Today was pre-game party day! Once we finally got out of bed and out the door we went to Fashion Square Mall for a bit of shopping and to take in Auburn and Oregon’s pep-rallies along with the Bud Light Fiesta. I was sort of surprised that Fiesta didn’t have more activities going on. Safeway had a decent interactive booth with some video games and photo opportunities. Nike had a converted shipping container where a person could personalize a shirt, although it couldn’t be personalized with any BCS or National Championship graphics, which I thought was weird. Other than that there were just a bunch of food and beer vendors mixed in with a few tailgating games. The site did also contain a stage which was used as the staging point of the respective pep-rallies. Auburn’s rally seemed pretty low key to me. We watched about three quarters of it before leaving to grab some lunch prior to the Ducks’ rally.
After our very slowly served meal at the Grand Luxe Cafe mom and Joyce decided they wanted to shop while dad and I attended the Oregon rally. The Oregon rally, unlike the Auburn rally, was quite entertaining in my opinion. It included performances by Sebastian Bach, singing Oregon’s power ballad courtesy of Jimmy Fallon, On the Rocks, Supwitchugirl and appearances by Ahmad Rashad, Neil Everett, Joey Harrington, Peter Jacobsen and Chip Kelly. The end of the show also included a few fireworks. However, the coolest thing was the Nike laser show that occurred a little later in the evening. Nike managed to brand the hill behind the Bud Light Fiesta along with some buildings in downtown Scottsdale.
Post rally dad and I hustled to collect mom and Joyce and then made our way to an event being thrown by the business school. The Championship Eve Cocktail Party turned out to be a blast. I got to see and chat with some old classmates, professors, friends and business associates. The food at Tommy Bahamas also turned out to be fantastic. All-in-all it was a great evening.
When Joyce and I returned to the hotel around 11pm we decided we hadn’t had enough fun yet, so we went out to meet our friend Micah at Dos Gringos, the Duck bar in downtown Scottsdale. We were there an hour and half and I saw at least 20 people I knew. Dos Gringos was a solid final stop in a day full of pre-gameday festivities. Now it’s time to rest up for a day many thought would never come... tomorrow the Ducks play for the National Championship!
Until tomorrow,
Katy
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