So we had tickets to the Chargers/Jets game on 9/22, a Monday night game.  I really enjoy watching the Charger games on Sunday afternoons with my family, relaxing in the living room & cheering on our team.  But my cousins were coming from Idaho & they're big Charger fans, so we decided to go with them.  First, tickets are expensive.  We wanted a good view, so we went looking on eBay for tickets.  Ended up buying some really good seats right in the front two rows of the view section (we sat right behind each other).  This was before Favre was traded to the Jets, and we paid over $100 a ticket.  After he was traded, we could have sold them for 3 times what we paid for them.  But we didn't.

Next issue: how to get to the game on time.  The game was starting at 5:30, so I just took the whole day off.  JD couldn't get it off, but he was able to leave at 4:00.  The plan was to meet up with him at Qualcomm.  Well, after my cousins & I drove to the Old Town trolley station & were unable to find an open spot anywhere, we ended up meeting JD at Hazard Center.  We figured they'd still have parking there, right?  Nope.  So we parked in the boonies and walked to the trolley stop at Hazard.  We weren't the only ones there.  One of the girls waiting mentioned that 3 full trolleys had already gone by.  I didn't realize what she meant by "full" until I saw the next one stop.  "Full" meant full - packed very closely together, breathing in each other's faces, some faces almost pressed against the window.  We waited through 3 of those.  A few people squeezed onto each one.  A couple guys at the stop told us they took the trolley to the games all the time & that usually every other trolley was empty so that people could be picked up from other stations (the line starts at Old Town).  We figured out that wasn't happening because it was a Monday, not a Sunday.  They had to get all the commuters home from work, and that was top priority.  I determined I was getting onto the next one, and I took JD with me.  My cousins said they would squeeze onto the next one & meet us in the seats.

The ride was not fun, but it wasn't horrible.  I couldn't move and it was hot.  At every stop, a few more people squeezed in, and it would take forever to get moving again.  We were late to the game and missed most of the first quarter.  My cousins got to their seats about 2 minutes after us and told us the next trolley had been empty.  Seriously?  Oh, well.  The game was good, and it's fun to be around a bunch of people cheering for the team, trading high-fives and all.  But there are always idiots who have to ruin the fun family atmosphere.

There were a bunch of Jets fans at the game.  Good for them.  I cheer for my team, and you cheer for yours.  But later in the game, after all the beer has kicked in, people start acting stupid.  They taunt the other team's fans, start talking smack, get in their face.  There are an equal amount of idiots cheering for each team out there, I'm sure.  They cuss at each other; sometimes they fight.  It makes me sick.  I wanted to throw my overpriced hot dog and water at them.  It really took away from my enjoyment of the game, especially since there were a couple of young kids right next to us.

We beat the Jets pretty soundly, so that was cool.  Now to get home.  We knew the trolley system would have a bunch of empty trolleys sitting there waiting to take people home, so we figured we'd just get on & ride it back to our cars.  Ha!  Yes, there were several empty trolleys, but I think the entire 59,000+ attendance rode the trolley.  It took us over an hour to get on one.  Somebody in line was saying that there are usually a bunch of buses on Sundays but that they don't run for the evening games.  The cars in the parking lot were all gone before we actually got on a trolley!

So . . . the moral of the story is to drive your own car & get there early.  Park in a place where it's easy to get out.  Or maybe ride the trolley from Old Town if it's a Sunday.  And get there early, too, so you know there'll be parking.  Or better yet, stay home & watch the game in air-conditioned comfort, with the snacks you want, hanging with the people you want!!