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Prologue
This past summer we made plans to visit Doug's family in Tampa during the first weekend in December. In the back of our minds we knew the ACC Championship game was scheduled for the same weekend. We did not expect the Hokies to be playing but kept our fingers crossed. Fast forward to VT's last regular season game against Virginia on November 29 which the Hokies had to win to make it to the championship. As you know from last week's college football blog, VT won the game and was off to Tampa to play Boston College.

Friday, December 5
The alarm went off at 4:30 AM, ouch. By 5:00 we were on our way to Logan and with the new tunnel it only took us about 30 minutes to get there. We were able to check our bag quickly and then it was on to the security line. The queue was pretty long when we lined up, but I've seen long lines move quickly at other airports. Well, after moving about two feet in fifteen minutes I was beginning to worry about making the flight which was still an hour away. As luck would have it, they opened another queue right next to where we were standing and we were able to hop in that. The family of four who had been in front of us tried to jump in the new line also but they were turned away because "families" weren't allowed in this particular line. Not sure what that was all about but good news for us anyway. Our flight began to board about 30 minutes after we got through security and we noticed the family who had been turned away arriving just in time to board. This means the security line took almost an hour to get through-- ridiculous! We spotted a few Boston College fans on our flight and one stopped to chat with us as we had our VT shirts on. An actual friendly BC fan -- who knew? I kid, I kid! So the family from the security line ended up sitting in the row in front of us on the plane, they had a toddler and an infant. The infant screamed for a good portion of the flight and the toddler had a portable dvd player on which Dora the Explorer was watched at full volume. What fun that was! If I ever hear Dora's screechy voice again it will be too soon. Here's a tip for those of you traveling with kids and portable dvd players: HEADPHONES. After what felt like an extremely long flight, we landed in Tampa and were off to Doug's parents in Spring Hill. We had lunch and hung out at their place for the rest of the day before heading off to our hotel. For dinner we went to Carrabas with Doug's sister, brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. Doug's sister, Lucy treated us all (thanks, Lucy!) After a quick stop at the grocery store for tailgating supplies for the next day, we caught Wedding Crashers on TV, ate some ice cream (this will be important later) and hit the sack.

Saturday, December 6

We arrived at Raymond James Stadium around 9:15 AM and tried to enter a parking lot right next to the stadium. It was blocked off and when asked, we were told they don't open until 9:30. Seemed kind of late to be opening for a 1:00 game but anyway. We circled the block and by the time we drove back by -- about one minute later-- they were open. So right after they had told us they won't open for 15 minutes, they opened anyway. Sheesh. We ended up with a great spot right under a tree next to a big group of Hokies with a major tailgate. They had driven down from Virginia and somehow squeezed four guys, three tables, two coolers, a bunch of chairs, about a million bags of ice, and enough food to feed any army in one minivan. It was just like one of those magical tents from Harry Potter's world. We had borrowed some chairs and a cooler from Doug's brother and his family, USF season ticket holders.

Doug enjoys a cold frosty -- in a USF Bulls koozie.

Sage in the middle of the tailgate, which grew all around us.

Doug popped open his first beer around 9:30. Oddly enough I'm sure that's not even a record, as we've had many breakfast tailgates before noon games over the years. We also enjoyed some chicken wings, pasta and potato salad, chips, and cookies. The guys tailgating next to us told us to help ourselves to their stuff too, including Bloody Marys. We only tried some peanut butter filled pretzels. As the morning warmed up, we knew it was going to be a great day. It was one of those perfect Florida winter days, about 75 degrees with no humidity. As it got closer to game time, a guy named Jimmy showed up to join his friends next door.

This is Jimmy.

This guy seemed really popular, and he was handing out free passes to the official Virginia Tech tailgate which included free beer. We took some passes but never made it over to the tailgate. We kept talking to him and calling him "Jimmy" and I think he was a little confused as to how he knew us. Good times. We had heard they were going to have a mascot football game with all 12 ACC mascots at 11:30 so we packed up right before that and headed over to the FanFest area. As we were walking over, we came across the Miami mascot, Sebastian. I said hello and he made a kissing sound at me. His flirting worked and I stopped to get a photo with him.

Sage convorting with the enemy.

Doug made a crack about him not being so smart since he's from Miami, but it didn't ruffle his feathers at all. Sebastian is OK in my book although Hokie Bird could still kick his ass. The mascot game was fantastic as expected, and the Coastal Division won with a touchdown by Hokie Bird and a safety when Buzz from Georgia Tech took down Mr. Wuf from NC State.

Hokie Bird enters the field with Cav Man from Virginia.

The Coastal Division mascots celebrate their victory.

I know I probably get a lot more enjoyment out of mascots than the average person, but in my opinion the mascots that are "people" are just ridiculous. This includes Virginia's CavMan, Duke's Blue Devil, and Wake Forest's Demon Deacon. Instead of sending Chief Osceola and his real horse, Florida State opted to send a cheerleader as their mascot. You had to feel bad for her, playing a football game with a bunch of costumed characters who don't speak. However, Mr. Wuf was spotted with his furry arm around her quite a bit so there could be a love connection there. But now that I think about it, I don't believe Ms. Wuf would be pleased with his behavior! After the mascot game, we headed into the stadium and our seats in the club level. That's right, baby - club level! We had ordered the best available tickets and even though we only paid for regular lower-level seats, we ended up with club level for some reason. We were able to enter the extra-special club level entrance and ride the golden escalator to our seats. This way we didn't have to rub shoulders with the little people in the regular seats. As they searched my bag on the way in, they seemed most concerned with whether or not I had any oranges. Fans of the winning team like to throw them onto to the field after the game to signify going to the Orange Bowl. Guns or bombs are okay, but oranges are strictly prohibited! Before the game we soaked in the atmosphere on the carpeted club level. The bathrooms even have large screen TVs so you won't miss any action if nature calls during the game. It just got better as we found our seats and discovered they were actually padded. Compared to the backless bleachers at Lane Stadium, these seats were very sweet. The stadium was pretty empty, but there were still about four or five times more VT fans than BC fans. An older couple ended up sitting next to us; the man was a VT grad but his wife was decked out in Florida gear. They ended up leaving early too, I have a feeling she needed to get home to watch the Gator game at 4:00. Or, she was just sick of standing up. Hokie fans always stand and make noise when the team is on defense, and often times will continues standing on offense too if it's an exciting game. She complained about the guy standing in front of her once and Doug said, "He can stand, this is a football game for Pete's sake!" We were surprised to hear an announcement a little later that went something like, "Bad language, drunken behavior, and standing can lead to your ejection from the stadium." The people around us had a good laugh at that one.

The Hokies take to the field. The smattering of BC fans can be seen on the other side of the stadium.

One of the Hokie fans near us had come with his friend who happened to be a BC fan (questionable taste in friends, that one). I made sure I screamed in his ear every time VT scored. He left after half time never to appear again. It was a great day all around, great weather, great seats, and most importantly, a great win.

Doug enjoying the final score and watching the ACC Championship Trophy being raised.

We stuck around for the trophy presentation after the game and then returned to the hotel. Now, here's where the ice cream from last night comes back into play. Our hotel room had a kitchenette and we had left our ice cream spoons in the sink. We returned to the room to find the maid had put them in the dishwasher and had run it! An entire dishwasher run for two friggin spoons! Unbelievable. We ended the day eating pizza and watching football at Doug's sister's.

Sunday, December 7
We didn't have any plans today except have dinner with the family so we decided to head over to Tarpon Springs. We had been there once before years ago. Unfortunately it was too early for lunch, otherwise I would have been all over that Greek food in TS. It was quite chilly, especially so close to the water. We wandered the one main street and checked out a few of the shops. On our way over to Doug's parents from there, we drove out to the Gulf view at Bayport. A lot of fishing boats were heading out, although it couldn't have been too pleasant with the wind and the cold. I was surprised to see a number of bear crossing signs in this area, I hadn't realized they could be found so close to Tampa and the coast. We didn't spot any however. We also drove by Weeki Wachee Springs which is apparently a Florida institution but I've never been. We ended the day at Doug's parents where Doug made his famous rigatoni campagnola for the entire family.

Monday, December 8
Flew back to Boston. I got depressed when we flew over southern New England and saw snow on the ground. Luckily we didn't have snow in Mass, but we did return to extremely bitter cold. Not fun.

Postscript
We have decided to skip the Orange Bowl this year. Last year's trip was not fun so we'll cheer on the Hokies from home this time. The good news is we finally broke our curse of seeing VT lose almost all the games we witness away from Blacksburg. Hopefully this was the first in a long string of wins we'll see!

Double Postscript, from Doug
The only thing I wanted to add was that after we got home I watched the game, having recorded it on my Tivo. First, I just have to say, sorry to anyone who had to sit through that game on TV. The ABC crew of Brad Nessler, Bob Griese and Paul Maguire suck the life and fun out of every game they do. On top of that, it seemed that they received some money from Chestnut Hill this year, as the entire broadcast was one big BC lovefest. They not only had to get Matt Ryan to call in from Atlanta (with the worst cellphone reception in the history of phone-ins), but they had to get Natick's own Doug Flutie to pipe in from his post in New York City. Of course, since he's working for ABC, isn't he supposed to be impartial? Well, I guess Flutie gets a pass (yes, pun intended) because he's, well, Doug Flutie. Either way, he drives me crazy.

But one thing while watching the game that we noticed -- we were on TV! And not just once, but a few times. First, when they showed a few clips of the mascot football game (see above), we were on the sidelines, in the front row watching, and the camera pans past us a few times. Then at halftime, they showed us as well. I took a screen shot of us:

That's us, in the bottom right part of the screen, standing up. Sage has her Orange Effect shirt on, and I have my maroon #5 jersey on. Here's a zoom-in:

Oh yeah...we're famous now.