The second weekend in January, we headed down to Florida to watch Clemson play in the national championship!  Last year we had quite the time getting to Phoenix for the game, so I was happy we were within driving distance this year.

We broke up the trip and stayed with my aunt and uncle on Saturday night.  It was great being able to visit with them and see their new place in Florida!  I would spend hours on their lanai reading…

We got to Tampa on Sunday afternoon and were less than thrilled with the cooler temperatures.  I booked a place on Indian Shores thinking we’d get to enjoy the water, but not so much.We dropped off our stuff, and headed back to the downtown Tampa area to check out the Fan Fest. Big mistake.  Everywhere you looked, there was a line.  The actual fan fest was packed so full with people that we left and grabbed a beer downstairs with his parents.

We ended up walking across to Harbour Island to find food (along with everyone else), and headed back to the hotel early to get ready for the big day on Monday. We had a lazy Monday morning and made breakfast sandwiches in the hotel (perks of a suite with mini kitchen) while watching all the pre-game footage.  We headed to Raymond James stadium in the early afternoon to park and find friends.

A few of Hunter’s friends had a spot with lots of other Clemson tailgates so we spent time with them before going into the stadium.  PS – Tampa Bay needs to figure out how to efficiently get thousands of people into a game. Not so smooth…

This game was electric (and very cold).  Even when Clemson was down, everyone was still upbeat and just knew that it’d work out and the tigers would win.  The last 5 minutes of the game were absolutely CRAZY and this was easily one of the best games I’ve been to!  Just look at Hunter’s reactions – it was an emotional roller coaster for everyone. After the touchdown to Hunter Renfrow the stadium went WILD!  We were hugging and high fiving everyone around us.  Naturally my phone had died, so I used Hunter’s to take pictures while he enjoyed the moment.

By the time we finally left the stadium, got to the car and drove back to the hotel, it was after 3am, but we were both still awake from all the adrenaline and watched highlights on TV.  Checkout the next morning came veryyyyy early, and it was a long drive home, but it was a happy drive home 🙂

Maybe next year GT will pull off a national championship??  Here’s to being hopeful!