Chargers v. Dolphins
Carleigh got her first plane ride, and all 3 of us went to our first NFL game! Tiffany and I have previously tailgated a Chargers game, but never attended a game. We bought tickets a couple weeks in advance, but at the same time, e-mailed somebody from Craigslist about another set of tickets. He had them listed for over $300 because they were 2nd row 50-yard line tickets, but we weren’t going to pay much. We offered him $150 if nobody took them. A few days before our flight left we heard from him and nobody else had made an offer so they were ours! We promptly sold our nosebleeds and made some of our money back!
The first flight was from San Diego to Dallas, and Carleigh slept almost the whole flight. After our brief stay-over in Dallas we flew into Miami which Carleigh also slept through! Her first flights went really well and at only 3 1/2 months!
Our hotel stay was at the Bahia Mar in Fort Lauderdale and our cousins from across the state joined us for some company and a visit. We had a partial marina view, and partial ocean view with only paying for a marina view room! Fort Lauderdale was nice, but with better planning we would have flown into Fort Lauderdale instead of Miami which would have saved us some time, and tolls while driving!
Saturday we spent with Michael, Katy, and Zoey Fritz. We went to breakfast, then ended up going window shopping at the Galleria Mall to stay inside from all the Florida rain! When we left the parking structure was flooding because of the large buckets of rain falling, something us Californians aren’t used to. We hear about flash floods but never actually see them. We ate together at Outback for dinner after an unsuccessful attempt to find Shooters Waterfront Cafe due to the iPhone/Google Maps not giving proper directions and the rain making us act hasty since we knew how to get to an Outback!
Carleigh all ready for game day:
Game Day!
We arrived a couple hours early to make sure we had time to see some of the tailgating going on, and mingle with our fellow Dolphan brethren. The stadium is technically in “Miami Gardens” which we had to use (another) toll road in our travel from our hotel. We’re spoiled in California without toll roads. We may have potholes and bad congestion, but at least we don’t have to pay daily, only rolled into our vehicle registration costs!
Our seats were as good as they sounded! We were around some other season ticket holders, and some people from San Francisco that came to root for the Chargers. They were constantly being heckled as were the Chargers themselves.
The game went well. It was really hot and Carleigh did well as long as we kept her as cool as we could and made sure her earplugs stayed in! It was a little loud for our cute one! It rained a couple times including a downpour or two. It effected the game slightly because the first downpour was when the Chargers took possession of the ball, and it was really hot/muggy like you expect in Florida.
Miami won at home for the first time in a long time, Carleigh must have been their lucky charm! The final score was Chargers 10, Miami 17.
After the game we took a few more pictures around the parking lot and stadium, here are a couple of those:
Carleigh playing Hide & Seek:
Some of our favorite pictures of Carleigh (not just from this trip, ever):
We relaxed the rest of the evening in our hotel room and Carleigh grew some HUGE thumbs!
Monday morning we got up and visit the new MJR advertiser Morris4x4.com to talk with their web manager, get a new soft top, and take a few pictures of their place to post on MJR. Then we drove to Miami to actually check out some of their beaches since we hadn’t gotten a chance to do that yet. It was really hot and humid but we thoroughly enjoyed their beaches. Some of the houses near the beaches with front/back yard docks are simply amazing, and the tropical feel of the entire place is fantastic.
The flight back was long since it went straight from Miami to LAX (before a short flight to San Diego). Again Carleigh did great. She slept the first hour and a half but was quiet the rest of the flight content with looking at all the strange new people! There was however a holy terror behind us who screamed the majority of the flight. When we landed at LAX we got complements on Carleigh’s behavior and we heard a few people who said when the kid behind us started screaming they thought it was Carleigh until they saw her sleeping.
