Written by Kim
As we travel we look a few days out to plan our next stop. We knew we would be in Indiana on Friday and Alex realized that Notre Dame had a home game and it was against a smaller school, NIU – Northern Illinois, so there were tickets available at a reasonable price. We chose to stay 2 nights in the same hotel, Staybridge Suites, in Elkhart so that we could do both the dunes and the game without moving hotels. If you are ever in the area the Staybridge was very clean and nice. For those of our friends that are loyal to a certain brand you can see we chose accommodations based on reviews not brand so scatter or spend (and points) across hotel brands. Oh well….
We knew the Notre Dame game would be crazy so did some research and found that we could park in downtown South Bend for free and take a free shuttle to the game. Alex, of course, found the parking garage that was first stop on the shuttle and first off so we could get seats in case it was crowded which it was. It was nuts around the campus – businesses, churches and homes were offering parking on their property for $30-$40. One house was even cooking hot dogs to give you if you parked there. 😂 We planned to do a little tailgating and went to the rooftop of the garage we picked expecting others to be there but we had the roof to ourselves for our party.
The shuttle into the campus was about a 15 minute ride. Alex was right if we got on at a later stop we would have been standing. The campus was buzzing with energy. Lots of different clubs were selling food for tailgating in the mall, People were playing lawn games, etc, What a fun environment. No alcohol was permitted so no crazy drunks either.
What a gorgeous campus with sprawling lawns and beautiful brick buildings.
The game started at 3:30 and we entered the stadium about an hour earlier
This was the first home game of the season for Notre Dame so the crowd was charged. The pomp & circumstance of the opening was fantastic. They had a flyover, the fight song, the band was incredible.
The Fighting Irish were outplayed by NIU and lost 16-14. The fans were obviously disappointed, The guy behind us must have said 100 times we are the #5 ranked team. I didn’t have the heart to tell him not after today.
What an experience! We are so glad we caught a game here. One of our goals is to catch a sporting or cultural event along our way. We’ve bern very fortunate so far to find these gems and have great weather, it’s gotten a little cooler for a few days. We are heading up to Northern Michigan next, Until then….
