Have hoops, will travel (Feb. 14)

   

Super Hoopers!

           

            With Super Bowl XLVI a recent memory, I had a chance to make some fun memories with a girl I like to call my ‘Super Hooper.’ Hooping makes the world go round, for us anyway, and even though I don’t follow football and didn’t have any plans to venture anywhere near downtown, the mild temps and the lure of witnessing the city transformation for this ‘once in a lifetime’ event drew us in.

            So we went, hoops and music in tow. ‘Super Hooper’, aka my daughter, Lily, didn’t take long to warm up to the atmosphere. She likes the spotlight and we wove through Super Bowl Village, hooping at different spots along the way. She rocked up to three hoops at once and grinned big. We made our way to a spot where we stayed the longest, on Meridian St. in between Georgia and the Circle.

There a man was playing an array of drums and blowing a whistle. He saw our hoops and motioned us in. Lily started spinning to the music he made, lighting up the night with an LED hoop. A small crowd started gathering around the entertainment, now including a guy in a football jersey dancing and clapping.

            She beamed when some in the crowd came up and put some dollar bills in her little ‘tip jar’, giving Lily her first hoop money, which she’s put in an envelope and hidden in a top secret spot in her room.

            We made our way up the monument steps and hooped there too, alone and looking out over the Circle. She said she didn’t want to leave and we stayed a little longer before heading home, glad we’d packed up our hoops and gone on an adventure out into the world as Super Hoopers.