Our Notre Dame adventure is about to come to a close. The day this is published, we will be in South Bend for Teddy’s graduation, and I’m sure there will be stories and adventures to share!
But before that, let’s go back to last February, to Junior Parents’ Weekend, which for some reason I did not write up at the time.
Many colleges have special weekends each year for families. Spring Hill did, and I attended four Family Weekends, bringing along various family members each time. Because Emily did not have a car and we had to pick her up for every vacation, our visits to Mobile were quite frequent, and we grew very familiar with and fond of the city.
Our Notre Dame experience has been different. In contrast to the over 20 times one or the other of both of us drove back and forth to Mobile, we’ve been to Notre Dame maybe six times.
So JPW was a big deal. It started off rockily, as we were a little late to the big dinner gathering Teddy’s friends and their families–three tables full of them, with Italian food served family style.
Afterwards, we headed to the Joyce Center for the Opening Gala, but we only milled around there for a bit because we were tired.
The next morning we attended the Open House at the Business School (Teddy has double-majored in Political Science and Finance).
We spent the rest of the day walking around campus and seeing sights.
We’ve visited Notre Dame in summer, fall, and spring, and for this winter visit I was hoping to see some snow, but I suppose I should be grateful that it was unseasonably mild as you can see.
Notre Dame boasts its own art museum, the Snite Museum of Art. We thought we were going in for a quick look but remained for some time, impressed by the size and quality of the collection.
Of course, I couldn’t pass up the chance to walk around one of the lakes with Teddy.
There’s no such thing as a special weekend at a Catholic college without a special Mass, so next we headed back to the Joyce Center for Saturday evening services.
Then it was just a short trip to another area of the building for the President’s Dinner. Check out the Irish detailing on the dessert below!
The REAL fun happened after the dinner and the speeches, when Teddy and a group of his friends hosted a party for us at one of their off-campus residences. Some of dads in particular had a lot of fun reliving their misspent youths. There was certainly much alcohol, and beer pong was played, but what I enjoyed much was talking to Teddy’s friends and renewing friendship with some of the moms I had met on my last visit.
It was a LATE night, and then there was brunch in the morning followed by the long drive home. I can’t believe that it was more than a year ago already, but what is even more unbelievable is that Teddy’s four years at Notre Dame have gone by so quickly.
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