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| OUR PHILLY ADVENTURE! | |||||||||
| Here's my description of my trip to Philly. I wrote this now while the trip is fresh in my memory so that I will never forget our awesome trip to the Final Four. I went with a group of 6 UCONN students-myself and my friends Jeremy, Cindy, Dan, Libby, and Ty. | |||||||||
| Preliminaries: Jeremy gets tickets real early on Tuesday morning at UCONN, he gets 2 of the 100 student tickets. Our other friends get them as well. We e-mail and phone all week getting logistics for the trip worked out. We are incredibly excited about going! | |||||||||
| Friday: Jeremy, Libby, and I head down to Philly in one car. Cindy, Dan, and Ty are in another car. On the way we stop in Stamford and in New Jersey. We see several other UCONN fans at the rest stops. We also see some UCONN cars driving on the road down to Philly. Unfortunately, the car was not decorated. We put a puffy hand in the window and hang some pompoms behind the windows, but Jeremy's windows are tinted so they are not visible. We made a "Philly or Bust" sign and I clamped it in a back window. Around 2:30 we arrive in Philly looking for the Westin hotel. Unfortunately, Cindy circled the wrong Westin Hotel in the AAA guidebook-she circled the Westin on Island Ave.. We go down Island Ave. and eventually turn around a few times looking for the Westin. At one point we end up behind an Ohio car of Tennessee fans that has a license plate "Go Vols" and his orange stickers all over it. Jeremy refuses to let Libby ask for directions because men don't ask for directions. :) I notice that the address of this Westin is the same as the Sheraton. I then spot the Hilton and mention that the address of the Hilton shows it is past the Westin. We pass the Sheraton and try to turn around, but can't until we go through several miles of highway. While turning back, Jeremy comes within a few inches of hitting a streetlight while making a U-turn. Eventually we turn around and finally pull into the Sheraton looking for the Westin. We notice that there are no Connecticut cars in the parking lot. Libby goes down at the Sheraton and finds out that the Westin is downtown and that the Sheraton there used to be called "Westin Suites" which is why it was marked that way in the AAA book. Jeremy looks at his information sheet from the UCONN ticket office and notices that tickets are at the Westin at 17th and Chestnut. We drive like mad trying to get there by 4 which is when ticket pickup stops. Traffic and parking and navigating the narrow one-way streets in downtown Philly sucks and we pull into a random parking lot around 4:15 or so and decide just to try to walk to the Westin. Luckily, this just happened to be the parking lot right under the Westin. We run up the stairs into the Westin. We find our friends Cindy, Dan, and Ty who already have their tickets. Cindy apologizes profusely for the wrong directions. We find out tickets are still there-Jeremy goes to pick them up. We're very relieved that we don't have to go through WillCall at the First Union Center which would have taken forever and a half. We go to the buffet, but we just sit down and drink water and eat the chocolate doggiebones and pick up the little Huskystickers since we want to go check into our hotel. | |||||||||
| One big complaint:many students went there and got tickets only to scalp them and make an easy buck. It really makes me mad that students would care so little about their school that they would do this. There were only 100 tickets available for students. Many of my friends wanted tickets but could not get them because the tickets were bought by jerks who never supported the team all year who only wanted the tickets to make money. | |||||||||
| We drive out to our hotel(Days Inn on Route 1). Cindy's car was much better decorated than ours. We were hoping to sneak all 6 of us into one room(several of us brought sleeping bags) but are unable to since the hotel has a No Guests/Visitors policy in rooms and the hotel security guard was staring at all six of us talking in the parking lot so I rented another room for me and Jeremy. I rented out the last room of the hotel and breathed a huge sigh of relief doing so. Jeremy, Cindy, and Libby go to Staples to buy disposable cameras for me and Ty and to get posterboard and markers to make signs. Ty and Dan go to the pizza place next door to get us pizza to eat on the way down. Some of us take quick showers before leaving for the game. We leave the hotel around 6:15 and make signs in the car driving down. The pizza is good but messy, since Philly pizza has sauce on top of the crust and cheese-it's not good driving pizza for Jeremy. We get to the arena but the cop directs us past the entrance to the parking lot onto a road leading away so we make a U-turn after a few minutes of driving the wrong direction as do many other drivers. We walk into the arena just in time for the Rutgers-Tennessee game finishing the pizza walking to the door. | |||||||||
| The seats at the First Union center seem a bit too narrow-getting up to get a soda or to go to the bathroom is extremely difficult. The slope is not steep enough so the person's head in front of me blocks my view a bit. We sit quietly during the first game since we don't have a rooting interest. Jeremy and I decided to boo both teams since we hate them both. It becomes clear late 2nd half that Tennessee is going to win. Finally, our game starts. All of the anticipation of the last few days in planning this trip finally comes to fruition. We are all extremely nervous throughout the game. The game is close until the end. Garner nearly kills us inside, but Sue's great outside touch gives us the win. We are relieved that we don't have to sit in our hotel and cry and drink Jack Daniels all day Saturday and Sunday. :) Actually, if we had lost, we would have dumped our tickets and left Philly on Saturday, but we didn't, so we did not have to worry about that. :) We listen to the post-game show on WTIC in the car and go back to the hotel. We watch Sportscenter but don't see ourselves on TV and go to bed. | |||||||||
| One big complaint:the students(those of us who were able to get tickets to the game and actually went to the game) wanted to stand for the whole game and support the team(just like all the students do at mens' games) but the stupid people behind us were bitching and being annoying so we sat down just to get the stupid people to shut up-this also happened at the Tenn. Game at Gampel and at the Big East tournament. We tried to stand and cheer as much as we could, even though there were complaints from stupid people when we did. This also happened during the championship game. It's too bad this has to happen. I've received e-mail from Geno telling me he *wants* the students to stand the whole game like they do at the mens' games. Chris Dailey said on the radio after the Seton Hall game that people should let the students stand for the whole game if they want. Several players have made similar comments in the Daily Campus(UCONN student newspaper). I won't bring up this issue again, but it annoys the Hell out of me. | |||||||||
| Saturday: We all get up and shower in the morning. By the time everyone is gathered, it's already 11:00(which is early morning on a weekend for college students :). We go to IHOP next door and eat lunch. We go back to the hotel to plan our day. The hotel manager helps us a lot with maps and all that and tells us how to take the bus and subway downtown. The trip downtown took quite a while. The bus was a long wait and the subway seemed to move slowly as it stopped at every station. Anyway, the afternoon was spent sightseeing. We hit Independence Park and looked at the Liberty Bell, the outside Independence Hall, and Ben Franklin's grave. The group them splits up. I wanted to stay and see the Franklin House and see more of Independence park, and the rest wanted to go to the Library and Art Museum, so I separated from my friends. I went to see the Franklin House, and I walked into both Independence Hall and Congress Hall. I attended Mass at St. Joseph's Church and went back to the hotel. My friends got there about 10 minutes after. We all got fast food for dinner. I'm a little disappointed that we didn't go someplace a little more decent for dinner in Philly, but on a college student budget, there is nothing wrong with KFC. :) We were originally planning to go out for some nightlife but were tired and decided not to, especially since we had to check out the next morning and would lose an hour of sleep with Daylight Savings Time. Besides, we can go out drinking at UCONN in Storrs, it's not too big a deal not to do so. The night was spent in the hotel watching TV. | |||||||||
| Sunday: We all get up and shower in the morning and check out of our hotel. We split up. Cindy and Dan go to New Jersey to visit Cindy's relatives. The other 4 of us take Jeremy's van and park our car at the First Union Center. We are able to park for free since there is nobody checking parking at that hour. We take the subway to South St. and walk east. After going a few blocks, we stop and discuss whether to keep going east down South St. or turn south on 7th and look for Pat's and Geno's steaks(we saw the places on Sportscenter and wanted to look for them). Nobody really cared and we couldn't make up our mind, so I flipped a coin. I said Heads for South St. and Tails for Pat's and Geno's. The coin came up heads so we walked east down South St. until we found a suitable lunch spot(Jim's). There is much interesting scenery on the way including a shop called "Condom Kingdom." :) After an awesome lunch of cheesesteaks at Jim's, we head to the convention center for FanFest. On the way to the subway station, Libby stops to look at some flowers on the street. We also notice a UCONN banner hanging from a hotel room. When we are buying tickets to Fanfest, Ty realizes he does not have his UCONN student ID. He tells the ticket seller, "I'm really a college student. Here's my drivers' license, I'm really college age." The ticket seller has this exasperated look on her face that says, "OK, whatever, I don't care." and lets Ty buy a ticket for the student price(which is $5 compared to $7 general admission). We explore Fanfest with some displays about womens' basketball history. We then go to Hoop City and find out that we missed meeting Nykesha Sales by half an hour. Hoop City is not great, but still fun. I totally embarrassed myself with my total lack of basketball skills. We saw Dee Griffin from Channel 3 there. She was interviewing a little girl and her mom. Ty really wanted to be interviewed but wasn't. Jeremy and I were hoping to get on the news-I put on a Tennessee jersey and he put on a UCONN jersey. I lay on the bench and had him choke me and the cameraman filmed us.(I found out later that this did not make the news. Oh well) We get a few free goodies at Fanfest but most of them have corporate sponsors(i.e. little basketballs with Continental Airlines on them). After exploring Hoop City, we hang around for a little longer and sit through this lame SportsTrivia game that they have going on, and since we have nothing else to do, head to the Westin for the buffet dinner. We begin to wish that we hung around South St. a little bit longer. We kill time at the Westin by walking around the Mall and exploring various stores. We eat dinner and sit through some of the rally and leave a little early to take the subway back to the First Union Center. We return to Jeremy's car to make signs and listen to the pre-game show on WTIC. Ty tries to walk in but the doors are not open yet. Some Tennessee fans park next to us and we banter with them a bit. The most annoying thing was that they had a recording of Rocky Top that they were playing over and over and over and over.... There was also this extremely drunk old UCONN fan walking around making an ass of himself. Ty and Libby walk into the arena, Jeremy and I wait until 8 and hear on WTIC that Sally Bell will be a referee tonight(Ugh!). We walk in. Unfortunately, I leave two signs we made in the back seat. Apparently the pre-game show was so good that I forgot the signs. Upon entering the arena, I wait in line sweating like mad in my UCONN sweatshirt for 20 minutes to buy a final4 T-shirt since they only have 3 people working the registers. I go to my seat. Cindy and Dan have not arrived yet and Libby is very worried. Cindy had a sore foot and needed to see a doctor. Cindy and Dan arrive just before tipoff and everyone is greatly relieved. Cindy was in the hospital for longer than they expected but got out. | |||||||||
| The game is great-total UCONN domination which we did not expect. We stood and cheered as much as we could(despite the stupid people behind us complaining). We tried to get the crowd as excited as we could leading all the various cheers(Let's go Huskies, Here we go UCONN, De-Fense, UhOh!, etc.). Some very interesting moments-when Semeka smacked Svet with the ball in the head, we started chanting "You are Ugly!" at Semeka. All in all, we were in total shock at the total domination. The vaunted and feared "Big Tennessee run" never came-I thought they were going to come out on fire at halftime, but they didn't. As it becomes more obvious that we are going to win, we start calling for the reserves, "We want Paige! We want Marci!" Geno obliges us. Some fans start handing out blue National Champions stickers and some newspapers and T-shirts. We all high-five each other in incredible excitement. During the last few minutes, we manage to get a few other chants going- "We're #1!, It's All Over!, Over-Rated!" Finally, the horn sounds and UCONN is the national champion! An incredible feeling of euphoria overtakes us. We stay and watch the trophy and ring presentation and see the players get their hats and T-shirts and cut down the nets. Finally, we decide not to head to the Marriott for the trophy presentation because it is late and we need to go to class the next day. Libby has an 8AM class she can't miss because she has to give a presentation. The rest of us are skipping Monday morning and sleeping in. :) We work out the division of costs of the trip(hotel, gas, food, etc.) and drive back to Connecticut in our separate cars stopping for gas and coffee and for the bathroom. On the way, we see several highway signs that say "2000 NCAA National Champions-UCONN Women Huskies." Really great. We're all really tired at the end of the trip, but sad that it's over and that we have to go back to real life. There were some other students in Philly but we were all scattered round town. It would have been fun to have us all together. Anyway, I get to bed around 4AM, very tired but not able to sleep because of all of the excitement! Click here to return to my 2000 Final Four page. Click here to return to my homepage. |
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