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this weekend was full of driving and martial arts and cheesesteaks! that's right folks, greg and i drove down to philadelphia with two of our coworkers to see UFC 133 (that's "ultimate fighting championships" for those not in the know)
the drive down was actually pretty eventful. for some reason my garmin gps took us through the sketchy bronx area of new york... instead of letting us stay on the highway like we should've. it made our trip down take about 8.5 hours instead of 7 and it was definitely
not the most fun experience i've ever had. next time, i don't trust the garmin on the way through new york! we left maine at about 6am on friday morning. i'm glad i wasn't driving!!
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| sketchy, sketchy bronx. |
once we got there it was beautiful though! our hotel was only about a mile away from the stadium that the fights would be, so we walked over for weigh-ins on friday night. almost everyone made weight except some welterweight that i don't care about, so that was good! the walk was nice and relaxing after all those hours in the car, too!
the next day i drove into the city and waited for greg and dave (one of the guys from work) to show up at the philadelphia institute of art. we only had one car. hey no problem though, because they were
running there from the hotel.
any ideas why?? (other than because they are crazy.) well, because the philadelphia museum of art is home to the famous "Rocky Steps" from the movie, of course! there are even bronze cast footprints at the top for photo ops. it's about a five or six mile run from the hotel and since it was already about 75 degrees at 6:50am, i volunteered to drive them back once they got there. plus, it gave me a great chance to sightsee and peoplewatch for a while! i wandered around the museum area for a while, then checked out a few statues and enjoyed the sunshine for a while. finally, they showed up in all their sweaty glory...of COURSE running all the way up the steps before stopping for photos :)
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| rocky steps! |
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| sweaty men at the top |
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| rocky! |
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| rocky II! |
then we decided to get showered up and head into the city proper for some window shopping (me) and giant authentic philly cheesesteaks (greg). we went into tiffany's and the underground mall and walked around the shopping district in walnut street for a few hours until deciding that it was time for some cheesesteaks. greg asked a very helpful police officer where he'd recommend going and he gave us directions to a shop called "JR's". WHAT A DELICIOUS RECOMMENDATION. the food was awesome.
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| cheesesteaks!! |
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| philly shopping district |
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| bleh, the buildings block the sky. |
then we had to hurry up and get back to the hotel to change before the fights at 5:45. we totally thought we were going to be late because parking was HORRENDOUS (it was raining so we didn't want to walk the 20 minutes to and from the stadium) but as it turns out, the fights started a little behind schedule! laurenworld strikes again! we had plenty of time to find our seats and get comfortable and even get a souvenir program before any action began. i think there were about 9 events... most of the guys i didn't know very well, but all the ones i was rooting for ended up winning theirs, except matt hamill. there were a LOT of people there - i was suprised that almost the whole stadium was filled!! and mumma: yes, the guy who defeated chuck liddell (rashad 'suga' evans) won the main event against tito ortiz ('the huntington beach bad boy').
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| ufc 133: main event was evans and ortiz |
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| evans won. but ortiz has all the press? |
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| people!! |
another awesome epic weekend. next weekend is new hampshire again, and
i get to see my brother!! hooray!! AND: SWATI IS COMING HOME FROM ENGLAND. YESSS!!!
til later.
- L
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