BYU vs Notre Dame football game

Wayne and I were able to take a quick weekend getaway to go see the BYU football team play Notre Dame in South Bend, IN.  We had been anticipating the trip for a while.  Initially we were going to take the whole family.  Wayne was going to meet up his brother, Brett and his family to go to the game.  Thanks to some wonderful friends we were able to leave the kids in Rochester while the two of us made it a getaway.

We left Friday morning at 10:00 a.m.  About two hours into the drive we saw a huge bird flying overhead and realized that it was a bald eagle.  The first either of us have seen in flight.  That was amazing.  A little while later we realized that we would be hitting Chicago traffic at 4:00 pm.  We decided to stop and watch a movie named Pitch Perfect in Madison, WI.   We laughed a lot, sometimes out of pure embarassement, but overall it was really funny.  After eating an early dinner at Olive Garden we continued on to South Bend.  We reached Chicago at 6:30 and were stuck in major congestion for two hours. Later the GPS had us take some local roads to avoid the traffic on I-90.  At least it was a change of scenery.  We were definitely antsy to get out of there.  By the time we finally reached the end of the bottleneck it was dark and the Chicago skyline was lit up.  It was absolutely beautiful.

We finally arrived at our hotel at 11:30 p.m.   A wife of one of the pharmacist's that Wayne works with told us about a place called the Swan Lake Resort in Plymouth, IN.  It's about 30 minutes outside of South Bend.  Since the hotels were horrendously expensive in South Bend we decided to give it a try.  While driving there we wondered if a place could actually exist where the GPS was directing us, but all the sudden there it was.  It's huge for the town that it's in.  We thought it was perfect.

The next morning we woke up, got ready, and headed to the Notre Dame campus.  Places close to the stadium wanted $40 to park.  YIKES!  After driving just a few blocks down we found some parking for $20.  We brought some poncho's and headed to the school.  It is filled with tradition.  The marching band was playing the fight song while marching through campus.  The players received a police escort to the stadium.  Fans lined the outside of the stadium to where the bus let out the coaches and players.  They were all dressed in suits and were cheered as they walked down the courtyard and into the stadium. 

                                                     Wayne in front of touchdown Jesus.

                                          A very, very small portion of the marching band. 

                                              Wayne in front of the golden dome.

                                            Looking at the ceiling inside a gorgeous building.

                                                                Basilica

                                                                         Grotto

 

                                         
                                                              Loving the fall trees

                                                      Oh yeah, in the stadium.

 

Notre Dame is ranked five right now.  I really thought BYU was going to get stomped, but was surprised when they were ahead at half-time.  Sadly BYU lost by three points.  It was still a blast to experience it all.

Sunday we woke up and were on the road by 7:00.  We drove in to pick up the kids at 5:00 p.m.  I am so thankful for great friends.  There is no way we could have done this without them.