My 6yr old took the picture of the skydiver.

The 2010 Balloon Festival {HallofFameMoms.com}

Subscribe here to see more photos/posts of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Festivities as I blog about them this week – and of course so you don’t miss out the other giveaways coming up

Its getting to be “that” time of year again The Pro Football Hall of Fame festival usually gets going around the end of July/ beginning of August. I don’t have the schedule yet, though I’m guessing its probably out by now.  Click here to get the links to the info.

Canton, Ohio (home to the HOF) enjoys a high-visitor turnout for the week’s festivities which include the balloon lift-off, ribs burn-off, Hall of Fame Enshrinee festivities and more.

I plan on sharing some pics and stories during the week of the festivities so be sure to come back!

To read some of my past posts on the Hall of Fame, click here.

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12th Man for the Chiefs

Okay. Well, the 2009 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival has ended. Though I’m not a sports fan it is still exciting to be so close to all this activity. The “fan”-atics excitement rubs off on me, a little bit I guess. This year it seemed like there were more Buffalo Bill fans than Tennessee Titan fans (the teams playing last night)…or perhaps the Bills’ fans were just more, uh, excited. I don’t know if they really knew each other personally but you’d see a couple or a few here or there hootin’ and hollerin’ at each other like they were family and friends. Like they had this “bond”. I guess it was the “Buffalo Bill bond”.

They like Bruce.

So, Saturday was the enshrinement ceremony the weather was cloudy with a little rain but then was almost perfect with a nice windy breeze. Some folks who paid to park in our drive gave my husband a couple tickets to the enshrinement ceremonies since they weren’t  going  afterall. $28.00 tickets they were.  Skip to the important parts here…I ended up just going in for a brief time to get some pictures of the event. I’ll share some of them with you today. The other ticket? Well, it was kinda strange. At some point in the day I was standing out in front of our house and a guy walked up to me asking about tickets. I told him I thought there were some guys selling them (you know, the guys that wear the signs saying “I need tickets”)…he said they were asking $60. He asked if he could purchase a ticket up at the gate and I didn’t know. But then I remembered our tickets. I told him someone gave us a couple and asked if he would take one for $10. He was so happy he gave me a hug.

Someone gave us their tickets.

Sunday was a different day.  BIG weather change! Almost like the first day of real summer for us since its been so long, it seems, since we’ve had a HOT day. We were getting temps in the 90′s, ouch.  I think I may have had some subconscious notion that I would be productive working in the house this weekend, but it was not like that for me. Its hard to work in such heat…while chasing kids and dealing with their wants and needs. Well, if you’re a parent or caregiver, you know what I mean…

Alas, I digress, back to the Hall of Fame.

I didn’t get any good “game-day” pics this year of the crowded street we live on. So I’ll share more of the stadium and enshrinement ceremony.

TV commentators?

Good Year blimp over Fawcett Stadium scoreboard.

One of the highlights of the weekend were the Army helicopters and various other  apparatuses flying above our street. Besides the faithful Good Year Blimp, the flying “advertising” plane and a couple other planes, we saw these- that landed not far from our home …

Big and loud.

Brendan got to sit in one of them for two years in a row now…

In the helicopter.

Oh and incidentally, I learned what the “12th Man” meant this year. My hubby told me it is the “fans”. And they are the ones that make this such an exciting and profitable weekend for the Pro Football Hall of Fame (and those of us who live close enough to make a little jingle on the side).

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In fact, 3 homes have come down and though I don’t have a picture from “today”- I think it looks like they’ve paved a new parking lot down there in place of the homes.

Tomorrow is the Ribs Burnoff, Fashion show luncheon, and Enshrinees dinner. Do you know who the “new” guys are this year?  I’ll show you their faces…

Sorry. Its not exactly a “close-up”.  I’ll tell you who they are though…

Bruce Smith Defensive End for the Buffalo Bills and Washington Redskins

Ralph Wilson Jr.  Owner of the Buffalo Bills (1961-present)

Bob Hayes Wide Receiver of the Dallas Cowboys & San Francisco 49ers

Randall McDaniel Offensive Guard for Minnesota Vikings & Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Rod Woodson Cornerback/safety Pitts.Steelers, 49ers, Balt. Ravens & Oakland Raiders

Derrick Thomas Linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs

…and I got all my info on them from the Canton Repository newspaper.

Okay. Well. Stay-tuned for more fascinating information on the HOF (Hall of Fame festival).  If you’re coming up here bring parking money…the game is Sunday night at 8pm Ohio time on NBC.  Buffalo Bills vs. Tennessee Titans!

Subscribe here to get my updates by email or RSS feed. And CLICK HERE to see all other posts I’ve written about the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The 2009 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival has begun in Canton, Ohio.  Yesterday my family and myself visited the Balloon Festival taking place at the Kent State and Stark State Campus area. I took these pictures myself.  During this 10 day period in Canton you can expect hot air balloons, ribs burnoff, Drum Corps International Competition (in Massillon), fashion show, enshrinees dinner, parade, concert(s), fireworks (twice) all leading up to and ending with the big Pro Football Hall of Fame game! This year its the Buffalo Bills vs. Tennessee Titans.  The game is to be aired on “NBC Sunday Night NFL Football” August 9th.

And we live pretty darn close to where the game is played. So close in fact, that we, along with just about everyone else within walking distance of the stadium can and may be selling out their driveways and yards to park our out-of-town visitors…some of the probable 100,000 of them.

Alas, the Pro Football HOF declared last year about this time that they are trying to raise $60 million to expand their enterprises and roughly one year later…as I’ve heard from my neighbors…they have already bought several properties on our street. In the last few days or so I’ve seen 3 homes come down and the small hillside being leveled as literally, truck after truck after truck hauled “earth” away to some new location. What will this mean for us little folks who like to earn a little extra money to park? Well, probably not much.  There’s just too many people looking for a place to park within walking distance. We shall see, we shall see.

PS- All photos on my website are under copyright protection.

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