World Cup Final

When World Cup tickets first went on sale Zach bought tickets to the first round USA game and on a whim bought tickets to the Final and reserved hotel rooms for both games. The games were both in Vancouver so would be relatively easy to get to and if the USA didn't make it to the Finals we could probably sell them. Well, wouldn't you know the US Women pulled through and we booked some last minute flights to Seattle, rented a car to drive from there to Vancouver and packed our bags with as much US Soccer gear as we could.

Since we'd just been to Vancouver a few weeks earlier we didn't feel like we had to cram lots of sightseeing in but we wanted to do something special. Zach got us a dinner reservation at the "Top of Vancouver" revolving restaurant. The kids were fascinated by the views and the fact that we were moving in a circle all through our meal!

Of course, it didn't take long for the kids to want to take some photos of their own. I'll spare you the several hundred shots they took (Andrew single handedly took over 25 photos of the same tennis court with my iphone).

But Anna's shots were surprisingly good! Here are a few of her better ones.

Love this one :)

On our way home we walked by the US Soccer Fan Club headquarters

The morning of the game we woke up and headed to the nearby Tim Horton's for breakfast (when in Canada...) On the way back to our room we got in the elevator with none other that the US team's coach Jill Ellis. That was our first hint that there was something special about the hotel. 

We decided to kill some time by hitting the hotel pool. Found this sign in the corner of the pool area.

 This is where we realized that we were staying at the team hotel. This notion was furthered when we almost literally ran into Abby Wombach coming out of the elevator. Pretty much everywhere we went that day we ran into a player in the elevator. Even had 2 encounters with Carli Lloyd who would end up being the star of the match. 

 Andrew with the team's game day gear in the lobby

Another trip past fan headquarters

Down at the convention center in front of the broadcasting booth

Watching sea planes - Andrew's favorite activity

Waiting for the team to leave the hotel for the match

(video)

The woman in the middle is Jenny Taft from Fox Sports. She asked Zach to take this photo.

Then posted it in on Instagram. The kids are famous :) 

After a long wait the team emerged (in small groups for security purposes)

The money shot - Alex Morgan, Anna's hero

Finally at the stadium!

The story of the game speaks for itself. It was an amazing experience. Couldn't have asked for more! I will say that I thought Zach's head was going to explode at 3-0. He admits he almost passed out at 4-0.

This Mountie happened to be sitting next to us. She took part in the pre-game ceremonies. Couldn't pass up this photo opp! (That's her daughter who was a bit obsessed with Andrew)

 World Cup Champions!

(Video)

Definitely a once in a lifetime - let's hope the kids remember it!