In honor of March Madness ending and the beginning of April, I thought it would be fun to look back at where it all started; The conference tournaments.
As some of you might know and some of you are about to learn, I am a huge sports fan. Like yelling at the TV, pouting, throwing things at the TV type of sports fan. And my purest love of all is a little college located right outside of Lansing, named Michigan State University. Maybe, just maybe you have heard of them? Growing up outside of Lansing, MSU was always a way of life for me. My dad has been a long time Spartan fan which means his passion was passed down to me. And being only a short twenty-minute drive away, my love for them grew. As soon as I was old enough to drive, I would go out to the university and surround myself with their culture… Which as a sixteen-year-old girl was probably not the greatest decision of my life, but hey, no harm no foul right?
As I mentioned above, I love sports, any sports. Football, basketball, baseball, hockey, golf, soccer, you name it I love it. However, basketball has always been my one real sport. I attest this to growing up playing basketball since ages nine or ten. My love for basketball was much more significant than my skill set sadly. So after high school, my “career” ended, but my passion for the game only grew. Knowing the ins and outs of each play, what was a foul, what was not, who should be in what position at any given point helped me connect with the sport. Especially during March when all rules and standings are thrown out the window. Whichever team is better on that given night advances. Thankfully MSU has had a powerful men’s basketball for the past two decades. We (yes, I refer to MSU as if I am apart of it) won the NCAA National title in 2000, were runner-ups in 2009, have been to seven final fours, twenty-one straight NCAA Tournament appearances, eight conference championships (included this year outright regular-season championship) and five conference championships. Which as a fan is tremendous and makes any basketball season one to be excited about. This year was no different; this year was that much more exciting because we had the players to back-up the expectations.
From the start of the season, I made it a goal of mine to go to the Big Ten tournament that this year was being played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. (Side note — A goal of mine for 2018 was to go a new place every month, and this was going to be my trip for March.) I had only been to NYC one other time, but it was almost seven years ago, and for six hours, so I didn’t get to take in the city as I wanted too. This year I was ready. I talked my friend, Tim, into going with me, who is equally as crazy of a fan as I am. We bought the package of tickets that included tickets to EVERY.SINGLE.GAME which is a dream come true for me. Basketball all day, drinks and exploring all night, is my idea of heaven.
We were set. We had a plan:
(I’m such a planner, so bullet points are my saving grace when I travel, it helps me see more stuff in a short amount of time)
- Leave Michigan on Thursday, March 1st.
- Drive through the night, so we arrive in NYC around 5 am on Friday, the 2nd.
- MSU Basketball at noon, lunch and then more basketball
- Speakeasy for dinner and drinks Friday night
- More MSU basketball (god willing they win on Friday) followed by the other semi-final game
- Dinner and drinks with college friends (Megan, Oliver, Julia)
- B1G championship game on Sunday (Assuming MSU will be in it naturally)
- Plus explore a bunch of other NYC sights like The Highline, Chelse Market, 9/11 memorial, Rooftop bar, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, etc….
If basketball, checking out the New York sights and reuniting with college friends was not enough excitement I also was able to book a super cute and unique houseboat from Airbnb. I love everything about Airbnb. Staying in fun unique environment AND for an extremely reasonable price is a win-win. So the stage was set: MSU won the regular season championship, lodging was booked, time off approved, tickets purchased, nothing could get in our way right?
WRONG, OH SO WRONG.
Thursday 3/1 — On Thursday morning I got out of work and was greeted with snow. Wet heavy snow. I didn’t panic just went home, slept for a few hours and then finished my last minute errands. Once I was done I drove to Tim’s house where we loaded everything in his *car* make note I said a car, and we were finally NYC bound. Only ten short hours and we would be there, however shortly after we left Lansing, we realized the roads were getting worse, not better. The heavy snow only got heavier, the roads were covered in slush and cars were sliding everywhere. Roads that had a posted speed limit of 70 miles per hour were actually more of 30 to 40 miles an hour. We didn’t let that get us down. We stayed positive, talked about how excited we were to finally be on our way. All the fun things we were going to do and when we should go about them. AKA my amazing timeline I listed above. Fast forward four hours and we were finally out of Michigan, on to Ohio, but shockingly the weather was not getting better it was only getting worse, and now it is dark. *hint number one* So here we are in Ohio, driving in the dark, in a whiteout, in extremely heavy wet snow. Two more hours go by with little progress and we decide it was best to pull over, get gas, check the weather and see what our plan should be. Neither one of us were comfortable driving in these conditions, especially after counting twenty-five cars in the ditch in a ten-mile span. We found our closest exit, pulled into a gas station. As we were pulling in, everyone was pulling out, without pumping, which seemed weird. Come to find out, this gas station’s pumps had flooded from all of the snow, water got into their lines and they had to shut their pumps off. *Hint number two* Looked up another gas stationed and headed that way. Remember how I mentioned we were in a car? Well, the car started to spin, and spin and spin. Each intersection we came to, the less traction we had. So much slush, so much snow. *Hint number three we should just turn around and head home* Then our luck started to turn around, well kinda. We met the nicest local man who directed us to a hotel where we decided we would stay for the night. We were lucky enough to get one of their last rooms because of this storm. Flights were canceled, cars were stuck, meetings postponed, which lead to an overly crowded hotel lobby with an overworked hotel staff. Ordering dinner and drinks took over an hour to just order our food. Once we received it we took it up to the room to hide from the madness. It is now, 11:30 pm on Thursday. Nine hours after we left Michigan and only four hours into our ten hour travel time. Defeated does not even begin to describe our mood. Minute after minute, hour after hour the weather never changed. Every news channel described this storm as “the largest Nor’easter in recent history”, describing it as a life-threatening situation. And here we were trying to drive right into the middle of such storm. After a long talk, calling Shaine, other family and friends we decided we would cancel. Cancel the whole trip. Cut our losses on the tickets we already bought, try and get out money back for the Airbnb we booked. Just suck it up and err on the side of caution. And with that, I went to bed. Pissed, just so pissed.
Left: Leaving Michigan | Right: Driving to the next gas station
(Ps.. after 4 miles, this road was closed due to flooding. Had to turn around and start over)
On our way to the hotel
A friend I meet at our hotel; A fellow MSU fan and GR resident who recognized me from the hospital I work at. #suchasmallworld
Friday 3/2 — After maybe two or three hours of sleep I woke up, with a knot in my stomach. So disappointed and deflated. That was until I received a text from my friend Megan. I had texted her the night before letting her know that we would not be meeting her in NYC Friday, as we were going to cancel the trip. I explained how we didn’t feel like risking driving into the storm, that was due to hit New York on Friday. Her text read:
“Hey girl, so sorry to hear about you canceling. I totally get it, but if you change your mind, you are more than welcome to head to our house (Harrisburg, PA) and stay Friday night. Then all four of us (Megan, her husband – Oliver, Tim and myself) could head into the city Saturday morning when the storm has passed.”
It was like the sky opened up and light beamed down on me. An instant smile came across my face, and I was instantly happy. Happy to know we had options. I talked it over with Tim, and we both agreed it was a no-brainer. We showered, got dressed and headed towards Harrisburg. As we walked out of the hotel, we were greeted with sun! Not even one cloud in the sky and completely clear roads, which was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. As we started towards Harrisburg, we realized we could make a stop in Pittsburg, find a bar and watch the MSU game there, since we obviously were not going to be able to use our tickets we bought. MSU played at noon, so trying to find a bar that opened at noon on a Friday was a tall task but man did we get lucky. We stopped at City Works Resturant and Bar. City Works is one of the coolest restaurant/bars I have ever been too. Clean industrial design with well above average food and even better drinks. The servers were kind enough to sit us right in front of the largest TV in the place and turned the game on for us. There we sat, for almost four hours cheering on MSU from a very unexpected place, at an astonishing time (you know twenty hours after we initially left), drinking multiple whiskey mules and eating apps to our heart’s content. However, it was all worth it because MSU did win, which meant tomorrow we would finally get to see them play IN Madison Square Garden just as we set out to do. After MSU won, we stayed and watched the first half of the University of Michigan’s basketball game. Being a die-hard MSU fan, I was rooting for UofM to win so we could have a rematch from the one regular season meeting that MSU lost. (Spoiler Alert, UofM did win, which set up an incredible matchup for Saturday.)
City Works in Pittsburg, with 90 craft beers, large TVs and the best Whiskey mules I’ve had in a long time.
Market Square in Pittsburg, such a cool place. Can’t wait to go back and visit
After we left City Works, we started towards Harrisburg. Three and a half hours of clear but extreme wind gusted roads later; we made it.We headed directly to Troegs Independent Brewing to meet Megan and Oliver! Not only was Troegs awesome, it felt so good to get out of the car, stretch our legs and see familiar faces! Megan and I know each other from our college days. Megan went to MSU while I was going to school for Respiratory. She lived with two other girls (Celeste and Julia), who lived next to four of our other girlfriends. We were all together so much. We experienced all the college things together. Many blackout nights, many drunken stumbles, laughter and some tears. She was lucky enough to meet her husband, Oliver, who also attended MSU. After graduation, Megan and Oliver moved to Pennsylvania to start their life together. It was so good to see both of them as it has been two years since I had seen them, meaning there was much to catch up on. After a few drinks, we started to head out. On our way out, the entire bar went black. Yes, black. A massive power-outage all thanks to that lovely Nor’easter we are purposely trying to avoid. You would think this would be *hint number three* but at this point in the trip, all Tim and I did was laugh. Megan and Oliver headed out to a concert with their friends, and we headed to their house. After two very long days, all I wanted was a shower, a bed, and sleep. — That is precisely what I got.
Left: Troeg’s patio, literally seconds before the power went out \ Right: Megan’s thoughtful welcome gift as we arrived at her house
Saturday 3/3 —
Finally, the day I had been waiting for had come! I was FINALLY going to get to tour MSG (Madison Square Garden) and see my beloved MSU Spartans play, against our in-state rivals the UofM Wolverines. I could not let anything get in my way. I got up at 6 am, got dressed and we headed out. Megan and Oliver were planning on going a little later and meeting us at the game after they met up with some of her friends from work. After a “quick” little two and a half hour drive, we made it! We were finally in the Big Apple, the city that never sleeps, the city full of assholes who prefer to use their horn rather than their brakes. We parked the car, went and dropped our bags off at our hotel (yes I said hotel, NOT houseboat, we will get to that) and off we went. We had two days worth of stuff to cram into the next four hours before the game started.
Our first stop was the High-Line.
All the pictures above are from our walk on The High-Line. Which was seriously one of the coolest things we did while in NYC. And as a bonus it was FREEEEEE. It is such a great place to see beautiful sights of the city, unique architecture (my other greatest love) and do it without running into one million people that would have been on the sidewalks below.
*Click the link above to take you right to The High Line’s website to learn more*
We walked on the High-Line all the way to the Chelsea Market. If you come to NYC, you MUST STOP HERE! It is such a cute, trendy little spot full of small quaint little shops, restaurants and even shocking, a market.
Pictures above are from inside the Market. We ate at the CUTEST little restaurant called, BLACKBARN. I linked the website directly associated with the Chelsea Market, but they do have another location and more information about them individually you can find here, on their official website. Tim and I both ordered different things, and they BOTH were delicious. However, I am incredibly partial to the Breakfast Sliders. (Pictured above) They were AMAZING and so much bigger than I thought. I thought a slider has to be three small bite-sized burgers, but I was wrong. They were slightly smaller than a standard burger but instead of just one; there were TWO of them.
Before we continue, I need to let you all in on *hint number four* of reasons we should have turned around. Remember how I said we booked a fantastic Houseboat? Well even though the storm had passed NYC and surrounding areas we were left with wind gusts of 35-40 miles per hour. Which meant even though there was no snow, rain or sleet anymore we were still left to deal with the extreme rocking of the boat. Forecasters were calling for four to five-foot waves to hit the shores of NYC. I don’t know about ya’ll, but I am not trying to wake up with my “home away from home” not where it was when I went to sleep. After many frightening calls from family and friends back home, we decided to opt out of our beloved houseboat and book at a concrete hotel, on solid ground. I bring this up now because when we were on the High-Line, we were able to look out at the river and see those massive waves they were speaking about. So for once, we knew we had made the right choice!
Even though it was windy AF, NYC was still such a beautiful sight to see.
It was now around 10:30 am, and we were not sure what we wanted to do. The game was at noon, so we knew there was no way in hell we were going to be late especially after traveling for oh I don’t know forty-three hours at this point, we had to make sure we were there. So being the type-A personality I am, I decided to head to MSG early and hopefully get in to watch our guys warm-up. And I’m happy to say I am so glad we did!
And then it was gammmmmmmetime! The arena started to fill up; we took our seats. Our seats were pretty cool. We were up high, but we had our little section, private bathrooms, a bar, and confessions stand steps away. As the game started, there was a lot more maize and blue around us than I would have liked, but thankfully within five minutes green and white began to take over. The first half was terrific. So much back in forth, so much aggression. The game was a great example of a real rivalry game with a chance to play in the championship on the line. The crowd was into it, and MSU even entered the locker room up 29-26 at halftime. As the second half started, you could feel the momentum starting to change. All the shots that fell in the first half weren’t falling anymore. All the loose balls were bouncing UofM’s way. With about five minutes to go the score was only separated by five. However, that would be as close as it got in the final minutes. Michigan started hitting their free-throws, and that was it. Michigan would go on to win 75 to 64. As much as it hurts my heart to see my beloved Spartan’s lose, it was the reality. Michigan outplayed us. They deserved to play for the Big Ten Tournament Championship. (I can’t even begin to explain how much it hurts my heart to say those words even a month later.)
After the game, Tim and I talked about staying to watch the second semi-final game, but we both agreed we needed a little-liquid therapy after that loss. We met up with Megan and Oliver outside of the arena and made plans to find our other college friend, Julia then. Julia lives in New Jersey and took the train in for the night to meet-up with us. It had been two years since I saw Megan, but it had been almost four since either of us had seen Julia, which made meeting up that much cooler. We all decided that we would head to 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar. While it was cold, considering it was the first weekend in March, 230 Fifth’s has heated igloo’s on their roof. Which, FYI, was super cool. Make sure you add that to your NYC agenda. We drank, talked, drank, talked and drank some more. By the time we left, I barely even knew it was cold out. Tim left to go meet up with his friend from college who had a few hours between his Broadway shows (fancy, fancy), as for Oliver, he headed back to the hotel to nap before dinner, which left just us girl. And man, there is something about life-long friends that you can seriously pick up right where you left off no matter how much time has passed.
Julia (Left), Megan (center) and myself on the roof of 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar. You can see the Igloo’s behind us, along with the beautiful Empire State Building.
After leaving the bar, we all went back to our hotels, checked in and changed for dinner. The funny thing about our (as in Tim and myself’s) hotel was we asked for two beds, the lady at the front desk let us know they only had a two-bed suite available. Which we said was fine. The entire ride up in the elevator to our room Julia was saying how small New York City hotel rooms were… WRONG! Our room was massive. We had a full kitchen, living room and dining room, two sperate bathrooms, a closet more extensive than mine in my current house and two king sized beds! The minute we walked through the door all we could do was laugh because for the first time all trip SOMETHING WENT OUR WAY! Julia and I changed for dinner, just as Tim came back. We all headed to meet Megan. As we were leaving the hotel, we started noticing a lot, and I mean a lot of Michigan fans. Everywhere you looked it was UofM, including the TEAM! YES, THAT IS RIGHT, we were staying at the UofM TEAM HOTEL! What in the hell? *Not even a hint this time, a freakin strike number five* I was forced to stay in the same hotel with the team that just crushed my dreams of seeing MY TEAM play in the Big Ten Championship. I thankfully was already buzzed when this happened because it gave me more motivation to continue drinking the rest of the night.
We all (Megan, Julia, Tim and myself) headed out to dinner; I honestly do not remember where, or else I would tag it for you all. After leaving dinner, we headed to an Irish bar to meet a bartender Julia knew from when she worked in the city. The drinks started flowing. We met more heartbroken MSU fans and had a blast. A few hours went by, and Julia had to catch a train out of the city and back to her house in NJ.
Friends since our days at MSU, but friends until the end. The photo was taken at the Irish bar. *Cheers*
Megan, Tim and I caught a taxi and headed to another Rooftop to where Oliver was with a few of Megan’s friends. And man did we have fun. Bottle service, dancing, laughing and lots and lots of drinking. Thankfully this was the last bar we would visit for the night. And trust me when I say, that was probably for the best.
Photos were taken at the second and last Rooftop bar of the evening.
We all went home for the night and passed out; which for me, was so needed. But a fun fact about me is whenever I drink; I always wake up super early the next day. And this trip would be no different. We went to bed at 2 am, and I was up and ready to rock at about 6:30 am. I got dressed and went for a nice calm walk around the city. Stopped at Dunkin Donuts, grabbed water, a tea and a bagel. As I was walking back to my hotel lobby I happened to walk past a mirror, oh hot damn I wished I didn’t. I honestly looked like somebody’s one-night stand. You know that incredibly hungover, hairs a mess, still in last night’s makeup look? Yeah…. that was me. I quickly hurried back to my room, ate my bagel, jumped in the shower and got myself together. A few hours later Tim woke-up and was feeling about as hungover as I did. We texted Megan and asked if she wanted to meet us for breakfast before we checked out. We all met at a sweet bread and juice place down the road from us. We knew we needed bread to soak up the mass amount of alcohol we consumed the night prior but we also wanted to be healthy with a clean, green juice. (Showed our responsible side.) After breakfast, we said goodbye to Megan and Tim, and I headed towards the 9/11 tribute museum and memorial.
HOLY SHIT WAS IT BREATHTAKING.
Visiting the museum was something both Tim and I knew we had to do before heading back to Michigan. We decided to bypass the Championship game (even though we had tickets) because we genuinely didn’t care to see Michigan play anyone other than Michigan State. The 9/11 tribute museum and memorial is something so sincere to a lot of American’s but even more to my generation. This was the first tragedy that we as a generation were old enough to not only remember but understand. Our parents were around in the 60’s while all the racial prejudice was prominent, or in the 70’s when the Cold War was taking place, and even in the 90’s when Desert Storm was making headlines. 9/11 was that horrific event for us. As a past military wife, I have spent countless sleepless nights thinking about how an event that took place ten years prior (at that time) was what took my husband away from me. How an event that took place when he was twelve years old was the reason, he was being shot at. Even though this trip did not turn out nearly as I had wanted, that moment, standing near ground zero made everything worth it. I wish I could describe for you the feelings that came over me while walking through the museum, but I can’t. Each exhibit brought a new emotion. Pride, anger, shock, sadness, just to name a few. The emotion that I remember feeling the most was respect. You know how there is always that one asshole that is too loud, too insensitive or plain selfish anytime you visit a museum? Who spends too much time looking at one piece, not stepping aside so others can also view. Or maybe makes jokes when jokes are not appropriate? — There was not one person that did that. The museum was silent. The amount of respect and honor each person shown to those injured, killed or affected in any way was by far the most magical, serene thing I have ever seen. Below I have posted a few pictures of the museum. There were many parts we were not able to take photos of, but for those parts, we were able to I have posted below. The picture does not do it justice. You MUST MUST MUST plan a trip.
After our trip to the 9/11 tribute museum, we grabbed a quick sandwich and headed home. Thankfully our trip back to Michigan was so much less eventful than our trip to New York. We made it back in just under ten hours which was a far cry from the forty-three hours it took for us to get there. All in all the trip was not what we meant for it to be, but that does not mean it was a bust. It was not the basketball all day every day as if we had hoped. MSU also was not crowned B1G Champs, as I dreamt. Those tickets we purchased? Yeah, we went to one game, not ten. But, I did still have an absolute blast. I got to experience Madison Square Garden during an exciting game, during March, which is priceless. I got to explore a city I had never really been too. I had a blast with two of the greatest girls around, drank way too much, laughed harder than I have in awhile. And most importantly, Tim and I lived to tell about the time we drove through all four season in a matter of forty-hours to make it to New York City just in time to watch our beloved Spartan lose.
It’s not about the miles; it’s about the memories. There’s always never year… 🏀💚