11/18/05--Day #4--Gameday in South Bend

So we had gotten up early again and prepped ourselves for the trip to the stadium.
We ended up in the pay parking (naturally) and were bused over towards the stadium.
Gametime was approximately 1pm, and we arrived a little after 9am.  We wandered around the grounds and found a group of students, maybe 10 of them, playing the Irish pipes.  I found myself drawn to the sounds of my heritage, and thinking of my father .
Later we went by one of the many BBQ's that had been put up by one of the dorm halls and had a quick bite for lunch.  We then watched the players take the ceremonial walk from the church on campus towards the stadium.  I got a nice photo of WR Jeff Samardzja leading the squad towards the stadium.  The kids had one of the hilites of their weekend as they got to be front and center as the marching band came marching right past them, complete with the colorful Irish Guard.  Finally we made our way into the stadium and found our seats. 
Row 56.
As in....
"Hi sir, this is row #1....you're in row 56."
UGH.
Anyway, we were seated right behind the goalposts facing "Touchdown Jesus" and really there doesn't appear to be a bad seat in the house.  Amazingly, after a weekend in which we hadn't met a single person who had been the slightest bit rude or discourteous
we had two drunks sit down right next to us.  Directly in front of them was a priest, and one of the drunks apparently kept spitting on the coat that the priest was wearing, and he was taking none too kindly to it.  They ended up getting the boot sometime in the late 3rd quarter.  The entire stadium, and they have to sit right next to us.

It was a pretty good game, with the Fighting Irish winning 42-21.  Brady Quinn had another big game at QB, and WR Maurice Stovall made a pretty amazing touchdown catch right in front of us.  After the game, one of the highlights of the trip was watching the Notre Dame football walking with the Midshipmen to one end of the stadium and standing next to the Navy players as they sang their alma mater with their fellow cadets.
It was a geniunely moving moment and I'm glad my kids got to witness it. 

It had been 10 years since my last game at Notre Dame stadium and it was well worth the return trip.  I enjoyed this time even more, as I knew the stuff to look for....and quite frankly I enjoyed the company more.  There, now I've laid the groundwork for going back next year--as long as my wife reads this entry.

Later,
Jeff