Super Bowl comes to our Neighborhood!

The Super Bowl came to Houston this year…and not only Houston, but our neighborhood! Some of the activities were just a few blocks away in the temporary night-club that was built called “Nomadic”. Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars did shows there, but I didn’t see them come and go. Our neighborhood was sanctioned off as a no-parking zone, so people were parking nearby and strolling through our ‘hood to get to the show (the unhappy face in the image below is our house, the yellow dot is where everyone is going). ESPN also did a glitzy, red-carpet style event one night a few blocks farther up the street. Our neighborhood was ground-zero for the SuperBowl parties and shows. Check out this article from Sports Business Daily about that very scene. Club Nomadic Becomes Epicenter…

• Bruno Mars put on a great show, from what I hear. I Wish I could’ve seen that one.
• Taylor Swift put on an excellent show as well, but it was invite only and $2,000 per person! OMG. No thank you.
• There were even some left-wing protesters capitalizing on the crowds and spreading their hate: Donald Trump Sucks!

The week before SuperBowl 51 was full of lots of things to do, especially downtown at Discovery Green Park. Lots of exhibits and food and shows and even a carnival type ride. It was all pretty nifty, I thought. We went twice during the week before the huge crowds would show up on the weekend.

Here’s a good blog of many of the activities around Houston during SuperBowl week.
http://www.khou.com/sports/nfl/superbowl/live-blog-super-bowl-li-in-houston-saturday-sunday/398771132

On Saturday, while hanging out at the house, some jets went flying low over the house and scared the #$@# out of us! It startled the dogs, too, and set them to barking. Were we under attack? What the heck was that?? It turned out to be the Thunderbirds doing a practice run for a flyover during the Superbowl. So the next day we were prepared and (tried, at least) to capture the flyover on video. Thunderbirds fly over! NRG stadium is about 7-8 miles away from us, so either there was a slight delay in video broadcast, or the Thunderbirds were flying really fast! From the time of their appearance over the SuperBowl to flying over our house was about 16 seconds.

Here’s a video compilation that someone else made from various cameras:

On Sunday, we bought some meat, invited over Jane and the neighbor kids and we had our own little party. It was nice! Great weather and good food. 🙂

Like lots of people, I got a little bored by the 3rd quarter and figured the Atlanta Falcons had it wrapped up. So I went outside and sat by the fire with Jose. But a little white later I heard my neighbors shouting excitedly. I assumed they were watching the game and something cool happened. Sure enough, a quick check on my phone and I saw the Patriots were making a HUGE comeback. I came back and watched them tie up the game with less than 1:00 minute to play. Then, of course, in OT they score a winning touchdown. What an exciting end to SuperBowl 51!

Biggest Comeback in Superbowl History: http://time.com/4660730/super-bowl-2017-patriots-win/

The Half-time show was perhaps the best half-time show ever! Usually, it is kind of lame in some degree, but not this time. Lady Gaga was patriotic, technically daring (performed with synchronized drones), non-political, jumped from the roof, gave a shout out to Texas and Houston more than once, said ‘hey’ to her mom and dad, and put on a heck of good show. It appeared flawless (no wardrobe malfunctions). So kudos to Lady Gaga! GREAT job!

I was curious about where she stayed while in Houston and how much practice went into that performance.
Here’s some answers…

She stayed here -> Luxury AirBB <- I've driven past there many, many times! And she practiced at NRG stadium...

And more videos of rehearsal:

• https://www.youtube.com/embed/kaeQD0a-Hzw
• https://www.youtube.com/embed/0k46cu34tnU
• https://www.youtube.com/embed/KeWzP6W6N5c