Remember this
post where we celebrated Kevin's dad with a surprise Stache Bash?
The party was fun, but the real gift was a trip to Notre Dame to see a game. This has been on Jeff's bucket list for a long time and it finally happened mid-November.
Kevin and I flew into Chicago on a Friday morning and drove to Hammond, IN to meet up with the rest of the crew (Kevin's dad-Jeff and his wife, Heidi, Heidi's son Austin and his girlfriend, Dan and Shelby, Shelby's parents, Mr. McCormick-Jeff's neighbor and his son Jumbo), who all flew in the night before. Once we arrived it was time to head over to South Bend, IN. Here's the kicker. Our hotel was in the Central Time Zone, but Notre Dame is in the Eastern Time Zone, so going and coming each day we would gain an hour and lose an hour. It really messed with all of us the whole trip.
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| This is typical of Kevin's life out on the road, but I thought it was awesome that we knew which rental car was ours because our name was above it! FUN!! |
Day one started out walking around campus. We wanted a football stadium tunnel tour, but with the mass amounts of snow, that was cancelled. At least there was snow! If it's that cold, might as well have snow!
We saw Touchdown Jesus.
We spent a LOT of time in the bookstore and met Rudy (the REAL Rudy!). He signed our book and was happy to take a picture with all of us.
We stopped by the alumni center to eat before heading over to another restaurant on campus for a quick refreshment before sitting in on basketball practice.
After basketball, we headed to the Main Building for Trumpets Under the Dome. Unfortunately our video is too big to post, but you can watch
here. I may have shed a tear it was so pretty!
Then we lit a candle in the Grotto.
And walked through the Basilica...
Next it was time for the pep rally in the hockey arena. After the pep rally, the majority of us headed back to the hotel. Kevin, his dad, Mr. McCormick and Jumbo stayed for the Men's Basketball game that night. (Good thing Kevin and I had our own rental car so the group could split up.)
The rest of the group went to dinner and back to the hotel to crash. I needed to let Kevin into the room, since I checked in that night, so I stayed up doing homework until he arrived...late!
Day 2 was the Football game!!
We got up really early and headed for South Bend. We found a great parking spot in a garage and got a huge table at O'Rourke's- an Irish bar, for an early lunch and some drinks.
After suiting up in our warmest gear, it was time for exploring! We walked over to Touchdown Jesus to watch the players walk onto the field.
Then wandered into the fan fest in the basketball stadium.
When we got out, we started the walk through the lines and lines of tailgaters. If you've seen one tailgate, you've seen them all. The only thing that impressed me was that these people do this in the extreme cold. We stumbled upon a tailgate and Kevin and Jumbo got in on a great game of relay with these strangers.
We had to wrap it up there and head over to Touchdown Jesus again to catch the band marching in.
Finally it was game time!
Don't get me wrong, it was COLD outside! But with 3 pairs of pants, 4 or 5 shirts and a coat and hand and feet warmers, I was pretty toasty!
The game was LONG! Notre Dame lost and the mood was not fun. We all walked back to the van for the long ride back to Hammond, IN.
Everyone left early the next morning and Kevin and I got to take our time getting up and checking out of the hotel and made the drive back to Chicago. We dropped the car off and took the "L" into the city to walk to our hotel. After resting some, it was time to get ready for the Chicago Blackhawks game. So much fun!
I won't bore you with the details of the next few days because we didn't do as much as I would have liked to. It was too dang cold to be outside. (Wind chills kept the temp in the negatives most of the time and there were snow flurries day and night.) We slept/lounged around a lot and we each spent a good amount of time in the room doing work/homework! Highlights were the Willis Tower (formally the Sears Tower),
The Bean,
and eating some really good food! Deep dish: Giordano's. Sushi: Friend's Sushi. Dessert: Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop. Breakfast: Pittsfield Cafe. Kate (another blogger-
the small things blog) provided assistance with finding the best food in Chicago...thanks Kate!
To say we were happy to be going home is an understatement. We both couldn't wait to thaw out and we were both a bit under the weather...maybe from the cold. I proceeded to hang on to my "sickness" for about two months. Joy!
