Notre Dame

For those of you that don't know, Ron is a huge Notre Dame Fan. No, he did not attend the University (as many people have asked), but has been a follower of the football team since he was a little boy. It has been a dream of his to see a game at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend.His dream was finally made true thanks to a few of his generous co-workers who have been trying to get him tickets for three years now! Apparently it is nearly impossible to get tickets to their home games. Well, we found out the Monday before the game on Saturday that we had tickets. Needless to say we were scrambling to make travel arrangements. We decided to fly into Chicago and stay there and drive into South Bend which was only about 90 miles away. The weekend went off without a hitch and we had the most awesome time. Thanks to the Johnsons for keeping Gracie for us. She had a great time.

Gameday was absolutely gorgeous...not a cloud in the sky. It was a little chilly that morning, but warmed up into the high sixties by game time. Before the game we toured the campus, which was a treat in itself. The campus is so beautiful and serene with it's century old buildings and religious statues. 80 to 90% of the students live on campus, so there is a great sense of family and camraderie. The school is VERY rich in tradition and the fans were unbelievable.

The journey began with a hard lesson learned using the GPS system. Instead of choosing "Most Use of Freeways", we chose "Shortest Route". BIG MISTAKE. We landed at Chicago's Midway airport at around 10:00 pm. and didnt' get on the road until about 11:00. Our trusty old GPS took us through the Ghettos of south Chicago in the dark of night. Let me tell you....it was FRIGHTENING!

This was our first sign that we were on the campus. Surprisingly, there is not much else besides the University in South Bend. Once you leave the city of Chicago it is pretty much farm land and nothing else until you get to Notre Dame, which sits in the middle of nowhere.

I thought this was a beautiful photo of the Main Building. This is the Basilica that sits in the middle of the campus. I believe mass is held here every day of the week (not 100% sure). The football players attend mass before each game and then walk to the stadium. We had just missed the procession.The Basilica was just GORGEOUS! My pictures did not come out very well and they certainly don't do it justice. This is the Grotto. A place to go and light a candle. I didn't get it in the picture, but there is a statue of the Blessed Mary standing atop of the Grotto. It was very touching and apparently a place where students go to pray and meditate.

This is the campus bookstore. It was complete madness in there! The lines to checkout wrapped around the entire perimeter. We got lots of goodies, including a jersey for Gracie!Another view of the bookstore.Dick Vitale was doing a book signing while we were there. He is a famous basketball broadcaster. I was hoping to see Regis Philbin, but I don't know if he was there.

This was an autographed print of the Notre Dame motto "Play Like a Champion Today". I didn't mean to cut off half of Ron' s head.The band performs in front of the Architecture building before each game.The ULTIMATE Notre Dame FanThe Stadium
We had GREAT seats. 40 yard line, 27 rows up. The team warming up
The band enters the stadium If you enlarge this picture, you will see all of kids in the student section doing push ups. After each touch down, the Lepruchan has to do as many push ups as the team's score. The students do it too......but it's more like surfing in a mosh pit.

This was the coat closet that was our hotel room! I guess we were paying for the location on the Magnificent Mile, because we certainly were not paying for the spacious room. And don't even get me started on what we paid for parking.
This bathroom was a triple S. Shit, Shower and Shave all at the same time!

The only thing we got to do in the city of Chicago was eat at Gino's pizzeria. I think it is highly overated. We waited 2 hours!

This slice of pizza cost me a month's worth of weight watchers points!


This was the top of our hotel.