Dan and I were so lucky to be able to attend the Super Bowl this year, to watch his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Green Bay Packers.  The outcome wasn’t quite what we hoped for, but it was a good game and we had a great time! Warning to our readers who are looking for food-related content: not much in this post. We just wanted to document this historic (to us) event, so if you don’t prefer lots of random, mediocre-quality sporting event photos — check back in a day or so and we’ll be back to the recipes and food photos. But if you’re curious for a peek into the Super Bowl Sunday of a couple of Steeler fans, read on.

Dan’s friends John (on the left) and Mike (on the right) made the trip from Pittsburgh to attend the game.  Special thanks to Mike for hooking us up with a ticket source and awesome arrangements for transportation to and from the stadium!  We were all so happy to see the sun making an appearance that day, after quite a week of ice, snow and freezing temps.  It was a beautiful day for a Super Bowl!

(Hey Dr. JohnnyZ – Optometrist to the Stars – how about hooking Mike up with a pair of polarized sunglasses, for crying out loud?!)

This is the first of many creative interpretations of Steeler gear we saw that day.   I think the overalls are actually a response to the rather unfortunate (in my opinion) Packer fan fashion trend.  We saw quite a few of these in green and yellow.

Approaching the House that Jerry Jones Built.  We saw many people seeking tickets during our walk toward the stadium — once again so thankful that we had ours.

So, what we thought was a very cool special surprise — we ended up next to these guys at security to enter the stadium and mistakenly thought they were the fans famous for attending every Super Bowl.

I think it was the jackets and “The Super Bowl Five” moniker that caused our confusion.

Dan and John even got their photo with one of the guys.  Turns out, we don’t actually know who “The Super Bowl Five” are, but they are definitely not these guys.  Oh well.

So exciting to see the stadium all decked out for the Super Bowl.

Are you ready for some football?!?  We are were.

Probably the most famous thing about Cowboy Stadium is the “world’s largest high-def TV” hanging over the field.  It really is something to behold.  If you ever attend a game in seats facing the big screen, it’s tough not to watch the game on the screen instead of the field.  In other words, awesome.

Cowboys Stadium also boasts other have-to-see-it-to-believe things, such as this giant cheeseburger.  It cost $25 and could probably feed at least 4 hungry people.  And yes, they re-cheesed.  That is a lot of cheese on a very large burger.

Delicious hot dogs for dinner (and for our food-centric readers, FYI – this is the final food-related photo.  Click over to Pioneer Woman, Persephone’s Kitchen or one of your other favorite food blogs if you need more meat, dairy or veggie in your Internet browsing for today.)  That is ketchup on my hot dog.  Shut up, I like it that way.

We loved our seats (a good thing, considering how much we paid for them.  I’ll never tell.)   Really good view of the field, from the Steeler end zone.  Steelers warming up.

Wow.  The stadium was full.  If I had to guess, it was about equal parts Steelers and Packers fans.  At which point, Dan would interrupt and say “Steeler Nation.”

Getting ready for the Steelers to officially enter the stadium.

Wait for it….

HERE WE GO, STEELERS…

…HERE WE GO!

The Packers had their own dramatic entrance from the other side.  Whatever.  On to the coin toss!  Steelers called tails and the result was heads.  Some betting folks made some money.

This fan was one of our favorites, decked out in a Polamalu wig and steel beam novelty hard hat, while shirtless with some sort of odd body paint scheme.

Although the TV screen in our section was probably about 1/10th the size of the famous big screen, it was still plenty big and added to the football watching experience.  (Or perhaps I am just easily distracted.)

This was another of our favorite fans.  Hard to tell from the picture, but he was wearing a hard hat modified with the Steeler logo and 6 tiny trophy cups stuck on the top.  Very clever.  For our non-Steeler-fan readers [likely no longer reading], the trophies represent the 6 prior Super Bowls the Steelers have won.

Pretty sure this guy would have sold one of his kidneys to be able to stick a 7th tiny trophy up there.

Another shirtless fan with body-painted jersey look.  Well done.

TOUCHDOWN Steelers!  I won’t rehash the game here since ours is a far cry from a sports blog (and I would have to admit to how little I understand about football and how much less attention I pay to the actual game), but this touchdown made for a very happy time for Steeler fans throughout the stadium.  Terrible Towels in force!

Right after the Steeler score and just before halftime, we decided it would be a good time to check out the Steeler gear in the stadium Pro Shop.  Hello Steeler Elvis.

So, our little jaunt into the Pro Shop somehow ended up with us entering one of the fancy club level areas (to which our tickets did not allow access.)  We exited the Pro Shop as directed, went up a little escalator, and there we were.  Sort of like going through a wardrobe to a magical land where a lion is king and vodka is top shelf.  We stayed there through the halftime show and a little bit of the third quarter.

What can I say, I’m a bit of a fancy girl who likes fancy things.  I’ll be honest, our seats in the stadium were pretty tight and we were very very close to our new Steeler fan friends.  It was nice to enjoy a little bit of space and luxury in the magical land that is football stadium club level, with full bars and gourmet food (none of which I took any pictures of, shame on me.)  Also, they had orchids in vases in the bathrooms.  Swoon.

Local celebrity (?) interviewing Packers fan?  Ish?  It’s club level — I’m sure they are famous.

UPDATE: My dad correctly pointed out that the guy on the right is Biff Henderson, roving reporter for David Letterman.  We knew he looked familiar!

Cool hologram logo on the carpet (carpet!) in front of the bathrooms.  You know, the ones with the orchids.  And no lines.

Ice sculpture at club level.  (And apparently club levels are not immune to douchebags, including the one who left his/her cup on the sculpture.)

Very cool art at club level.  Little did we know (at least until seeing it featured on CBS Sunday Morning that day), the stadium actually boasts a quite extensive and impressive art collection.  None of which was anywhere near our actual seats.

Back to our seats and Trophy Hat Guy getting the Steeler fans all fired up.

Action shot.  Dan could probably tell you exactly what play was happening here.

The successful two-point conversion was one of the more exciting moments of the game for Steeler fans.  Getting within three points of the Packers’ score at this point in the fourth quarter had us practically holding our breath for the next several plays.

Surprisingly, Dan’s demeanor during tense Steeler game moments is more reserved and anxious than scream-y and curse-y.  Note the Terrible Towel rally scarf.

Sadly, the Steelers were not able to pull this one off and the Packers won.  Despite the loss, it was a great game and we were thrilled to be able to see our favorite football team play the biggest game of the year at our hometown stadium.  Go Steelers next year!