Vikings Training Camp

We woke up earlier than we do to go to work so we could quickly pack and get on the road for what else....Vikings Training Camp! The morning practice started at 9 am and with Mankato about 95 miles away, we headed out about 7:15 am and drove across the 35W bridge, which was the 2nd anniversary of the bridge collapse tragedy to our annual destination (5th year for me) to Minnesota State University to watch the Vikings practice. We got there and for it being August 1st, it was cold! It was only 60 degrees in the morning and man did I wish I packed a hoodie or something long-sleeved. I shivered my way through the morning practice just enough to be hot by noon and get sunburned waiting for the players to come out of the showers after practice.

Warning: Lots of boring pictures ahead if you don't like football

Walked in and saw this cutout of Jared Allen-- I hope I see a lot of that pose this season (After a sack, he simulates roping a cow and then puts his arms out like that. He's a redneck. It sounds stupid but I love it!)

The building in the background are the dorms that the Vikings stay in during camp

Our buddy Adrian Peterson

This is when T-Jack (Travaris Jackson) went down and got hurt. Our QB situation is bad enough! There was a funny comment in the crowd when T-Jack was laying on the ground. A guy next to us said, "I am just waiting for Brett Favre to come riding onto the field on a white horse to come and save the day". Hilarious.

JD Booty throwing to Chester Taylor

Steve Hutchinson (Hutch) Look at that beard. It's hard to remember/realize that I am older than the majority of these players. Hutch is 31 years old and he's one of the older players. They are just so big and manly that I still think they are older than me.

Ah, my boyfriend Ben Leber (30 years old) If you don't know I love Ben Leber, than you don't know me at all. I was actually on the other side in the crowd when this picture was taken. M told him to smile for the camera for his girlfriend (me) but I'm not sure why he isn't looking. I think he might have been day dreaming about me or something like that.

Here's our mullet friend, Jared Allen! He loves rocking the mullet. 27 years old he is!

Colt Anderson--The NICEST dude this weekend! Position: Safety- 23 years old

Karl Dunbar--Defensive Line Coach--And doing a damn good job too!

Taylor Mehlaff-- Position: Kicker 23 years old

Channel 4's sports guy, Mark Rosen

Kevin Williams--I took this picture. It's seems easier for a girl to take pictures because they are more willing to pose

EJ Henderson

Cullen Loeffler--I took this one

Adrian Peterson was absolutely mobbed by fans. When the players go in or come out to to/from the locker rooms, they have 3 choices when it comes to the fans. They can come or go without stopping to meet the fans, which a lot do or they can go to either the left or right side of the fences. It's a crapshoot as to who will come to our side of the fence so it was lucky when Adrian Peterson came to our side.

Adrian--I took this picture

Heath Farwell

I feel so bad because I don't know who this dude is. He was very nice to pose for the camera though!

We went back to our hotel after practice and slept a bit and then got up, got ready and went out to dinner to at Mexican Village. It was a great restaurant. After eating, it was time to go back to the field for the evening practice from 7-9:15 pm. Part of the practice was on the fields and then the majority of it was at Blakeslee Stadium. There were 3,000 people who came to see the Vikings on Saturday.

Our mascot, Victor

AP

Jared Allen cheesin'

Chad Greenway--He's normally very nice but didn't seem too thrilled about posing for me.

The crowds waiting for the Vikes to come off the field. They shut down the whole road

After practice, we headed downtown to Blue Bricks to party! Here is our first round. 2 shots of chocolate cake, a bomb pop shot for me and a Newcastle for M.

And then a tini bikini martini

M's Champagne Supernova shot

The Vikings street team came in to the bar, which consists of girls in tiny little shorts and tight shirts and asked around the bar if anyone wanted to play the beanbag toss game to win prizes. If I hadn't been feeling pretty good, I probably wouldn't have played but I didn't care how bad I looked in front of everyone so we jumped in line with everyone else for a chance to win prizes. If you got 2 bean bags in the hole, you got a Miller Lite bottle cooler and a chance to win a drawing for suite tickets at the Metrodome for the 1st preseason game. Three beanbags and you won a Vikings t-shirt and a chance in the drawing. Four beanbags and you got all 3. M went and got 2 in. I went and got 2 in. We both got bottle coolers and a change at the drawing. You could get back in line and play again until the drawing at 11:50 pm. We got back in line and I went this time. I got all 4 in! I won a t-shirt and another chance at the drawing. I was the only person to get all 4 beanbags in. A lot of people won bottle coolers and a few people won t-shirts.

At our next bar, 500 Club, we ordered a shot (which was more like a full drink) called Sex with an Alligator. (Yeah, I don't know why) I cannot even remember what was in it besides Jagermeister.

Oh, did I forget to mention that I won the tickets for the suite at the Metrodome! Free food and free beer in the suite. Woot! Woot!

Cheers!

We got pizza and went back to the hotel, ate hardly any of it and crashed. It was a fantastic day!

Woke up on Sunday, and ooooo, not feeling so hot. If you look at all the evidence, it's obvious as to why. We slowly got up and went to bruch at Charley's, which was really good before heading back home. On our way home, we stopped at this place which I don't even know the name of since there were about a 100 signs outside. It's somewhere around Belle Plaine or Jordan, MN and it's on Hwy 169. Anyways, it was so much fun to browse around this store. They had apples to try, tons of canned and pickled goods and jellies, massive amounts of candy, licorice, beef jerky, fudge, chips and different types of pop including lots of different kinds of rootbeer. They had every single type of candy from when we were kids like candy cigarettes, hot dogs, chick-o-sticks, cow tales, pop rocks, big league chew, etc. They even had Pop Secret brand butter flavored microwave popcorn chapstick! We bought a bunch of fun things and went back home and got ready for a busy week at work. We had an awesome weekend.