Kids LOVED staying there, especially hanging with Soju (their dog). Cruised campus all day Friday (Hoover Tower, where we ran into the ESPNU RoadTrip crew, Oval to check out Gameday setup, Biz School swanky restaurant, Erin Scholz and Brad Ekstrand joined us, quad, bookstore, Tressider, men's volleyball practice, track house, Oasis).
Awesome Ben quote. I asked him on Friday afternoon when we were watching the volleyball team practice: what is your favorite part so far?
Well, it WILL be the peanuts, but for now it's the QUAD (we're going to the Oasis in a bit - he's been dying to throw peanuts on the floor)Saturday was a LONG day. Started by going to the ESPN Gameday coverage at the Oval. Jamie drove me and the kids and Jane and dropped us off (then she hung at Starbucks at the mall). Really fun. Lots of people - no chance to get up close to the railing with our signs, so we hung out in the back corner by the band. Got on tv at least once, need to watch the recording to see if any more. Ran into Rick Gould, Jimmy Klein, and Laurie Quinn.
Called Jamie for pickup and back down to San Jose for naps. Rallied to go to the men's water polo game (Connor's interested since he's playing these days) - they crushed Santa Clara. Erin, Cam, Emma Scholz met us there.
After polo, Connor I and I were off to tailgate and the game. Was trying to hookup with the Brehm's (Carlsbad family friends) but never did. Kelly Leonard Martin and Lara Asper hosted a tailgater where Brad Ekstrand was, so hung there mostly. Made a cameo at Laurie Sawin Quinn's party where they had an ice luge. Even Connor and the other kids got to try it (kid friendly 7-up shots). Adults had choice of Kamikaze or Cosmo.
Game time: Kelly talked us into letting Connor go with her son and his buddy, something they apparently do all the time - head into the game on their own, and then the dads catch up. It was totally stressing me out to let C go with them - but he wanted to. In retrospect, I would have preferred to enter the stadium with him, since it was his first time there, get his perspective, enjoy the scene. Oh well. Hooke up at the end of Q1 with the dad that had them and went back to our seats.
Packed house: 50,360. Our seats were in section 237 (I got them on StubHub), but little did I know that there were all Oregon fans in that corner. Ugh. Caught tons of shit from Jane about that one - I won't ever be the guy buying tix again.
See the other post for game info. All in all great time. Connor had a blast, and really seemed to enjoy and appreciate the special circumstances. Jamie said the next day it would be fun to go back and watch a ho-hum game with just general admission tickets. Totally agree (Brad showed me his GA ticket as part of their family pack: $10. A far cry from the $171 EACH I paid for Connor and I)
After game was a little rough. Jane and Dorsey wanted to check out the millionaire Trilogy party that Dave Richard was part of (group of 80 on a chartered jet from Austin on Sat morning, then throw killer adults only party from noon to midnight with bands, etc.) Connor and I wasted time watching the band in the stadium, then slowly walked back to Ford Center. Jane and Dorsey biked back over to their car and came to pick us up. Late drive down to San Jose to crash.
Slow, lazy morning on Sunday, then haul our butts back down to Carlsbad. Got home about 7pm.
GREAT TRIP!
