Keepin' Up With the Hawkins Gang!: Oakland Trip

WARNING - VERY LONG!

Alright - so it has seriously been 4 years since Jeff and I have been able to take a vacation alone together. Probably because we have had two kids and a marriage and no time in the past 4 years. Better late than never - right?!

Well this year we decided that there was no way we weren't going to miss our trip to Oakland for Monday Night Football!

On top of wanting to attend the Raiders/Chargers game for Monday Night Football we also signed up to do our first ever Raider Mecca Event. This event has been held for 15 years and we have wanted to do it and this year we sucked it up and just paid for the event.

I want to first thank my parents for watching the boys for us while we went and Jeff's Uncle Mike for taking care of the dogs for us. We wouldn't have been able to go had we not had these wonderful people to help.

Our Trip in a nutshell :D

Flew to Oakland late because Jeff had to work.
Got to Oakland and to our hotel and it was ghetto! Different from the nice Holiday Inn Express we stayed in last time. Just tried to save money this time around.
Woke up the next morning and saw Raider fans driving in and realized that we weren't in a bad spot at all and the ghetto hotel was pretty decent (and close to EVERYTHING!)
Went and got breakfast at the best Denny's I have ever eaten at.
Came back and checked in for the RaiderMecca event.
Decided to go over to the Raider Image and ended up getting Super Bowl Champ Cliff Branch's autograph and Greg Townsend's (one of Jeff's favs)!
Had our card declined for a second time at Wal-Mart. Thank god for two different checking accounts.
Went back to the hotel to contact our bank and rip them a new one because our card kept getting declined.
Ordered room service! YUMMY sandwiches!!!
Got dressed and went to our first Mecca Event - a special Legends Party at the Eastside Club at the O.Co Coliseum. Met so many Super Bowl Champs and Hall of Famers! Didn't win anything but had a great time and met some new friends and saw some old friends.
As we were getting ready to leave our bank called and fixed our card - WE HAVE MONEY TO USE!! I guess since Cali is big on theft they had a protection on our card. Guess we should have called first! haha
Next morning we trekked back over to Denny's and had an enjoyable breakfast. Seriously best Denny's ever!!
We then walked back towards the hotel to catch the Mecca Bus. We got surprised with a trip to Al Davis' final resting place and it was just so surreal to be there. Talk about a nice surprise. For those of you who don't know who Al Davis is - he is the pioneer of Raider Football. Coach/Owner/Everything! He is a very influential man - especially in Jeff's life.
After that we went over to the Raider Image and met some rookie players - especially former Utah Man - TONY BERGSTROM! Great guy! Also met Rod Streater! One of my favs!
After spending an hour or so there and shopping (again) we were taken to the Oakland Raider Headquarters and given a tour. We got to tour everything. Jeff had the biggest grin on his face the entire time.
After the headquarters tour we got back to the hotel and was so tired we just went to the BBQ that was for the Mecca group and went and sat at the lounge in the hotel. We were going to go party it up at Ricky's but we were so tired it was just nice to eat - drink and sit and watch Sunday Night Football.
The next day (Monday) we went to eat yet again at Denny's! haha And then headed over to finish up our shopping at Raider Image. We were over there for a few hours because we wanted to get autographs from more Raider Legends! Jeff was able to get his helmet signed and it was just a neat experience.
After we got back to our hotel (after shopping and spending WAY TOO much) we got ready for the game and walked over. The coliseum was only a mile from our hotel so we just walked with everyone instead of taking a taxi and fighting the gazillion cars.
We tailgated for a little bit - ate some food and then headed in and found our seats - IN THE BLACK HOLE!! We were only up 4 rows and it was awesome! We were so close you could see sweat on the players.
Then the game started.
It was great then got worse.
I bought a cute new jacket because I was cold at halftime. That was about as much excitement as there was during the game.
We stayed the whole game (shockingly) and the Raiders lost.
We ended up grabbing food at Burger King on our way back and passed out.
Next morning I thought we were going to miss our flights (because the taxi took forever and we called 2 of them). Got in line at the long security and noticed we were okay on time so we went and grabbed breakfast (we had the best pigs in a blanket ever! haha) and Jeff enjoyed a nice red beer.
We hated getting home because we still had 2 hours to drive but OMG did we have a great time and we missed the boys.
We can't wait to go back next year!