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A Trip Up North to South Bend

I didn't want to leave Indiana without visiting Notre Dame up in South Bend (although, Tom informed me this morning that Notre Dame is actually in the city/town of Notre Dame and not South Bend after all, but we enjoyed our visit nonetheless). So Cristen and I dropped my car off at the shop to get the tail light and horn fixed. I decided five pull-overs (three in one week!) was enough. I wanted that tail light to work! And I figured I might as well have them fix my horn at the same time since it barely squeaks and only every once in a while. I gave the fellas at B&M Electronics my keys and off we went.

We drove up through some small towns with great signs, like this one for Whirlwind Ministries:

And after about 2 hours, we found ourselves in Michigan. We had overshot the mark. The plan was to stop by a Frank Lloyd Wright house in South Bend and then another between the first one and Notre Dame and then visit the campus. It would've worked so perfectly, but it still worked out well, just in reverse.

Here's what I knew about Notre Dame before visiting:

1. Rudy
2. Regis went there
3. They have a gold dome
4. Fightin' Irish
5. Lisa Bentley (who played the viola with me in junior high and high school) went there.
6. There's a Jesus that looks like he's making the sign for a touchdown!

We stopped off at the first building we saw to visit the little girl's room. As we walked inside, I wondered if there was a Regis Philbin building on campus. Lo and Behold, we had walked right into the Regis Philbin Studio Theater!

It was pretty nice, too. I thought it was a church from the outside. See what I mean?

Afterwards, we headed toward the stadium to visit "Touchdown Jesus." Did you know Notre Dame Football is so famous that they have a little museum dedicated to the Legends of Notre Dame Football?

We were going to visit it to see if they had an exhibit about Rudy, but it was closed. We walked around the stadium looking for Touchdown Jesus and tried to imagine what it would've been like to hear the crowd chanting Rudy's name.

We walked around the corner, and I found out that Touchdown Jesus isn't a sculpture after all, but a painting on a building. I admit, I was disappointed in him. I had pictured a freestanding Christus along the lines of Rio De Janiero or at least the Lady of the Rockies in Butte, Montana. Still, he was impressive.

Something really strange about Notre Dame that I'm just not used to after going to Purdue is that they actually have buildings for the ARTS!! I didn't see one engineering building, not one! Instead, they have a REAL museum, not just a little gallery in the Stewart Center. It was closed (because Monday), but still, it was nice to have it there.

They even have sculptures around campus!

And a real quad!

You can tell, I really liked the campus. I guess it helped that it was the perfect sunny, warm day. We walked over to the gold dome and the Basilica of the Sacred Heart just as the bells rung out for mass and a swarm of bees (ok, students dressed in yellow and black) came out of the building and posed for pictures.

Here's some evidence of Notre Dame pride. Reminded me of BYU and golden helmet stickers. ;)

Here's the Basilica:

I really liked the doors.

They had this nice little relief of a soldier's head, among others. I overheard a tour guide telling people that the doors were built after World War I.

Behind the gold dome and the basilica is a beautiful little park with a pond (including swans and ducks!) and a grotto.

This kids were so cute. They knew right away that the grotto was sacred ground and became soft and quiet as they got closer, and the little girl in the red dress put her finger up to her mouth. They made me smile. These tulips also made me smile. I loved how they looked in the sunlight.

Our last stop on Notre Dame's campus was to the bookstore to pick up a Fightin' Irish t-shirt. Even the bookstore looks like a church there. The store directory has an uncanny resemblance to the tablets upon which God carved the ten commandments.

Cristen and I ate lunch at the Chocolate Cafe in downtown South Bend, which is right across from the College Football Hall of Fame!

We didn't go.

Instead, we went in search of Frank's houses and snapped a few pictures of downtown along the way.

Did you know that Cellar Door is supposed to be the most beautiful phrase ever? I learned that from Donnie Darko. And here it is, in South Bend, Indiana.

We could tell the FLW house immediately. I can't imagine what it would be like to live in an FLW house and have people always driving by to look at it. It's no wonder they had the shades pulled. When we got there, another man was walking around with a camera taking pictures, too.

The other house was on the south side of town, so we had to go through the fast food and chain store district to get there. I'm embarrassed to admit how long it took me to get this billboard.

Smart tires? Brain tires? oooh yeah... bald tires!

Here's the other house:

And yes, the same man was spotted across the street wielding his camera. His plates were from Illinois. I wonder if he's on some Frank Lloyd Wright tour. He looked kind of professory, though, so maybe he's writing a paper. Ah, for a second that made me nostalgic about my old dreams of becoming a professor.