LSU Game Day!

Saturday we spent the day on the campus of Louisiana State University.

It was the day of the biggest game in college football.

LSU vs. Alabama

It was the ultimate in college football, and ESPN College Gameday was there.

And so were we...

my sister Rhonda and her husband John, and Fletcher...

Fletcher and me...

(I was just about the only one not wearing purple!)

Rhonda and John...

(true LSU fans!)

and over 150,000 other people on campus that day!

(Most wearing purple and gold!)

This was my first LSU tailgating experience and College Game Day.

As a first timer, I had a lot to learn about being an LSU fan.

1. Dress appropriately.

Here are some of the fashion trends I saw on Saturday:

Purple jeans, comfortable shoes, a backpack...

this is "college" afterall.

We saw a lot of ladies wearing gold sandals. This was a

good choice because it was in the 90 degree temperature range!

Shorts were a good choice, and any combination of purple and gold.

I don't know who these guys are, but this was the typical outfit for men tail-gating.

Note: buttons, t-shirts, hats, sunglasses and "extremely relaxed" look.

These ladies did not want to be mistaken for Alabama fans!

I wonder where you can get a set of these overalls?

You could wear yellow jeans!

(With a purple shirt of course.)

And then there was the connection to the upcoming

Presidential Election.

One pre-game tradition at LSU is for the team to walk down the street

and into the Stadium followed by the Tiger Band and Cheerleaders.

The following are a few photos of this event minus the band

because my camera battery "died" before the band got there.

This is where the team will enter the stadium, so we had a front row view.

The Referees arrive first with a police escort.

We thought it was funny that they arrived in a "prisoner transport" vehicle.

The media gathers, and the crowds begin to get restless from waiting...

Our view of the stadium...

waiting...

waiting...

waiting...

The team arrives!

Coach Les Miles leads the way!

Quick! Get a glimpse of the team!

Can you find the quarterback?

He's the tall one in the center.

I can't remember his name, but maybe you do.

And then the cheerleaders...

The Tiger Band followed the cheerleaders into the stadium.

Well, the game didn't turn out the way the LSU Tigers had hoped. Alabama won.

But, there's always next year...

Rhonda made all the dogs an LSU Tiger scarf, so they were

able to participate in our College Game Day too while they stayed at home.

I didn't take any pictures of the actual Tailgate that we attended. I actually didn't think about taking pictures probably because we were busy eating and talking and sweating. I had on long jeans and regular shoes with a little bit of a heel and socks, and a sweater with a shirt under it! Good grief! WHY?? I definitely would not recommend this outfit for tailgating and Game Day activities! Next time I will wear a team t-shirt (even if it's not my team just so I can blend in better) and

tennis shoes for lots of walking and possibly shorts if it's going to be hot.

The LSU campus is really pretty with stately oak trees, and we got to see the new book store on campus. It is two story! We visited the student center and walked all around campus. On game day, there are tailgaters everywhere! The excitment is contagious and there was a brief moment when I actually thought about how much fun it would be to have gone to school at LSU!

We appreciate the friends who invited us to tailgate with them, the food was fantastic, and we had a great time with Rhonda and John as always. I am so thankful to have a sister and brother-in-law that we enjoy so much!

We went home in time to see the kick-off of the game on TV since we didn't actually have tickets to the game.

Tailgating and Game Day at LSU was quite an experience!

I'm glad we went.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

It is a good thing to stay busy!
This week my mother and daddy came to visit me while Fletcher was out of town. They were here all week and we had such a good time together. I am so thankful that I have always enjoyed spending time with my parents. They arrived on Monday and left this morning on Friday. My mother loves to shop and so do I! Baton Rouge is a shopping mecca. There are so many places to shop around here that you can't possibly go to every store. There's always some undiscovered territory to explore in this city. First we went to the Citi Towne Center which is right around the corner from my house on Jefferson at Old Hammond Road. It is a great place to go when the weather is nice. The anchor store is a grocery store called Whole Foods. I love going to Whole Foods, but it is not my main grocery store because it is too expensive for my budget, but it is the most interesting grocery store I have ever shopped in and I love to explore it and look at different things. The Citi Towne Shopping Center also has many of your basic mall stores plus some exclusive Louisiana stores. That is something I love about shopping in Baton Rouge. There are many stores that are "local" or regional/state Louisiana stores that carry things you just don't see anywhere else. On Tuesday, we went to Macy's. Macy's is located in the Louisiana Mall in Baton Rouge, but it is one of the largest and best Macy's stores I have ever shopped in, and I have been to many Macy's stores in Texas. It takes a while to shop there because you have so much to look at and then you might need to try something on, and there's the coupons and discounts that have to be figured out. It's loads of fun to shop at Macy's and leave there feeling like you got a bargain! So, we only went to Macy's on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we went to Heroman's Florist and Gifts on Old Hammond and North Harrell's Ferry Rd. I am giving the address because there are several of these stores around in Baton Rouge. It's not just a flower shop/nursery, it is full of many wonderful things to look at and to buy for the home or for a gift or special occasion. From there we went to Goodwood Hardware Store which is also just around the corner from my house. This is no ordinary hardware store, it is one of the best known local stores in Baton Rouge and it has just about anything you can imagine to shop for including LSU gear and much more! You would have to visit there to understand. From there we went to the Red Door on Corporate. I love just walking through this store and admiring the creativity of all the decorations. Right now they are getting everything decorated for Christmas. This is the store that gives me inspiration for decorating our home, even though I don't buy much there, I love just being in the store and looking at all the colors and designs. After that we ate at Ci Ci's Pizza which was great for getting our pizza fix. After lunch we ran over to Steinmart and Marshall's two of our favorite discount stores that are also near our home. On Thursday we struck out for the outlet mall in Gonzales. This was my first visit to the outlet mall in south Louisiana. It isn't very large like some of the outlet malls in Texas, but it had all of our favorite stores like Chico's, Banana Republic, Coach, Naturalizer, Black/White and many more. We actually spent the whole day there and ate at Wendy's for lunch. Wow! I got a lot of shopping in this week which included some Christmas shopping. Sadly, mother and daddy left on Friday morning, and I will miss them, but I hope they will come back to see me again soon. After they left, Rhonda and John were headed down to Baton Rouge to visit with us for the weekend. We are going to LSU ESPN Game Day tomorrow to see all the festivities for LSU vs. Alabama. This will be my first LSU tailgating experience, so I'm looking forward to having some fun! It should be a busy weekend!!