Notre Dame

July 12th was super rainy here in Chicago so after naps we decided to head up to Notre Dame and see a bit of South Bend. Notre Dame is only 1.5 hours away from us and so it was a pretty quick drive. 

We headed straight for the football stadium to look for Rudy. We didn't find him.
I also was hoping to get on the field so I could get a video of us chanting Rudy! Rudy! Rudy! like the rest of America, but that didn't happen either.

In all seriousness though the stadium looked pretty cool. My favorite part were the statues of all the old/iconic football coaches Notre Dame has had. I thought it was a great idea.

This is across from the stadium. Its pretty iconic although I honestly have no idea what its called but there it is. 

This is the older end of campus. All the buildings had Latin on them and looked exactly like they do in Rudy. I'm still a little disappointed we didn't run into Sean Astin. 

There were statues of people everywhere. We don't know much about the Catholic religion so we didn't know who they were or what they represented, but it really added to the feel of the campus.

The Golden Dome cathedral is pretty iconic at Notre Dame. Like everything we've seen all summer, the pictures do it no justice.

And here's miss humidity LOVING all the grass space at Notre Dame. Kelsey didn't sit in her stroller once. She ran and ran and ran and ran and RAN!!! It was so awesome for her. The only problem was trying to stop her from running into the actual mass that was taking place in the Golden Dome cathedral. 

 

Walking out of the cathedral at the start of Mass.

After our quick visit, agreed to drive the 20 minutes out of the way so that we could hit Michigan this summer!!! 

Here's what we saw of Michigan...

and here's what Kelsey saw of Michigan.

Good news!!! In Michigan the 7th Milkshake is free!

Also the gas was super cheap so that was a nice break. Papa Nelson, I'm starting to like your birth state.

On the way home we tried to stop at some of the more touristy places like the Indiana Sand Dunes and Lake Michigan from the Michigan side, but here's where we ran into car trouble. After dinner at Texas Coral (east coast version of Texas Roadhouse and equally as wonderful) our car started over heating. The sand dunes would have been a bust anyway because of the rain but it was still a bummer to miss them. I've always wanted to see sand dunes. Anyway, we pulled into a gas station and with many prayers and helpful conversations with the more savvy car people in the family, we were able to get the car fixed enough to go home. Although we missed the sand dunes because of the rain, I am grateful for the rain because we had to drive home with the heater on and the rain helped us stay cool enough to not die. I'm really making this sound more eventful than it was. We were really blessed and made it home safe and sound. It was an awesome trip. Definitely worth the drive.