HOME OF THE IRISH

Thursday, September 15 – We added another university to our National University Tour....Notre Dame. It is located 30 minutes up the road in South Bend. What a beautiful campus.

We like to see universities that are consistent with their architecture. Notre Dame does that with the sand color brick and slate roof buildings. Acres of green space, an abundance of shade trees, and beautiful landscaping has us adding Notre Dame to our “beautiful campus” list.

We picked up a map at the visitors center and asked the young men working the desk for recommended “must sees” on campus. He recommended a visitors parking lot that was centrally located and permitted an easy walking tour of the campus.

First stop was the football stadium. This “house that Rockne built” is the legendary home of the Fighting Irish football team.

Let us not forgot Lou Holtz.

Unfortunately, it was all locked up and we couldn't get in to see the field. The crews were busy preparing the facility for this weeks game. Can you believe that publish a booklet of activities for each home game. What an exciting weekend for young fans!

One of the “must sees” on Paul's list was Touch down Jesus.

Built in 1888, Sorin Hall was the first residence hall with private rooms, and its residents were originally selected by academic rank.

For those unfamiliar with Notre Dame football, this is a huge tiled mural of Jesus located high on the wall of the library. In the mural, Jesus has his arms raised high (much like a referee signally a touchdown). It's the location of the library that is important. It is located just north of the stadium directly in line with the end zone. When the team scores a touchdown, kicks a field goal, or kicks an extra point, Jesus is there to signal the team's good fortune.....”TOUCHDOWN!”

The Main Building is better known as “The Golden Dome.”

This is the center of administration, teaching, and important exhibits of art and Notre Dame history. The building is beautiful inside.

It is topped by a gilded dome and a 19-foot-tall, 4,000-pound statue of Mary, the Mother of God, “Notre Dame” (“Our Lady”). The Golden Dome was added to this building in 1882 and was most recently regilded in 2005.

The Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore serves as the headquarters for students' textbooks. This two-story building also houses a HUGE selection of hats, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and other memorabilia for the Notre Dame fan. It is one of the largest bookstores we've seen on our campus tours.

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart was consecrated in 1888 and is the center of Catholic liturgy and worship on campus. What a gorgeous cathedral!

Priceless stained glass windows, fresco paintings, gold gilded statues, and an amazing alter makes this a wonderful house of worship.

Ceiling

We spent four hours strolling the campus and enjoyed every minute. With 11,000 students the campus did not feel over-crowed. There was an atmosphere of hospitality and community spirit. A fun morning on a beautiful fall day. We felt like a college student again!

Fall has arrived on campus!

We also continued our search for a new recliner by stopping at the Lazy Boy Recliner Store. Unfortunately, we found out that Lazy Boy does not make a “wall hugger” recliner that swivels. You have to get a “rocker-recliner” if you want it to swivel, and that eliminates the “wall hugger” feature. That's too much space required for placement in a motor home.

We decided to return to Lambright's Comfort Chairs to re-examine the Amish custom built chairs. This satisfied all our requirements.....swivel, wall-hugger, recliner, and only twenty-six inches wide. We originally felt they were a little expensive, but after comparative shopping they were less expensive than other new chairs. We now own a new recliner! The back comes off easily making it fit comfortably in our hatchback Honda CRV and easily fit through the door of the motor home.

It especially made it nice for Marsha to help Paul carry it in the doorway. Looks great by our computer desk.

Paul relaxing.

Paul REALLY relaxing. This is a real picture…not a simulation!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!