Trip to Auburn, AL - Part 1

 Well, it only took me 16 and 13 years to get my kids down to Auburn!

Of course back then, they were babies and we weren't traveling all that way to sit in the hot sun with babies who didn't understand football, and then we lived in Germany for almost 5 years, and then there was that pesky pandemic...

Let's finally go to Auburn, shall we?

When we landed in Atlanta, we went to the rental car counter to pick up our compact car from Sixt.  They told us that they didn't have any compact cars, and that we could either wait an hour (or however long it took) for someone to return one, or we could pay extra to upgrade. The kids were mortified when I said, "Well I fail to see how that's my problem!"  We didn't have time to wait as we were already on a tight schedule, so we just paid the extra and I promised to write a bad review about them all over the internet!

After our rental car debacle (never again, Sixt!), we did not pass go, and we did not collect $200 - we drove straight to Momma Goldberg's!  (Ok just kidding, we stopped to drop our bags off at the hotel first!) I TRULY miss southern fountain Diet Coke!

I had a Momma's Love for the first time in over a decade and it was amazing! 

After a delicious lunch, we had a delicious dessert at Toomer's Corner - lemonade!

YUM! A tasty treat on a really humid day.

Auburn has a cute Walk of Fame called Tiger Trail and you'll find all of Auburn's best athletes in every sport! (Or in Bo's case, multiple sports!)

Ah yes. I remember, because I was there!

Auburn has changed a lot since I was here, but the one consistent thing about Auburn is always Toomer's Drugstore!

After that awful man poisoned our trees, we spent years trying to save them, but they just didn't make it. So they were removed in 2013 and replaced in 2015 with trees that were genetic descendants of the originals. Of course, in 2017 some dumb LSU fan lit one of them on fire, so they had to be replaced again.  It took a few years for them to really become stable enough to roll again, and the Auburn-UMass game was the first game where fans could roll the trees again!

Grant, sipping on his Toomer's Lemonade in front of Langdon Hall, where we used to see free movies. He didn't step on the seal behind him, because if he had, he won't graduate in four years and he would not find his true love at Auburn! (Something tells me he won't anyway!)  Natalie was telling me about this tradition, and I was so confused as to why I didn't remember it.  The seal was placed there in 1999, duh. 

The evening before the first game of the season, and people already had their chairs out for the following day's tailgate.

Beautiful Samford Hall - if you're here around noon, you can hear it play the Auburn fight song each day.

Pretty flowers in front of Samford Hall make me happy.

Never thought I'd bring my babies here!

I stood here at this same spot on graduation day, August 1997 which was 26 years ago! 

Four Bailey's, Samford Hall and the iconic Auburn University sign.🧡💙

Good old Tichenor Hall, where I took most of my major classes (except the ones that required us to be in the studio as Radio-TV-Film majors!)

One of the greatest Auburn players and coaches EVER! Go Crazy!

I am still sad that he was a JuCo transfer and didn't get more time as a player at Auburn but he lives there now and coaches at Lee Scott Academy.

Look! They even have super cool manhole covers in Auburn! 

After we walked around the downtown Auburn area (and made a stop at J&M Bookstore), we drove over to the parking deck next to the stadium. Neither of my kids know how to smile, apparently. War Eagle!

We walked around Jordan Hare on our way over to the Lovelace Hall of Honor athletic museum which is over at Auburn Arena, and we passed the National Championship sign. Sure would like a few more years posted on that!

Sadly, the Lovelace Hall of Honor is under reconstruction so we didn't get to see it! But we did get to see the Auburn basketball arena.

And I got to see my boy, the Round Mound of Rebound, Charles Barkley!

If you happen to be in Auburn the day before a football game, they open up the locker room at Jordan Hare from 4-6 pm so anyone can stop by and check it out. Super cool!

And I don't care what people say. I still like Gene Chizik. His dad was cool.

So exciting going into the Auburn locker room!

I liked this commemoration of all of the bowl wins we have accumulated.

We just followed Grant into the locker room...

... and then we followed our forever-captain Natalie onto the field! She was the captain of FC Bayern München and now is the captain of the Auburn football team! 

Ok sorry, that last picture had to go out of order or the story isn't funny. Back to the locker room!  Naturally, the "There goes Davis!" Kick 6 from the Auburn-Alabama game was featured prominently in the locker room, including the play by play by the late Rod Bramblett and his partner, Stan White.

And how could we forget Cam kissing the crystal!?  (I saw this live!)

The locker room is really awesome and I was just kind of in awe at the facilities in general.  This program has some money!

You can take a super cool picture of yourselves with the AU sign that's on the ceiling of the locker room, but you're gonna need to have a minimum of three chins to do it.

The backup center for Auburn this year is freshman Connor Lew, who is the son of one of my former co-workers at The Weather Channel! Pretty crazy! Glad he picked the best school!

I'm imagining the plays that have been drawn on this whiteboard.  Currently there's a heart, some stuff that was wiped off and a "War Eagle!"

At this point, we did finally go out to the field! The scoreboard at Auburn is HUGE. Not as big as the one they are putting in down at Gillette Stadium, but still really massive.

It's just... sniff sniff... so... sniff sniff... beautiful!

How much will we beat UMass by???  Only the scoreboard will tell.

That is the student section (without the chair backs) - and they already had shakers out ready to go!

Back inside, we ran into two guys who used to play football for UMass (back around the year 2000 I think) who were excited to see folks down from Massachusetts (even if I WAS very emphatic that we were rooting for Auburn!).  They were super nice and really funny - we kept running into them all over campus, too.  I didn't know the Heisman trophies were in a room near the locker room, and they pointed them out to us - thank goodness!  Pat Sullivan!

Cam Newton!

And of course... Bo Jackson!

Let's not forget that Coaches Trophy National Championship crystal!

On our way back to the car, it started raining but I needed to run over to the other side of the top level of the parking deck to snap a picture of Plainsman Park! I spent MANY days at this field during my time at Auburn (I was a Diamond Doll!)

The kids were begging for pizza, so we went downtown for some Mellow Mushroom - YUM!  We also got to admire (???) the new Target.  We needed some bottled water, so we ran in after dinner and it's pretty small. 

We had a great first day touring around Auburn and can't wait for the football game!

Annual Trip to Mousam Lake, Maine

 Another fantastic weekend was had by all up at one of our favorite places in the world - Mousam Lake, Maine!

But first, we decided to stop by Todd's alma mater, the University of New Hampshire for an unofficial visit. We swung by the Durham House of Pizza and JP's for some lunch before heading out (with a map and an online audio guide) for a little tour of the campus.

It was a warm day in Durham, so the kids were happy to sit down in the air conditioned Hamilton Smith Hall, where Todd took a bunch of classes back in the day.

I think he had a fun time roaming around his old stomping grounds. 

We made the kids sit down in front of historic Thompson Hall just like we did a few years ago.

Remember when these same kiddos sat here in 2020? The best part? Natalie has on the same shirt that Grant does in the picture above this! (P-town is the best!)

We stopped by Dimond Library to show the kids what a university library looks like (just a tad bit bigger than their school libraries!) and I found the VERY best section of all! Meteorology!

Grant found SOME book that was entirely in German and proceeded to attempt to read from it. It went about as you would expect.

Next up, we visited the Paul Creative Arts Center. Grant, you are so busted trying to play the pipe organ!

We went into the Johnson Theater so Natalie could see the big stage they use within the Department of Theater and Dance. 

But it was hot in Durham, and everyone was itching to get up to one of our favorite places - Mousam Lake!

It's really just so peaceful and beautiful.

Helen and Gordie (Todd's sister and brother-in-law) live on a quiet part of the lake, but you can still holler over to the neighbors.

Helen was watching the neighbors little dog, Boo and Natalie got to take her out for a little exercise.

She was so tiny and cute and menacing!  I mean Boo of course, not Natalie!

We arrived in time for dinner, some running around with the dog and a pretty sunset.

Todd tried to get the fire going but it wasn't very successful. It had rained for a couple of days and all of the wood was way too damp.

That's ok!  We got a good night sleep and woke up to a beautiful day and a good cup of coffee!

I think this is Todd's favorite thing to do, even when the lake is about 71 degrees.

Time to pack it in Todd, we need to go out for a ride on the pontoon boat!

My bud always loves being out on the lake.

Awwww. Good old Blueberry Island. Helen says it's been picked clean of blueberries, and on most warm days (errr, um, not today), there are a ton of boats around here.

We boated past the dam, which has been open because of all of the rain. Lake levels are high!

I was able to actually hop in a picture before...

... THIS happened!

Welcome back to the Blue Moose!

Natalie and I sat on the dock after the boat ride but the mostly cloudy skies were just a BIT too bright for us!

And then it was time for some giant Jenga! The Queen of giant Jenga starts us off with a mid tower move.

You know it's always fun when Natalie is talking smack!

And we even get Grant to participate in this family activity!

Maybe you can guess who lost by this picture?

After a yummy dinner, we sat out by the fire pit - but tonight, the wood was much drier so we got a nice fire started.

Gotta have some S'mores with Uncle Gordie!

You would think it was cold by these outfits, but we really just wear them to avoid being bit by mosquitos.

I don't particularly love S'mores but man, they're always better in Maine!

Todd agrees!

There's some intense S'mores faces here.

Can you believe Gordie built this house pretty much all by himself???

This kid crashed hard. 💗

We rotated our weekend in Maine because of some bad weather on Friday, so we were there from Saturday evening until Tuesday morning. So we got to enjoy a nice Monday off!  And you can probably guess where Todd was Monday morning. On a tube on Mousam Lake!

 The weather was a tad cool (well, compared to when we were in Florida) but Monday was a beautiful day for a ride on the lake!

Since the dam has been open with all of the rain that has fallen, the lake levels are really high. High enough that some boats (ours?) couldn't get under the bridge.  Wait... we're gonna attempt to get a pontoon boat under THAT?

It was touch and go - but we made it under the bridge!  The top had to come down, everyone had to crouch down real low, and we had to use our steady hands to guide us under the brick bridge so that the boat didn't crash. Literally. Good times. Once we got to the other side, we stopped briefly so Todd could jump in the water to cool off.  

Dunk! 

We couldn't stay long because it was breezy and that was blowing the boat toward the shoreline, but Grant wanted to jump in too. He was VERY hesitant though because the water was only 71 degrees.

But he did it!

They didn't stay in long - brrrr!

Todd and Grant jumped back into the boat and we cruised along, talking about all of the homes and how the shoreline has changed over the years.

We even saw a family of loons!

AND we spotted the (very blurry) German flag!

Captain Gordie and his first mate, Todd got us safely back to the bridge.

WHICH we had to go under again, with the same results. No problem!

We rode back to the house through the no wake zone by the bridge.

Awww, my little family, in their happy place.

These two even get along better at Mousam Lake.

After another great dinner and a rousing game of Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza, we spent a little time on the porch before heading to bed. Sniff sniff.

In the morning, Natalie drove us out of Maine and into New Hampshire. Not terrifying at all! We lived!

Until next time, Mousam Lake! See ya next summer!