Living The High Life, The View From The Luxury Box

Fed Ex Field on the drive in

I have returned from my trip to Baltimore/DC a little worse for the wear…something about traveling takes everything out of me.  I was up at obscene hours every morning and didn’t get the best sleep ever, but it was worth it for a once in a lifetime trip.  And it will be once in a lifetime, since Dad will retire next year and access to the box will dry up!  I think I’m ruined for all other games from here on out, but I will always have this one weekend in October to hold on to.

The view from the box

The trip in and of itself was mostly uneventful.  The only interesting thing about the airplane experience was on our first flight back, out of Baltimore, we were on the same plane the Ravens had taken back from their game with the Dolphins the night before.  I tried in vain but did not find any left behind diamond earrings or superbowl rings or rolexes to snag.  No bling for Nole!  All I got to see was their menu for the flight…let’s just say the Ravens don’t get peanuts and crackers.  Their appetizer was a choice of double cheeseburgers or salmon.  APPETIZER.  The meal had a choice of steak I think and lasagna and some other stuff.  It was insane.  Why am I not a man with awesome athletic skill?  Gypped.

The view from our parking spot

Anyhow, game day consisted of me, my father, his coworker Ray, Nobel Prize winner Dr. Moore, this woman they contract with Nancy and her sixth grade son, Christian cruising in our nice SUV.  The drive in was just fine, the fall leaves are gorgeous and something I don’t get to see down in Florida, so I just dug the view.  We got the “Platinum” parking pass, which was an assigned parking space, #24, right in the front row.  I’ll include a picture that I took from the parking space so you will see just how close we were to the stadium and our own entrance.  After a small wait in the security line (during which I got felt up by some woman, bonus points!!!), we entered the building and headed to the elevator to take our private ride up to the boxes.  You have to show your ticket about 3 or 4 times to get into the elevator.  A short ride up and we headed to suite 192.  We were the first of the group there and I took a bunch of pics, some of which I will share with you.

View of the bar and food

Our waiter came in and let us know he’d be bringing the food in within half an hour and he went about setting up the hot plates and getting out the shrimp cocktail.  Some more of dad’s coworkers came in and we milled about the box, gabbing and watching the Boys get spanked by the Rams.  While it’s amusing to watch Dallas lose (if only to see what TO might do on the sidelines), I realized that the Bears/Vikings game was actually good so I found that.  You can watch any game you want up there, which is quite awesome.  The seats are stadium style, but instead of that plastic/metal crap you sit on leather.  There are two rows of those, about 8 seats per row I think, maybe 9 or 10, and then the bar behind that where there were 6 bar stools.   Behind that was the lounge area, with another tv on the wall and 4 leather seats around a little table.  The fruit plate was there, along with the shrimp.  The bar contained popcorn, peanut M&M’s and cashews.  The rest of the food came; which consisted of hot dogs, Italian sausage, sliders, pulled pork, baked beans, chicken tenders, hot wings, coleslaw, chili…and probably other things but that was more than enough.  Rest assured it was good.  I had a hot dog and slider (small burger) and some chicken tenders.  No complaints!  To drink there were sodas and beer and wine, all you could want and they kept it coming if we ran out of stuff.  It was awesome!

Food, drink and TV

Besides food, there may have been a game going on!  hehe The Browns warmed up on my end of the field, so I got a lot of pics of them in the early going.  I did my darndest to get a shot of a field goal going through the uprights, but my cameras delay between press and taking of the pic did not allow that.  I took a bunch of shots of Brady Quinn on the sideline, mainly because my mom likes to yell, “Brady Quinn, Brady Quinn” every time she sees him due to the Notre Dame obsession the media has.  Being at a game that I have no vested interest in was pretty new to me, it was enjoyable but I didn’t have that hyper excitement I tend to have during games involving my team.  It made me more observer than participant I guess.  Dad really got into it, he was a Browns fan growing up and though he supports them now, he didn’t seem to be that into them but he was for this game.  It was fun to listen to him cheer them on.  Most of the people in the box were Skins fans, tho there was some rep for the Raiders, the Pats and the Bears.  Pats girl and I bonded over the loss of Brady and what the Pats could be doing in the rather woeful AFC this season were he around…le sigh.

The game itself was a rather boring 0-0 tie in the first half.  I could have enjoyed a defensive struggle but it felt more like offensive ineptitude than a defensive battle.  The second half perked up a bit with a TD on my end of the field for the Skins.  Clinton Portis had a great day running, much better than I thought when I heard the stats after the game.  He went for 175 yards.  It didn’t feel like it but there you go.  On a personal note, the sun was pounding into the box for the entire first half and the beginning of the second.  I, being a Floridian, had listened and worn long pants and a sweater, the majority being black by the way.  I was roasting by the time the second half hit, but it was a comfortable heat! haha  You can open two windows in the box and the breeze helped somewhat though.

The Skins huddle shortly before their TD

The Browns made things interesting with a turnover following a goal line stand by the Skins, they got a quick TD and got the ball back and drove to field goal range with 30 seconds to go.  Dawson missed, wide right, though, and the game ended, Skins won 14-11.  We headed back out and instead of waiting in the elevator line, walked down with the masses.  The nice thing, of course, was that the car was close by.  The non-nice thing is that you can’t avoid the rest of the people leaving the stadium at the same time.  It took something like 45 minutes to an hour to get out of the parking lot.  That was a mess, my friends.  We were lucky enough to be in the lane we needed, but there was nothing marked for a long time telling us which lane we needed to be in.  Happily I was not driving, so I just sat back and enjoyed the drunk Skins fans.

TD Washington!

Gotta hand it to the Skins fans, they are loud and they are proud and they love their team.  Chris Cooley is clearly their favorite, or the one they most like to yell “Coooooooooolllllllllllll” for.  It’s like Bucs fans with “Ruuuuuuuuudddddddd”.  They get loud at all the right times and the stadium rocks.  I had a very good time and I fear that I am spoiled for all other games now.  I liked the comfort of the box and didn’t feel removed from the stadium experience at all.  I hope that I made you all feel a part of my experience, it was a one of a kind day and I’ll remember it always.  Maybe only getting to do it once will make me appreciate it all the more!  I truly enjoyed my one day of living the high life; hopefully you did too!

The stadium as night falls

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