It's Autumn - It's Football Season

The leaves are starting to change colors.

So it must be time for football.

Once again we have season tickets

for the Indiana University home football games.

We arrived early and found a spot for our tailgate.

This is a true tailgate.


A couple of years ago when we were looking

at getting a new Honda™

(is there any other kind of car?)
the Foodie Daughter

suggested getting a CR-V,

not only for hauling gardening stuff,

but also for the tailgate possibilities.

I staked out my spot in the back of the car.


Next time I'm borrowing the cushion

from the bench on the front porch.

The Foodie Daughter and my husband

had their spots

around the cooler/coffee table.

Cheese ball and crackers,

BBQ bacon Krab bites

with barbecue sauce

and drinks

provide a nice repast

while we wait for the game to begin.

Photo op.

Some serious tailgating is going on here.

The lobby of the new Cook Hall is open to the public today.






Bill and Gayle Cook donated the money

to help build Cook Hall,

which houses the headquarters

for the men's and women's basketball

programs.

The lobby serves as a museum of sorts

to the history of Indiana University basketball.

The IU men's basketball team

has won championships in 1976.

1981

1987

1940

and in 1953.

And now it's time to go to the game.

I mentioned that we have season tickets.

But this time we were not using them.

This time we had been invited to one

of the private suites.


This game we were to be guests of

Smithville Telephone.

After getting our passes,

we waited for the elevator to take us to the 6th floor.

The view out the window from the 6th level.

The Marching Hundred take the field before the game.


Assembly Hall is visible over the opposite stands.

And they can spell!

Fireworks before the game.

The stands are filling up - a bit.

Our usual seats are down there on about

the 50-yard line.

Row 17.

Awesome view.

Lovely view and the new scoreboard.

Besides salad, breadsticks and pizza,

there was a Belgian waffle bar on the 6th level.

Sweet suite food.

It was band day.

Several high school bands had been invited.

Interestingly,

the two bands from the Bloomington schools

do not come to this event.

Now the Marching Hundred are spelling in cursive.

I think they need to work on this a bit more.

Their n's and a's look like h's and d's.

The game is over.

IU won over Akron, 35-20.

As IU was ahead,

many left the game early.

Many thanks to our gracious hosts

and friends at Smithville Telephone

for allowing us this unique opportunity.

And please hurry with our new fiber optic service!

Cook Hall at night.

The Philadelphia Trip -

The Food Part II: Lunches

If there was any meal that was

a bit redundant on this trip,

it was lunch.

But that was entirely by my own choosing.

I was trying to be good.

It seems that I had a hankering for salads.

First up was the pre-packaged salad at

Longwood Gardens.

This was a salad of garden greens with

peppers and mushrooms

with a vinaigrette.

It was a salad.

Nothing special.

Certainly not worth the $8.00

I had to pay for it.

I did find it interesting that the water bottle

was compostable.

Next up was the salad from the Winterthur Cafe.

Here I was able to pick and choose from the salad bar.

Even with marinated beef, watermelon,

honeydew melon, croutons and cheese,

this still was less than $8.

This salad was by far the best lunch I had

had our entire trip.

Kudos to Winterthur for making lunch right.

Look, I even had a lovely view to go with my lovely salad.

Later that day,

and even though I didn't need the food,

I headed over to the Reading Terminal Market.

I realized that since I was on the East Coast,

I had to have an East Coast hot dog.

After doing a bit of shopping at the market,

I got my hot dog.

I was even good and refrained from putting catsup on it.

Sorry, I'm a heathen that way.

I love this place.

And now for the winner of the absolutely, positively

worst lunch I had while we were on our trip.

*Drum roll, please.*

Dramatic Announcer Voice:

"The Gettysburg National Military Park

wins the dubious distinction of having the worst

lunch this Foodie had while on her Philly trip.

Tell them what they have won, Johnny."

Ahem, my name is Marilyn.

And they've won the uncoveted

"Our Food Majorly Sucks" Award.

Me thinks they need to talk to Winterthur

to learn how to do it right.

I ordered the tuna salad over lettuce.

The tuna salad was flavorless and dry.

The salad was bland.

Put them together and you get yech.

And with a water this meal cost me over $10.


Yep, majorly blech.

Oh, and did I mention the communal tables?

On our way home on Thursday,

we stopped at Cabela's Sporting Goods Store

in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Apparently,

it was thought that this would be a good

place to eat lunch.

At least the menu here was unique.

I ordered the wild boar sandwich with fries.

It was definitely of the pig family.

Ham, but wilder and bolder.

My normally culinarily-timid husband

ordered the venison sausage.

Sniff, I'm so proud of him.

Such ambiance.

*Eye roll*

Still,

it was interesting.

And every new experience adds to my soul.