JESS GAGNE, 5:45 A.M.
The work week is over, and all the out-of-state fans with Super Bowl tickets are arriving in Minneapolis.
The crowds are swelling at Super Bowl Live, the Super Bowl Experience and all of the other Super Bowl LII exhibits around the city. It's so cool to see the place we are visiting turn into the center of the football world!
Friday night, we are attending a party hosted by Portland-based company Shamrock Sports that's sure to have a lot of Mainers in attendance. But first, watch the MORNING REPORT to see how Bill Green's journey to Browerville, Minn. turned out! Knowing Bill, he's now most likely an honorary member of the Brady family.
The countdown is on: two more days until the biggest game of the year!!!
CHRIS COSTA 7:49 p.m. (CT)
Jess and I said it in the car: we finally feel like we're getting in a groove here in Minneapolis. We were really lucky to meet up with David Dostie, a Fairfield, ME native who has a unconventional (some might even call it 'backwards') way of getting tickets to a Super Bowl.
After we shot the story at the Mall of America, we had to drive downtown.
Later in the evening, we met up with Brian Corcoran, owner of the Portland-based Shamrock Sports & Entertainment company. Brian hosted a party at O'Donovan's Irish Pub, and invited us to do our LIVE shots from there.
We were particularly excited to meet his special guest, former Patriots running back (and three-time Super Bowl champ) Kevin Faulk.
Kevin was nice enough to do a LIVE interview with us, both on-air and on our NEWS CENTER Maine Facebook page!
Kevin is a friendly, happy, hardworking man, who just secured a job as Director of Player Development at his alma mater, Louisiana State University.
He was so generous with his time, and I was so happy he spent some of his few hours here in Minnesota talking with us and the Patriots fans back in Maine.
We also got to meet another Mainer -- Diane from Sebec -- who was visiting family in Minnesota for the game!
We've got less than 48 hours until the big game, and as the song goes, we just might make it after all.