Bear Down, Chicago Bears

Game Day! We went to breakfast in the lobby this morning, dressed in our Bears garb. I was happily surprised to see that everyone else here was too! After that awful beating of the Giants fan at Dodger Stadium and reading a couple of Rick Reilly's columns online (see here and here), I have become more than a little leery of being a fan of the visiting team. But thankfully in our experience, Cubs/Bulls/Bears fans travel well (safety in numbers!) and we haven't had any issues at the Dodgers or Clippers games that we've attended.

We were staying within walking distance of the stadium, so we headed out early to grab lunch and watch the first set of today's NFL games at a restaurant nearby. Nearly everyone there was a Chicago fan - a very good sign!

From here, it was just a little farther to the stadium, so we joined the parade of Urlacher, Payton, Forte, and Tillman jerseys...

Once inside, we found our seats and watched the teams warm-up before kick-off...

When the Bears took the field, the cheering was sooo loud. It almost felt like being at a home game!

Our seats were located in a family section (no beer) and was mostly filled with Chicago fans, so we had a great time watching the game! But we did see a couple of altercations down below...

The University of Phoenix stadium (aka "The Nest") is a really nice venue. This was the boys' and my first time at an NFL game, so I was happy that it was a great experience for the whole family. Compared to watching at home, the most noticeable things I missed were being able to rewind the DVR (didn't see Peanut's pick-6 because I was standing in line for food) and hearing the color commentary (why did they disallow the Cards' touchdown on the botched Bears' punt return?)

What a fun game to be at! Bears win, 28-13!

Cutler to Marshall!  Touchdown!