the time I was a Bengals fan in Steeler's Nation.

This summer my friend Jake and I talked about traveling to Pittsburgh the weekend the Bengals played the Steelers and this past weekend, we made it happen. We left Friday evening when I got off work and it's about a six hour drive. We got to the hotel around 3AM. We had originally planned to leave Saturday morning so we only had the hotel room for one night. When we got to the hotel to check in for Friday night, we were hoping they had a room. To our surprise, they just checked us in early! We didn't have to pay for an extra night. Kudos to the Wyndham Grand! Right then I knew this trip was going to be awesome.

Saturday morning we woke up, had breakfast at the hotel, and walked over to the casino. Rivers Casino is right next to Heinz Field. It was really windy but the sun was shining and the walk along the river was gorgeous with all of the colors of the trees.

The stadium actually reminded me a lot of Paul Brown stadium. Right along the river, the bridge right there, the design was really similar. Anyway, bypassed the stadium and hit the casino. Jake won and I don't gamble but I played roulette with his money and lost. The pit boss gave us a $20 drink credit that I didn't have to do anything for so I count that as a win. We left the casino and tried to do a stadium tour, but they're over until April.

Saturday evening we tried to hit as much night life as we could. We stayed the longest at NOLA on the Square. I loved this bar. It was Halloween so every where we went, our wait staff was dressed up. Saturday evening we went up to Mt Washington and tried to have dinner. We ordered our drinks and Jake was informed they would only serve him one drink because he appeared "inebriated." So we just left.

We went back to the hotel and I crashed. They're still adjusting my thyroid meds so I'm always tired. Sunday we woke up and checked out of the hotel. Valet took about an hour to find my car because I need a new battery in my keyless entry fob. That was fun. We had breakfast/brunch at Primanti Brothers and it was amazing. The sandwiches were huge.

Next, we headed to the stadium....

that guy got mouthy at the end of the game - sore loser

I'm not gonna lie. I was nervous about this game. The Steelers aren't as tough as they used to be but the Bengals just have this thing with games that are prime time or highly amped up. and it isn't a good thing. Thank you Jesus we were able to pull this one out. Would you believe in our entire section we were the only two Bengals fans?! That almost never happens. What are the chances?

Our seats were pretty awesome. I've never had end zone seats before but the view was great for the most part. It was difficult to see when they were near the opposite end zone but I also need my contact prescription updated so that may just be me ;)

Steelers fans were leaving way before the game was over. I heckled them a little bit. Couldn't help myself. For the most part, the fans were nice, which was surprising. The couple that sat on either side of us we actually talked and joked with quite a bit. Other than that, no one gave us a hard time for cheering which is a sharp contrast to the time at Lucas Oil where I was told to "shut the fuck up" for cheering at a touchdown. Of course there were some guys a few rows behind us that started yelling that the refs were paid and all the calls were in favor of Cincinnati and all that crap. I guess when your team sucks you think of any excuse.

Then this happened: