Anyway, just for shits and giggles, I decided to look into taking a train. I’ve never traveled on a train. I know nothing about where they run, or how much they cost. But, perhaps it could work. At least you can move around on a train. You could get a private room. The girls could get out of their seats and we could stretch our legs as we leisurely traveled cross country. Images of the golden era of train travel danced in my head. This could be fun, I thought.

So, I jumped onto amtrak.com and started poking around. This is what I found…

First off, despite the fact that we have a train station in Boise, Amtrak does not stop here anymore. The nearest stations to actually get on a train are in Spokane, Washington and Salt Lake City, Utah. Obviously picking SLC, I just went with everything Amtrak gave me (ie. I know we could drive ourselves to SLC, but that’s not the point of this exercise).

1. Get on a bus and travel 7 hours 25 minutes to Salt Lake City
2. Have a layover in SLC from 5:50pm to 3:30am (10 hours)
3. Board train for Chicago, total duration to get there: 34 hr 20 min. Yes. 34 hours.
4. Luckily the layover in Chicago is only 3 hours
5. Take train to Pittsburgh, 9 hr 25 min.

We would leave Boise at 10:25am on Sunday and arrive in Pittsburgh at 4:35am on Wednesday. Total travel time: 64 hours. Oh wait, round trip… The schedule says only 57 total hours to make the return trip… Let me get out my calculator… Just a short 121 hours total for the round trip. Just travel time. For comparison, we could fly round trip, from Boise to Sydney, Australia THREE times in that amount of time.

Ooooookay…

Now, the price. The cost for the privilege to give up more than 5 whole days of our lives? Over 1,300 bucks. Yes, you read that right. And that is just for 2 seats and the girls riding on our laps, apparently. If we were interested in a private room, say for one of those 34 hour legs, the cheapest/smallest one they have (still just 2 seats) would add $600 to the total. If we wanted a private room for both of those 34 hour stretches, that bangs the total price up to just north of $2,500. Not to mention the 15 meals we’d need to buy ourselves along the journey. I’m going to go ahead and assume that food prices on a train are probably a lot like those in a movie theater or sports stadium… you know, super reasonably priced. On the plus side, some trains now have WiFi!… however, not any of the ones we’d be on.

Or, we could fly. Direct from Boise, 1 stop, 7 hours each way, round trip of 14 hours and a total cost of $825.

Needless to say, the train is much less attractive an option than I was prepared for. Maybe to those of you more familiar with train travel this isn’t as shocking to you as it was to me. But I was kinda blown away. So, you’re telling me it takes 8.5 times longer and is more expensive to boot? Gee, where do I sign up?

Anyway, back to square 1. We will continue to weigh the pro’s and con’s and see where we end up.

Pittsburgh family, maybe we’ll see ya in July… or maybe we won’t.

I took a few pictures during the wedding itself, a couple more of the reception and a bunch when the wedding party all hit the Hofbrauhaus for the after-party.  These are a few of my favorite pictures.  You can view the entire set here as well.  There are a bunch more photos there that I haven’t posted here.  Go view them.  They’re good.

A note about these photos.  I didn’t take my big SLR camera since I didn’t want to have to lug it around (and be responsible for it while drinking), so these were all shot on my little Canon point and shoot.  During the actual ceremony, we were too far away from the aisle for my flash to work and the church was pretty dim.  So, I chose to switch to ‘sepia’ mode for the evening.  I liked the way it looked, so I just kept it there.  Some of these photos are ‘happy accidents’ where because of the dimness, lack of flash, and longer shutter times, they got blurry but I like to think that was my desire all along.

Plus, there were plenty of other people there taking regular old snapshots… I wanted mine to stand out a bit.  As always, click on each image to go to Flickr to view the image larger if you so desire.

Without further ado…

I like this one a lot… wish the faces were a bit more in focus, but still, it’s very impressionist.  Their first walk as husband and wife.

This is another one where the ‘blur’ really worked out in my favor. Their first dance. Love this shot.

The Hofbrauhaus photos really turned out good with the flash and the sepia.  Definitely give an ‘old school’ feel.  I love catching candids at parties.  Try to capture how the night really went down.  I think I did that in these.

Really dig this one too.  Gabe in rare form… Liter of beer, cigar, and his new bride all tearing up the dance floor!

Heinz Field Panorama – Taken from our seats in the absolute last row of the top deck in Heinz Field for the Steelers vs Browns game on Sunday, October 18th.  We had a blast at that game.  Plus, it was the first time we had seen the sun since we got there, so that was a welcome sight.  Note: you HAVE to click on the image to go to the biggest version for the full effect.  Seriously, just do it.

The other panorama I took was the result of a wrong turn.  See, we went up to Mt. Washington the day we got there, but it was cloudy and rainy.  On Monday, Jess and I were out and about using Rachel’s car (which she graciously allowed us to drive) and we explored some.  Anyway, we were heading back to their house, but I was in the wrong lane.  I had to turn off instead of going through the tunnel and there was no place to turn around.  Well, the GPS told us to keep going, so we did.  We ended back up on Mt. Washington, only this time it was absolutely gorgeous!  We parked the car to take a few more photos and came up with this one.  I’m SO glad I wasn’t in the right lane!  Again, click on the pic to go to Flickr to view it bigger.

“Dawn-Tawn” Pittsburgh, PA.

If anyone is interested (especially you family back there) I have MUCH larger versions of these, if you would like.

There will be more to come.

Behold… my favorite images from our trip to Oregon last weekend.

Please go to Flickr to enjoy the whole set, or you can click on any of these images below to view it bigger.  Most of them look MUCH better when viewed larger, so I highly recommend doing that.

Without further ado…

Some background info… for spring break, Jess and I joined my sisters and their families in a house on the coast for 3 days.  We found a great place in Yachats (30 min south of Newport) with a good view, beach access and a hot tub.  It was fun.

We explored the area, ate sea food, enjoyed the rain, and relaxed in the hot tub.  And, I got some good photographs out of it.

We have another big week this week… mainly tomorrow, Wednesday the 1st.  But that is another post!

We stayed at the ‘everything old is new again’ Shore Lodge.  Fresh off their failed “Whitetail” experiment, they are back to their roots.  I’d never set foot in the building, but I gotta say that place is really nice.  We had the authentic “McCall experience” in that we stayed at Shore Lodge, ate at Lardo’s, The Pancake House and The Mill.  We also bought a 6-pack of beer at Paul’s.

Probably the most fun thing we did the whole weekend was snowshoeing.  We borrowed some friend’s gear and tooled around the shore of Little Payette Lake.  I’d never been snowshoeing before.  Many years ago I did a little cross country skiing and snowshoeing is kinda like that.  We had so much fun, we may be in the market for our own snowshoes.

We also had perfect weather.  The sun was shining and the temps were in the upper 30′s.  It was so nice we were able to shed our coats and de-layer a bit.  Absolutely gorgeous.

Of course, I loved being out there with the new camera and playing around taking pics.  Here are my favorites. Click on them to go to Flickr.  Or you can view the slideshow.

Anyway, I was totally healthy for the trip, which was the good thing.  George and I had a great time.  Although he was already sick, which put a slight damper on our late night carousing.  The experience however was worth it. As always, click on the photos for bigger versions and you can view all my pictures here: Lambeau Pilgrimage

Saturday we flew out bright and early from Boise to Minneapolis.  There, we caught the flight to Milwaukee.  Picked up the rental car and were on our way.

This being my first time in Milwaukee, I was struck by one thing.  Granted, I could only see what I could from the freeway, but all I saw were the following… Churches (there were spires EVERYWHERE), smokestacks, row houses and neighborhood bars.  Very interesting.  Especially to a guy who has spent his whole life in the west, where everything is new.

The drive to Green Bay took about two hours, counting a stop at McD’s for a little grub.  While we were on the road, the Boise State vs Idaho game kicked off, and I was following the action the best I could with text refreshes on the iPhone.  Not as good as watching the game, but at least I could sorta follow what was happening.

Upon reaching Green Bay, we drove straight to Lambeau.  Forget the hotel.  Forget anything else.  It was quite thrilling just to lay eyes on the place.  Not to mention that it was buzzing with activity.  We went into the pro shop which was massive.  We both got properly geared up for Sunday’s game and had a good time just looking at everything.  We decided to get a drink at “Curly’s Pub” named for Curly Lambeau the guy who started the team.  A couple beers and a plate of loaded pub chips later, we decided we had better check into the hotel.

Quick aside, downtown Green Bay looks like downtown Nampa Idaho.  It is small and old.  But, since GB only has 100,000 people, that’s kinda to be expected.

After a quick stop at the hotel, we headed off to a bar that was recommended to us by a drunken Packer fan who basically accosted us to go there while we were at Curly’s.  It was called “Fuzzy’s 63″ which is owned and operated by an old Packer offensive linemen Fuzzy Thruston, who is there every night signing autographs and taking pictures.  This is exactly the type of place you’d expect… filled with Packer memorabilia, and filled with Packer fans prepping for game day.  I’d say the average age of the patrons in this place was about 47 years old.  Apart from a group of 20-something guys, I was the youngest in there by about 10 years.  And EVERYONE was smoking.  The air was thick in this joint.  We found a couple seats at the bar, and just kinda soaked it all in.  Once the karaoke started, however, we figured it was time to pack it in.

Back at the hotel, we were able to catch the college football roundup on ESPN so I could at least see some highlights from the Boise State game, and all the other games we’d missed.

Game day.

We rolled out of bed about 7:30am and started to layer up.  It was supposed to be cold with a chance of snow, so I had on an undershirt, long johns, my flannel lined jeans (love those things), long sleeve t-shirt, new Packers hooded sweatshirt, fleece jacket, winter coat, 2 pairs of socks, scarf, stocking cap and gloves.

We got a taxi to the stadium at about 8:15am.  Kickoff was at Noon.  We had some time to kill.  We walked around a bunch and watched the parking lot fill up.  There were some epic tailgates going on.  We also paid 5 bucks to get into this tent village thing that they had, and got ourselves a brat and a beer.  In no time, it was time to head into the stadium.

After we got through the doors came the first time we actually laid eyes on the field.  Wow.  There it was.  Amazing.  Of course, it was about now that I realized I had lost my game ticket somewhere.  At least it was now, when I was already in the stadium, but still… bummer not to have that keepsake.  Yes, I’m an idiot.

Anyway, we found our seats and bathed in the glory that is Lambeau.  Of course, George and I were taking a ton of pictures.  The wind was blowing and was pretty cold, but once the game started you hardly noticed it.

The game itself was a blowout.  The Packers killed the Bears, much to the delight to all the Packer faithful.  It was a lot of fun to watch the fans around us.  There were actually quite a few Bears fans in attendance and there were a few drunken  Packer fans around to give them a ration of shit.  But nothing too out of line.

One sequence I happened to catch was the game breaking turnover and touchdown in the 3rd quarter.  Kyle Orton, Bears QB fumbled the snap, the ball was loose and kicked around until a Packer linebacker scooped it up and ran 60 yards for the score.  Amazing that I had the camera up and ready for that one.  See the following shots for the sequence.

Once the game was over, we were wondering how we were going to get back to the hotel.  It was about 3 miles away and there were 70,000 people all leaving at the same time.  We had no clue how we were going to find a cab.  But, we were just walking, following the crowd.  About 500 yards from the stadium we see a cab just sitting there.  What do you know!  We hopped in and he took off.  In about 15 minutes we were back at the hotel warming up.  That was a terrific stroke of luck there.

That evening, we walked across the street to a joint called the Fox Harbor Pub for dinner and a few beers.  We watched the end of the late games and the first half of the Sunday night game.  Ate a pizza and some fried cheese brogies.  All in all, it was quite a day.

Monday was the travel day, but we had a few hours before we had to hit the road to Milwaukee.  So, we went back to Lambeau to take the stadium tour.  This was very very cool.  Learned about the history of the stadium and the Packers.  Got to sit in one of the biggest sky suites they have and go down on the field through the players tunnel.  It lasted about an hour.  Almost as cool as the game.  We also hit up the Packer Hall of Fame they have there which is a museum filled with all kinds of Packer history.  Amazing stuff.

From there, it was straight to the freeway and Milwaukee.  Flight to Minneapolis. Flight to Salt Lake City.  Flight to Boise (finally).  Long day.  Too many airplanes.

I finally got home at about 10pm.  Exhausted.   But, it was worth it.  I can cross Lambeau off the list of stadiums I want to see.  Pretty cool that I have crossed two off that list this year, first Autzen in Eugene Oregon and now Lambeau.  I wonder which one will be next…

I have a bunch of other pictures I didn’t place in this post… go view them!

Anyway, in bigger news, George and I are heading to legendary Lambeau field tomorrow morning.  Not only that, but we are going to see one of the tried and true NFL rivalries, Bears v Packers.  In November.  In Green Bay.  How cool is that?

George, a big GB fan, is hyped beyond belief, even going to say he’s going to have to “roofie” himself Friday night so he can fall asleep.  I am a little less excited than that, but I have never been to a “classic” stadium in any sport.   Well, I guess you could say Dodger Stadium is a classic, and I’ve been there, but since most of the bigtime stadiums are back east, and I’ve never been east of North Dakota, I’ve never seen them.

We fly out to Milwaukee early Saturday and return late Monday.  In between will be copious amounts of Shlitz, brats, and football.   I bet even some cheese might be consumed, but I can’t be sure.  We’ll both have our fancy cameras with us, so expect a lot of pictures.

At least the BSU game is on the ESPN gameplan service, meaning there is a chance that George and I can find a sports bar in GB and catch some, if not most, of the game.  Of course, I’ll be recording it for a more intensive viewing upon my return.

So, until my return, may I leave you with a hearty “Go Broncos” and “Go Pack” and we’ll catch up next week.

The defense played really well against that run game with two very solid backs and a good offensive line.  I was impressed with how well they pursued the backs and had some solid tackling.  Sure, Oregon had a lot of rushing yards, but with their players that had to be expected.  But, we tightened up when we had to and made stops.  More of that bend-but-not-break defense.  Not to mention how physical our DB’s are.  Yikes.  (ejection of Jaron Johnson was a bit much, it was a shoulder hit, but whatever).

Kellen Moore.  Where to start.  That kid is awesome.  Ice water in his veins.  I love that Coach Pete had the confidence in him to let him air it out against Oregon’s vaunted pass defense.  Almost as impressive was the pass blocking of the offensive line.  Moore had all the time he needed to find the open receivers and he always seemed to make the right call.  Unbelievable.

As I wrote before, this game felt a LOT like the Fiesta Bowl.  Luckily, we didn’t need all the fireworks at the end to pull this one out.  I will say this… I have never done so much math at a football game.  I was constantly figuring out how far ahead we were, “ok… 17 points… that’s three scores…” and how much time was on the clock.  Of course when that freshmen QB came in, all my calculations went out the window and I started to get that knot in my stomach.  That 4th quarter was tense for me.

My only saving grace I told myself was that the kid was playing in his first collegiate football game.  As talented as he is, chances are he might make a mistake or two, miss an open receiver or toss a pick (both of which happened) and we’d be able to pull it out.  Oregon definitely has athletes though.

I have to comment on the stadium replay screen… dear lord that thing is beautiful.  It is gigantic and HD and awesome.  Our seats were in the opposite endzone so I got to stare at that thing for the whole game.  Unreal.  I wish we had a Phil Knight to buy fancy new toys for our stadium all the time…

The gameday atmosphere was everything it was advertised to be.  Easily the loudest crowd I have ever been in (except for the 2nd and 3rd quarters… heheheh).  They certainly have some rabid fans that spend the whole game yelling.  I think part of why the noise is so loud is that they have everyone shouting in unison the “Oooooooooooooooooooo” (for “Oregon”)… I think it hits a sweet spot when everyone is on the same page.  At Boise State games, we make noise, but we’re all over the place from words, “Go Defense!” or “C’mon Broncos!” to claps and whistles, to cow bells, to anything else.  Doesn’t have the same effect.  Maybe someday we’ll get there.

Also, 99% of the fans that I spoke with were very nice.  I was in an all Duck section surrounded by green and gold.  There was really only one asshole who turned to shout something at me in the 4th, 3 or 4 rows in front of me, but Jess’ friend who we were staying with put him in his place and he never made another peep.  Thanks Kristen!  I have a distinct strategy for successfully wearing opposing teams gear in hostile arenas and aren’t around your fellow Boise State fans:

1. Don’t be an asshole – this one is easy, since I’m not an asshole.  Don’t demean the other team. Don’t toot your own horn.  Don’t make asinine predictions of the outcome of the game.  Pretty obvious.
2. Always chat up the fans behind you - I like to talk with the folks behind me and get them on my side. Kinda goes hand in hand with #1.  I figure, I won’t be watching these guys, so they could basically do anything they want to me during the game and I wouldn’t know it until it was too late.  So, I compliment their team, tell them that I’m nervous, tell them the stadium is amazing and the atmosphere is great, tell them I’m just hoping we don’t get blown out… self deprecation comes in real handy in spots like this.  Be funny, be easy going.  If you get those guys on your side, they will also act as a buffer for any assholes who might be behind them.
3. Don’t celebrate too obviously or loudly – Don’t hoot and holler when your team makes a great play.  You can still celebrate, but don’t do a dance or taunt anyone.  I like to go with the “hands in the air” maneuver combined with a middle volume shout of “yeah!”.  Nothing too outrageous or anything.  Sometimes it’s the fist pump to myself.
4. Acknowledge good plays by the other team – Goes with the above rule.  When the home team makes a good play, acknowledge it.  It’s easy.  You don’t have to be fake or anything, because if you’re a true football fan you know a good football play when you see it. “Wow… what a run.”  Simple as that.
5. After the game, shake hands with those around you – Win or lose. Tell them good game.  Thank them for their hospitality.  Tell them you hope to see them in your house in the near future.  Maybe mention how you don’t want play their team again because they are too good and we were lucky to win.  As long as you’re not condescending, you should be fine.

Follow those rules and you, and everyone around you will have a good time.  I was kinda bummed that I was a lone Bronco as I couldn’t converse with anyone about how the game was going.  But, it all worked out.  My cell phone was buzzing constantly during the game, (but my cell reception dropped to nothing at halftime… wonder if it was a conspiracy).  Most everyone was gracious in defeat as well.  Thanks Duck fans… I had an amazing time.

The tailgate atmosphere is phenomenal.  We didn’t do much walking around, but the sheer volume of people was very impressive.  What is great is that there is a lot of parking in and around Autzen stadium.  Boise State simply doesn’t have the same amount of space which limits the number and size of tailgate parties.  Maybe we’ll get there some day.

We were home just some 13 hours after we left the house in the morning, and luckily we were able to catch the college football roundup on ESPN.  They didn’t have many highlights of the game, but they did have some.  Of course, they also had this asinine bit where they debated if Boise State now runs the table, should we be in a BCS game.  Whoa whoa whoa… lets slow down a bit… it was only the 3rd game.  Lots of football left to be played.  Right now, I would say BYU is better than Boise State.  But, everything can change in college football.  Stay tuned.

They did give Kellen Moore a ‘helmet sticker’ for his performance.  I still can’t quite comprehend how well he played.  I really need to go back and watch the game I recorded and soak it in.  Oh, for the record, the iPhone saved the day again.  See, as soon as I left the house on Friday, I remembered I had forgotten to set the DVR to record the game… DAMMIT.  iPhone to the rescue.  I logged onto directv.com and was able to use their remote scheduler to set the recording.  Bang.  No muss no fuss.  Damn, I love my iPhone.

So now, it’s back into the national spotlight.  So far this year, we’ve been passed over in favor of BYU, Utah and even Fresno State.  I found the silence deafening.  I suppose that happens when you lose your last two games of the previous year and start a freshman and a new offensive line.  Well, welcome back press.  I’m looking forward to reading more about us nationally for the rest of the season.

It is a good time to be a Bronco!

It is the gods honest truth that the whole second half felt VERY MUCH like the Fiesta Bowl for me.  Build up a big lead, when half way through the thrid quarter the opponet comes roaring back.  Luckily this time we did not have to have such fireworks to pull it out.

But we won.  I loved every second of it.  I am SO glad made the trip.

More to come.

Way to go Broncos!

I am seriously having an amazing time so far today. I do wish I had a few fellow brocos near by to celebrate with but I’m more content to just grin to myself. However, I do have a dozen or so friends texting and emailing me constantly.  My phone is buzzing every 20 seconds.

One half to go.

I would be lying if I didn’t have the next 3 years in mind while watching Kellen Moore.  That guy is un-freaking-real. Not to mention we might have something special this very year!

Keep it up Broncos!

Editors note, my phone connection was up and down during the game and I was unable to get this posted.  Better late than never.