I’m still catching up on sleep after a fun Monday and Saturday night watching the Final Four. My father-in-law and I got tickets last year and we were eagerly anticipating this weekend. We knew the odds that either of our teams would make it that far were pretty low, but regardless we were going to have fun anyways.

I didn’t really have any loyalties to any of the teams, Florida, Georgetown, UCLA, and Ohio State. This enabled me to enjoy the whole tournament more or less objectively and just have fun rather than stress out about winning or losing. It’s the first time in a long time I’ve left a sports event not disappointed, unhappy, or angry (I’m sentenced to cheering for underachieving teams. It’s my lot in life.)

As I’ve always suspected, every team has got their classy fans and their mouth-breathers, but it’s easier to see when you aren’t wearing the rose-colored lens of “your” team always has the good fans and “their” team always has the morons. I’m not necessarily so susceptible to that bias. Regardless, most of the fans we interacted with were pretty cool and we enjoyed sitting around. We sat mostly around Florida and Ohio State fans for the weekend and the Florida fans were the loudest of the weekend. There weren’t any exciting buzzer-beaters, but there was definitely a buzz in the arena for all of the games.

We also got to see plenty of future NBA stars and exciting plays, and for the first, I got to see an actual championship game. I’ve been to plenty of sporting events, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen the climatic “final” game where the trophy was handed out.

Hats off to the city of the Atlanta, too. Security and police were present enough to make me feel safe without being oppressive. The city had Centennial Olympic Park all decked out and plenty of stuff for fans to do around the Dome. Finally, for once, FOR ONCE, MARTA actually ran often and on time! I was shocked to wait no more than 3 or 4 minutes for a train once during the whole weekend. Maybe the city felt like putting on a good face for visitors from D.C., Ohio, Florida, and California. Everyone we talked to had good things to say about Atlanta, which is nice after PR black eyes from the Olympics and the Super Bowl.

…and of course, I took pictures! I took the Coolpix on Saturday night and dragged out the D50 on Monday night, so the Championship pictures are a little better. I’m glad I got a chance to go, who knows when I’ll ever get an opportunity to experience a Final Four in person again?