The Navy/Notre Dame Game

Again, we were up and at 'em bright and early. Showered, got ready and headed down to breakfast. After breakfast, Mel picked us up and we headed to the "Navy headquarters" hotel which was right near the stadium. We had gotten tickets for a tailgater that the Alumni association put on. The band, cheerleaders and the Navy Mascot (Bill the Goat) showed up for some pepping up. We got to eat free food and drink free beer while enjoying the entertainment.

Astrix to the food comment I made earlier, the Irish hot dogs were AWFUL. But that might be because they were less like a hot dog and more like a Bratwurst, which I don't enjoy. So, I guess to each his own.

Family at the Tailgate

Me & Bill the Goat

My parents :)

We decided to make our way into the stadium around noon, thinking that march on was at 1pm. (It was actually @ 1:30), so once again we were freakishly early.

Aviva Stadium is really awesome. It's closed in on all sides so the noise level could get pretty loud. I can only imagine the noise level if Virginia Tech played a home game in there ;)

The Stadium

So since we got into the stadium so early, we enjoyed our club level/VIP seats and obviously took lots of pictures.

Uncle John & Jenny

Passing the time by looking at pictures I had already taken

My pretty momma :)

 

It was a "Home" Game for Navy - only a couple thousands of miles away from Annapolis

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me and my dad

Finally it was march on time. Not all the Brigade of Midshipmen (all the students at the Naval Academy came) but enough of them to do a march on came. They are broken up into 'companies' which are effectively little units within the brigade. That's how they march in, with their companies. They turn towards the opponents side of the field, do a little cheer, in this case it was "I-R-I-S-H, go Irish!" and then they tip their hats. They then turn around toward their side of the field and say "N-A-V-Y, Gooooo Navy!"

The Brigade

So the game went well for about 5 minutes, and then it was all down hill from there. I tried to amuse myself by reading this in the program, it was "What is American Football?" The first line says "American football can be very confusing," it then goes onto explain the rules of football. I never really thought about it cause I grew up around football, but I guess there are a lot of rules and confusing things.

 Also what kept me amused? This guy in his green leotard, leather choker and hat. I mean, whaaaa? Also, he might have wanted to get that leotard in a size up...there are things that were seen that can't be unseen :/

After the debacle of a game, we met Mel at the end of the main road, where he had parked the car and he drove us to our new hotel for the night, Clontarf Castle.

Since we were originally supposed to stay there the other 2 nights, but had gotten kicked out due to the Notre Dame football team staying there, we moved all our bags in and then went to the hotel pub for dinner. We watched Rugby on the TV and my dad tried to explain the rules to me, and you thought football was confusing...?

After dinner, we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood that surrounded the hotel. As we were walking out of the hotel, the Notre Dame football team were walking out to their buses to go to dinner. I made my parents stand in front of the door so I could compare myself to the guys to see how massive they were. And they were HUGE. We also watched as some crazy drunk Irish ladies asked to take pictures with the team and were fawning over them, kissing them, etc. I was laughing, but also saved a rather large lineman from getting hit by a car - he had obviously forgot they drive on the other side of the road. I pulled a Dane Cook "You are about to be struck by a motor vehicle!" The guy looked at me, smiled and then looked at the size of the car. It was a typical small European one. My dad was like "I think you would've broken the car." He smiled and was like "Probably."

Dad and I in front of the entrance to the Hotel

After that encounter, we made our way through the neighborhood, hoping to hit the "main" street. We actually turned around cause it didn't look like it was going to happen. But a couple walking by told us "You look lost" and then gave us directions to the main street.

Walking through the neighborhood

 As we were walking, we noticed the team buses leaving the hotel. This is my dad, flicking off the team buses. You know, where the 6'7" 350 lb man couldn't see him doing it ;)

That was our last night in Dublin. The next morning, it was rise & shine time for a driving tour of Ireland while on our way to our next destination.