Trip to Louisiana for LSU-Auburn game

We headed to Baton Rouge last Thursday for a quick trip to see LSU play the impostors in the Tiger Bowl.
It was Tim's first LSU game, so I made sure he got the full experience.
We joined the crowd as fans gathered below the Journalism Building to await the arrival of the Golden Band from Tigerland.
Mike VI was looking better than ever. He must be nearly 600 pounds by now.
I pointed out my brick in front of Mike's $3 million habitat, which sits across the street from Tiger Stadium.
This was the view from our seats as the two teams warmed up before the game. That's Mike VI in the trailer, making his traditional trip around the stadium to help work up the fans.
We were very happy with the results. LSU won 31-10.
We spent the day before the game hanging out with my family and seeing some of the sights around the Capitol City. This is Nottoway, an Italianate plantation home built in 1859 across the River from Baton Rouge.
Nearby in the community of Point Pleasant, we found The Chapel of the Madonna sitting in front of a cow pasture.

The tiny church measures 8-feet by 8-feet and is regarded by some to be the smallest house of worship in the world. It was built by an Italian-American family after a relative recovered from a severe illness.
There's just enough room inside for a small altar and a couple of kneelers. The keys to the church are left in a mailbox at the door.
Of course, we also did some serious eating. Here's Tim about to tear into a fried seafood platter at Walk On's, a popular restaurant in Baton Rouge that was founded by a couple of LSU grads who were walk-on players for the basketball team.
Me with my mom and dad. Much of the talk over the weekend among my relatives revolved around the question of whether my dad now has more hair on his head than I do.
My niece and nephew. They grow up so fast!

Madison and beyond

Greetings Bloggerville. Sorry for my absence from this space for the last couple of months. Blame it on my increased work load and Facebook, which has made communicating with the virtual world far more convenient and immediate through my iPhone.

Nonetheless, some of you have asked - no, begged - for me to resurrect my blog. So here we go.

First stop - Cheeseland.
Tim and I headed to Chicago last weekend to visit friends and take part in the Northalsted Market Days festival in Boys Town. But before we did that, we headed from Midway airport by bus to Madison, Wis., to visit my best friend from back home - Russell - and his wife, Wendy, and brand new baby, Dylan.

The pic above was typical once we crossed over from the Illinois border. This place epitomizes rural agricultural American life, but more on that later.
Madison, of course, is the state capital. And what center of government would be complete without a neoclassical Capitol . . .
Or a great big university, for that matter. It's a habit of mine to visit football stadiums any time I'm in a big college town. It's especially fun to see a stadium with as storied a history as Camp Randall, located on the downtown campus of the University of Wisconsin.

I've learned over the years that summertime offers the best opportunities to actually get inside college stadiums because gates are often open as maintenance crews ready the facilities for the upcoming football season.

That wasn't the case at Camp Randall. However, the athletic department cleverly built the gift shop into the corner of the stadium with glass doors that open onto a field level patio. I grabbed this shot of the stadium's interior using Pano, a nifty iPhone app that lets you take amazing panoramic shots.

Madison seems like a great college town along the lines of Austin, Texas, Athens, Ga., and Columbus, Ohio. The city even has some interesting modern architecture, like this glass-skinned tower, mixed in with early 20th century stuff in the square surrounding the Capitol.
We spent a good bit of our day and a half in Wisconsin exploring the surrounding countryside, including a lunch stop in New Glarus, a town settled by Swiss Germans that epitomizes all things Wisconsin.

We dined at a downtown restaurant that specializes in authentic German dishes, where we had schnitzel, sauer kraut and fried cheese curds. The food was the best I've had outside the motherland.

We also sampled some great local beers crafted by the New Glarus Brewery. (Watch for an upcoming blog post on our visit to the brewery.)
Back on the road we encountered mile after mile of bucolic scenes like this one.
And with each mile came more cows and corn. Make no mistake, this state is all about cows and corn.

LSU crawfish boil

We had a great time at the annual San Diego LSU Alumni Association crawfish boil yesterday.

The weather was perfect - as usual. The crawfish were better (and bigger) than last year. And the group included a nice mix of old and new faces.If you've never done this event with me, you really should consider it next year. Let me know if you want to be on my crawfish email list.Some of the guys from Lafayette who trucked in the 15,000 pounds of live mudbugs and cooked them onsite. I took this pic with my iPhone panorama app (Pano). It's a combination of three different photos stitched together. Can you find the mistake in the shot?

Holiday Bowl

I went to the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl nearly a week ago at Qualcomm Stadium here in San Diego where I got to see The Big Flag for the first time. This 45,000-square-foot version of Old Glory is unfurled by 250 people at the beginning of the game each year.
Joining me were Tim, Mitch and Tom, an Oklahoma State grad who was cheering on his alma mater.

I was decked out in LSU purple and gold, of course, and prepared to get heckled by OSU fans who still resent the Tigers for stealing head coach Les Miles from them in 2005. But no one said a word. I suppose the Cowboys' successful record under current head coach Mike Gundy has helped them move own.
The OSU Cowboys marching band easily out performed the smaller ensemble from Oregon.
Too bad the football team from Stillwater didn't have the same luck with the Ducks.
The halftime show featured some cool fireworks set to rock music.
Click on any pic to view it larger.
The exploding smiley face did little to sooth the pain of a post-season loss for the Pokes.

My crown of thorns

This was the result of a little bet with my buddy Troy who lives in Tampa. Let's hope things go better for Tiger Nation this weekend.

The game in pics and videos

EDITOR'S NOTE: For some unexplainable reason (perhaps it had something to do with being up at 2 a.m. after flying back from Louisiana), I miss-dated all of the LSU videos appearing in this and the previous post. The correct month is September, NOT March. I'd remake the videos with the right date stamped on them, but I'm just too lazy.

A Saturday night in Tiger Stadium is like Christmas, New Year's eve and a family reunion all rolled into one. That's what it was like last Saturday for me, Russ and the other 92,000-plus fans who crammed into this hallowed coliseum to watch LSU take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

And if you think of LSU football as our common religion, then the Tiger band's pre-game show is most certainly our profession of faith.


A panoramic view of Tiger Stadium from our seats in the corner of the south end zone. Click on any pic to view it larger.

Here come the Tigers!


This was my best shot of head coach Les Miles during pre-game warm ups using the highest zoom my digital camera could muster.

Touchdowns make Tiger fans VERY happy.


Those lucky few who stick around long enough after a home game get to hear the Golden Band from Tigerland sing the school Alma Mater. It's a beautiful tradition that should get far more attention.

LSU vs. Miss. State pregame

I finished my trip to Louisiana by going to the LSU-Miss. State game in Baton Rouge Saturday with Russell, my best friend growing up who now lives in Wisconsin. He and his parents took me to my first LSU game on Sept. 15, 1984 when the Tigers beat Wichita State 47-7.
Russ and I started the day with breakfast at Louie's Cafe, a favorite late-night student hangout just off campus. The omelets are amazing!
We had no trouble finding plenty more food on the fire on campus. This guy was making a huge pot of chicken and sausage jambalaya.

LSU's three national championship flags fly high over the stadium on game day.

Do I see a haircut in Nero's future?
I took this video as the Golden Band from Tigerland made its traditional march down the hill from the band room to the stadium.

Mother of all trophy rooms

It's not often that I discover an unexplored corner of LSU's campus, but that's what happened yesterday afternoon when we stumbled upon the store room for all of the football team's championship hardware.

The trophies are housed in the lobby of LSU's football operations center (click on pic to view it larger) which sits in front of the team's massive indoor practice field on the west side of campus between the Mississippi River and Tiger Stadium.

Dominating the room is a towering trophy case that contains more than two dozen of the awards won by the Tigers over the years for bowl victories.
A smaller case near the center of the room holds the team's 2007 national championship trophies, including the BCS crystal football in the center. The other side of the case holds the 2003 national championship trophy.
Some of LSU's hardware from winning Southeastern Conference championships.
The room also houses individual player awards, including this Heisman Trophy won by Billy Cannon in 1959 . . .
And a wall commemorating the team's All-Americans through the years.