For Friday field trip today I am sharing a few photos from my trip into New York City last weekend to celebrate Super Bowl XLVIII.  Also, I am including some links to my favorite Super Bowl moments – none of which are clips of the actual game!

This year, the pregame frenzy associated with the Super Bowl was amped up in our area…for the very first time,  the Super Bowl was played in the Northeast – my part of the country – hosted by New York and New Jersey.  So, of course I couldn’t resist checking out all the excitement associated with this nationally recognized sporting event and cultural phenomenon we call “the Super Bowl.”

No, I didn’t attend the game – I traveled into New York City to check out all the pregame craziness!  And, craziness there was!

Craziness was witnessed from the time I got onto the train in Connecticut heading to New York City, where people were popping opening bottles of champagne at 9:45am – drinking to celebrate their favorite team’s anticipated win the following day!

And in New York City, Times Square hadn’t seen such action since New Year’s Eve…where the entire area from 34th to 44th was turned into ‘Super Bowl Boulevard’ celebrating all things football.  The week-long schedule of events culminated on Saturday with contests, freebies, interactive booths, visiting NFL players signing autographs for the crowd, and a photo ‘op’ with the Vince Lombardi trophy (stand in line to get a photo with a hunk of metal shaped as a football…I don’t think so!).  

There was a time when I would watch the Super Bowl every year.  Not to watch the game, mind you.  I couldn’t miss the commercials!  Or, the halftime show.  Now the commercials are all available on YouTube before the game is even played…and, the halftime show is just as accessible online after the big contest.  This eliminates any reason for me to actually tune in to see ‘the big game.’

And if you were wondering, no…the ‘Puppy Love’ commercial was not my favorite commercial.  I like an ad that uses a little humor, is cleverly done, and best uses talent that makes sense in promoting the product.  These were my top three favorites in no particular order:

 Top Super Bowl 2014 Commercial Ellen, 

Top Super Bowl 2014 Commercial Tim,

Top Super Bowl 2014 Commercial Anna. 

There was also one commercial that was notable and worth watching…it starred the 10 year old Oscar nominee Quvenzhane Wallis (who was gifted a Maserati for her role in this ad)…awesome job and wonderful photography.  You can see the Superbowl XLVIII Maserati commercial here.

As for the halftime show – this year, the Bruno Mars concert was definitely worth a watch in real time  – Congrats to Pepsi and Bruno for an awesome halftime performance!  No wardrobe malfunctions or gimmicks here…just straight up talent and a wonderful display of showmanship: 

Some Bruno Mars Super Bowl performance highlights are here.

A real cool part of being in New York City Saturday pregame – aside from all the energy surrounding me – as I battled the crowds to get back to Grand Central Station to head home, I was able to watch the Super Bowl inspired contest results determining what colors would light the Empire State Building.  

All week prior to the ‘big game’, the colors illuminating the building were determined by tweeting NFL fans.  Each night, the colors (I have admitted I am color obsessed, so this was right up my alley.)  displayed on the building were determined by the largest number of tweeting fans…orange and blue if Broncos fans tweeted the most…blue and green if Seahawks fans tweeted the most.  

Here is the closing ceremony light show for the Seahawks:

You can see the Empire State Building Super Bowl XLVIII Light Show here.

So that’s my Super Bowl 2014 review…hope you enjoyed it…if you expected game highlights, sorry…that’s not my thing.  I only enjoy watching football games where I know the people playing. ;)  Not that I would mind knowing Eric Decker personally!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie