# My Trip to the Las Vegas Bowl



## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

There are several other threads about the game - why BYU screwed up, Max Hall sucks, all that. I'll keep that out of this one. This thread is about my trip, and anyone else really, who went to the game and wanted to share the trip.

My trip started on Tuesday when my wife broke down and told me of my Christmas surprise - two tickets to the game so I could take my son - a HUGE BYU fan. We waited until Friday morning to tell him, knowing that the anticipation would kill him. So we woke him up to "Rise and Shout" followed by Faith Hill's "Hey Baby Let's go to Vegas." Once he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, it clicked that we were going to the game.

The game was frustrating, but the Dad/son time was top notch. Here are some pictures from our adventure.

Stop - World's Largest Gift Shop
Among the many places there are to stop and see in Vegas, this one seemed friendly enough. 









We had to try on a couple of hats. If I did archery hunting, I'd have to buy this one so I'd fit in with all you guys!









Friday night, we took in the pep rally at the Fremont Street experience. It was actually pretty cool - as they projected highlights from both teams on the domed ceiling over the street and the marching bands played battle of the bands.









Saturday, we got to the stadium in time for the tailgate party. Brought to us by - Budweiser.









My son just HAD to get his face painted. Too bad they used poster paint instead of face paint. About the time the first quarter rolled around, the paint was dried and flaking off and driving him crazy.









The final result.









The pregame show featured a field size flag, put up and held up by our fine service people - Thank you! And then they up and had Haselhoff go and butcher the national anthem. At least the flag and Air Force fly over were cool.









Finally - the game gets going. We sat just above the BYU band in the corner. We had a great time except for the game. But like I said - that is another thread. 









I'd make the trip again in a heartbeat. A great road trip with my son, and an overall very good time. The Las Vegas bowl did NOT impress as for the actual production of the game. The stadium is garbage, the scoreboard bad, the lighting poor, and overall event production poor. If that is the best bowl the MWC is affiliated with, that is just sad. But that is another thread I am sure.

So, anyone else go to the game? AND have pictures they don't mind sharing?


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

I went. I'll post pics later.


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## Comrade Duck (Oct 24, 2007)

I went as well. I'll try and get some pics up when I get a chance. We sat a few rows up from you, behind the band as well. I believe I saw your son. Were you guys sitting on the first row right above the walkway? 

We had a good time even though the play on the field was a let down. I took my wife and 3 year old boy. We sat alongside my Dad and my older brother and his wife. The only redeeming quality of the night aside from the fly-over was the good company.

Shane


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

That was us - front row above the walk way, right behind the band.


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

We left from Sandy at 6 pm on Sunday. As you know, the snow was heavy, we had snow packed roads for the first 150 miles or so; until Cove Fort. That made for a very crappy start to the trip. Speed was about 40mph for the first 3 hours, not fun at all. It then opened up and was clear the next 250 miles or so. We arrived at about 4:30 am mtn time, only to wake up about 5 hours later and tour the town and go for the breakfast buffet at the Paris. 
The whole condo parking lot was full of Utah plates mostly with Y stickers/signs.
We watched the BYU basketball game at the condo and then left for the game, I was very surprised that the stadium was so far from campus. It felt like AZ had a lot more fans there. We had 7 tickets, 4 on the very front row and 3 on the 5th row, so we just switched at the half. Being that close is pretty cool. We were on the 35 yard line behind BYU's bench on the northern side of the field, where the defense meets, that made it entertaining to see the DC chat with the DB's 5' away right after the gave up a wide open TD. Having seats that cool really did make up for the game being poopy. Right after we went over to the locker room area and waited for all of the players to come out; too bad I did not have my own son's there, my brother had his 8-year old. We got pics of him with all of the big players. Austin Collie's grandpa heard my nephew talk about Austin and made it his personal mission to introduce his new friend to all of them, very nice guy! He told us several personal stories about Austin, met Austin's wife and his Bro, Zach, it was interesting how he told us that he always drops a pass in warmups on purpose so as to have that be his only drop of the day. They were all very friendly even after a very tough loss. Harvey and Austin were both very friendly and took a minute or so to chat with my nephew; all he normally talks about is BYU football; this experience will only increase how much he talks about them. We even went on the field after the game to show him what a synthetic field looked like. We hit In N Out after, Jan Jorgensen and Jeremiah Jensen from (Ch 5) were there as well as several U football players there who had attended the game. 
Being that close and having that time with the players made the whole miserable drive very worth it; my only regret is not having my own sons there. 

The return trip was much more pleasant than Friday's. As a football official I have to comment on the weird calls, AZ's illegal participation call was total crap; they can not go back to the previous play and penalize for something that was missed, how do 7 officials miss that call on 3rd, though??? And calling Collie's fumble incomplete, bad call! Both errors benefited the Y, of course IMHO that was a PI half way through the 3rd against Collie (no call) inside the 5 so it was fairly even in bad calls. In watching the game on TV tonight; did anyone particularly realize just how crappy the MTN/VS are? Much more enjoyable to have replays, commentators who are not homers, etc. Here are a few crappy cell phone pics; none of the post game pics yet from my dad's camera.


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## Comrade Duck (Oct 24, 2007)

GaryFish said:


> That was us - front row above the walk way, right behind the band.


I was the guy hauling a 3 year old to the bathroom what seemed like every 5 minutes. When a kid says he has to go you don't argue.

You were in a perfect position to pop that obnoxious U of A fan, "scoreboard."

Shane


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

> You were in a perfect position to pop that obnoxious U of A fan, "scoreboard."


I just about did. I wanted to grab that stupid little beard he had. A very funny thing about him - he was walking and saying "The mountain west sucks!" And his shirt was one of the give-a-way shirts from games, and the game on the back was Arizona-New Mexico - which AZ lost. I'm sure he wasn't bright enough to see the irony in that.

But the goofiest thing of the night was the flag girls for the Arizona band - had two dudes! Spandex'd all out - "Blades of Glory" style out there prancing around. I've never seen flag girls who were guys! I guess they left the "L" out of flag or something.


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## jahan (Sep 7, 2007)

GaryFish said:


> > You were in a perfect position to pop that obnoxious U of A fan, "scoreboard."
> 
> 
> I just about did. I wanted to grab that stupid little beard he had. A very funny thing about him - he was walking and saying "The mountain west sucks!" And his shirt was one of the give-a-way shirts from games, and the game on the back was Arizona-New Mexico - which AZ lost. I'm sure he wasn't bright enough to see the irony in that.
> ...


How come when I read this I see Fixed? :shock: :mrgreen: :lol: :wink:


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

GaryFish said:


> > You were in a perfect position to pop that obnoxious U of A fan, "scoreboard."
> 
> 
> I just about did. I wanted to grab that stupid little beard he had. A very funny thing about him - he was walking and saying "The mountain west sucks!" And his shirt was one of the give-a-way shirts from games, and the game on the back was Arizona-New Mexico - which AZ lost. I'm sure he wasn't bright enough to see the irony in that.
> ...


Gary,
You omitted a very important piece of info, the band was introduced as the first "alternative" band with their rainbow flags; the guys were definitely living up to that name, not that I care, but they were very flamboyant FWIW.
Here are some other pics we had:
















































I was quite surprised to see them as friendly as they were under the circumstances, always classy and surprisingly friendly enough to give autographs and pics.


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## Comrade Duck (Oct 24, 2007)

Great Pics Huge. You're nephew won't remember that they lost, only that he got to meet the team. For a little kid that means a lot. I'm sure in his eyes the trip was a huge success. Good for him.

That's was pretty cool of them to take time with the fans. 

Shane


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## Comrade Duck (Oct 24, 2007)

Here's some pics of our trip.

My boy getting a better view.










The most exciting part of the whole night. I always love the fly by's.










Me and the little guy!










Old Glory!










Me and my wife.










1st. and 3rd generation Cougar fans.










Shane


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

Great pics Shane. From the pics, you were just 2-3 rows behind us. Great trip.

Gary


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