision has to be so perfect is pretty impressive.

We did have a "free" day after the game to get out and explore the city a bit.  A friend and I started the day out at the hospital visiting a guy on our crew who had got injured at SB and left via ambulance and had to have emergency surgery.  We were able to give him support and kept him laughing to lighten the mood.  Hopefully he is looking to a full recovery.

There wasn't much we found of interest to do in the area so we headed to the city to check out the NASA museum.

We took the tour of the grounds and saw the actual Green room where the famous phrase of "Houston we have a problem" came from.

We saw some real NASA workers working on the latest version of robots and new space suits. 

Although there was a lot to see, it lacked the real wow factor of any museum I have been to, and really Houston was not one of my favorite cities AT ALL.  Pretty boring actually.

There is a great part of SB for me every year and that is getting to see old friends I haven't seen in a year and reconnecting with them all.

Lots of dinners out with friends,

 

 And getting to meet some new friends that I hope to get to see again next year.

 

And before we knew it, the last few of us were sitting in the airport waiting to catch our flight home.  I had a layover in SLC so I was on the same flight as some of my co-workers.  Ended up being the most turbulent flight I have ever been on....kind of unsettling.

It was a great experience working SB again, and equally as nice to be back home!