Happy New Year!

 I spent New Year's Day above the Capital One Bowl in Orlando, Florida.  It was Alabama vs. Michigan State in what I hoped was an entertaining game.  Unfortunately, the marching bands were the only entertainment we had to watch that day as Alabama crushed the Spartans 49-7.  Both marching bands were quite impressive though.  I especially enjoyed "BAMA" spelled out before the game. 

Bowl Season Begins

I flew my first college bowl game last night, the Beef Beef O' Brady's Bowl in St Petersburg, Florida.  It was Southern Mississippi vs Louisville in the Tampa Bay Rays baseball stadium, Tropicana Field.  A pretty nice night to be up flying around over all.  I took a little bit of video of the stadium and of downtown St. Pete but to be honest there really wasn't a lot to look at up there.  We do so many games up in the Northeast during the summer that I think we get spoiled with the scenery.  Of course I'll sure take the weather down here over the sights any day. 

Miami Heat?

The only heat in Florida last week was the NBA team. Very unseasonably cool lately.  The video below is of the night time skyline of downtown Miami that I took as I flew over the Cleveland Cavs vs Miami Heat game at American Airlines Arena.  It was a quick stay in Miami and then off to Tampa the next day for multiple events in the area.

Texas Catch Up

Its been a rough couple of weeks but I finally have a second to catch up on the blog.  We were in Houston, Texas on Thanksgiving weekend for a Houston Texans football game.  I flew the game and took a little bit of video while we were overhead.  Right next door to the football stadium is the world famous Astrodome.  Even though its no longer used for football or baseball, its still an impressive structure. 

Walking Around New Orleans

On the Sunday morning before the game, I decided to walk around down in the French Quarter of New Orleans. I check out Bourbon Street, walked around to St Louis Cathedral and finished up near the French Market. New Orleans is definitely a city with a personality all of its own.

My favorite part about being there though is the food. I took in a couple of Man vs. Food destinations while I was there. First I went to the Acme Oyster House near Bourbon Street but stayed away from the 15 Dozen Oyster Challenge. I did sit right in front of the Oyster Challenge Board with Adam's name on it though. Very tempting but I doubted I could beat the 42 and a half dozen record that was currently in place especially with all of the other Cajun delicacies I was eating up there.

Another great place to eat that was on my Man vs. Food tour is Mothers. Its a very casual restaurant that has some of the most delicious food I have ever eaten. Their Po'boys are by far some of the best I have eaten. They make just about everything in house and it shows in the quality.

It was a short but enjoyable visit to New Orleans. Now its on to Texas for some NFL Football.

Back and in the Bayou

After a couple weeks away on vacation, I went back to work last week and have been trying to catch up ever since. My first event back was also my first college football game as we covered the LSU Tigers vs Mississippi in Baton Rouge, LA. Tiger stadium is probably one of the larger venues in college football and was really quite impressive to see fill up with the purple and gold colors of the Tigers. After the game, we did a rare post game transit down to New Orleans so we could cover the Saints game on Sunday. It was dark flight down there with not much but swamp area and a few roads between Baton Rouge and New Orleans but a good flight for the most part.

World Series

I did my first World Series Game on Sunday night as I flew over game 4 in Arlington, TX. It was a long way to get there but we made it. I've got some video and pictures of the pregame festivities which included the giant American flag in the outfield and the two former Bush presidents throwing out the first pitch. A fun night overall for my last night of baseball for the year.

Ghost Blimp

I probably should have posted this on Halloween but I'm a little bit behind on things. One of my favorite views of the blimp is when we are flying above the clouds and the shadow appears on them. It makes the shadow look like a kind of Ghost Blimp that is following us along our journey. I tried to add some spooky sounding music courtesy of YouTube to add to the mood.