The Ducks have a perfect season going into the game, 10 and 0. The Beaver Nation hope is to knock them off that pedestal, ruin the perfect season. It would make up for the 5 and 5 season the Beavers have had. Some key players are injured on the Beaver team. It is unlikely that they will win. We will be happy if it isn't a total blow out. Vegas has the over under at 64. That is where the total points are added up. They also anticipate The Ducks scoring more than 45 points.
Tom gave up his excellent seats on the 35 yard line for four seats near the end zone, so the children could come with us.
I booked a hotel in August. Even then I had to hunt. But I got lucky on Hotels.com. One of the hotels had not changed to premium prices for that weekend yet. I got the hotel for $100 less a night than anywhere else. It was a good 50% discount. Two nights for the price of one.
We will drive down separately as Tom has to work and the boys are off due to a grade day for school. Riley had his first finals this week. He had to ask me what finals were. I laughed. It catches me off guard sometimes the things our children don't know.
Now Riley knows. They are really big tests on everything learned in the whole semester, that weigh heavily on your grade. He says he did well on all of them. I have no doubt he did do well.
I bought a pair of jeans at the thrift store. I am now a size ten trending to a size 8. Jeans don't lie. I need to get a few size ten pants. I was told my 14s look really bad on me and are way too big. Yeah!!! I have to wear my 12s with a belt.
Trevor and I went on the walk and knock before we left for Corvallis. We were looking for canned food for the local food bank. It being Friday morning, most people were not home. The kids made a valiant effort. The end result was maybe 30 cans for our particular group. I took Trevor and another boy to the Safeway. I told them to buy $50 worth of cans. Food they would want to eat also. Trevor shared with me a meeting with an adult who, as a child, had been a recipient of gift baskets of food. She said it was really disappointing to receive powdered milk and other ingredients that they didn't normally eat. Her parents probably appreciated the staples, but not the children. With that in mind I told the boys to get things that make a meal or that they like to eat.
The boys loaded up the cart. They did not stick to any budget at all, just grabbing what they liked. When I met up with them again the cart was full. The cashier rang up the bill, $91. He took pity on me and gave me a $10 off coupon, as it was for a good cause. Those boys did not even bother counting to $50 or fifty cans. Trevor knew I would cover the bill. Well, it was a good cause.
We all had fun. The teacher in charge had donuts waiting for us when we got back with our load.
Trevor and I went home after that to get Riley and hit the road. We had still to pack and head out. The laundry was not ready when we got back. Tom had wanted every piece of Beaver apparel washed and ready for us to wear to the game. He will have to swing by the house after work to pick up what he needs.
I am going to head out with the kids early. We are to swing by my sister in laws and pick up our Christmas cards since we pass her city on our way to Corvallis. She took pictures of us a while ago.
We finally reach Corvallis. We are all hungry. Across from the hotel is an all you can eat buffet Chinese restaurant, a perfect choice for everyone. Tom arrives later and orders pizza to be delivered to our room.
You know the old saying "you get what you pay for". We rent a movie, Secretariat. The film is not in High Definition and it roles with lines throughout the showing. Tom calls to the front desk but they can't fix the problem. In the morning, on Saturday, I am the first one up. I take a shower only to feel the water go from hot to warm. I warn everyone still sleeping that they had better get up and shower as the hotel is running out of hot water. Tom grumbles in bed, saying hotels don't run out of hot water. I tell them that everyone staying here is going to the game and they are all getting up and taking showers. The hotel is full. They are running out of hot water. Riley gets up to take his shower. The water is getting cooler. Trevor is next and its getting worse. By the time Tom tries, its a cold shower. He has waited too long.
I, meanwhile, have gone down to the lobby to enjoy a great breakfast of regular pancakes and eggs, included in our room fee. I had a choice of blueberry or regular or chocolate pancakes.
Riley was thrilled with the chocolate pancakes as was Trevor. Tom just wanted coffee.
We leave for the game. We could have caught a shuttle but Tom said he knew good spots to park. But this was a big game. Parking was already hard to find. We ended up parking 10 blocks from the campus on the north side. The stadium was across the campus. People were coming from all directions. Walking towards the campus, we passed homes with cager parties in full swing at 10:30 in the morning.
We checked out the Alumni center where beer and wine were being served. Tom said the cheer leaders and the band would make an appearance. They did show up just before we were about to give up waiting for them and head to our seats in the stadium. We cheered along with all the other alumni.
Our seats in the stadium were in the top tier in the corner. There are really no bad seats at Reser Stadium. We could see the whole field. There is also a giant TV to watch the game, in the end zone. I like to watch the TV because it follows the ball better than I can.
The fly by of two jets felt like they were barely over our heads. They came in from our side of the stadium, seemingly to just appear out of nowhere. We flinched as they flew by they were so close. It was impressive how low they were.
I liked that the stadium was alcohol and smoke free. The security guard in our area had a work out. He would climb the stairs to the top and watch us all from above, trying to spot alcohol that had been snuck in. If he saw someone drinking a beer, he would climb down the stairs all the way down to get a state trooper then climb up again to identify the culprit and have the person escorted from the stadium. He would then have to climb back up again to his station at the top. His first eviction slid down the stairs, already intoxicated before he had arrived. His neighbors had asked for his ejection. The next two ejections were Duck fans in green garb. The Beaver fans booed them as they left, calling out "good riddance". The next ejection was a Beaver. Everyone was silent with no comments. For each ejection that security guard climbed the stadium stairs three times.
I had brought ear plugs and a head set with me to the game much to Tom's consternation. He said I would look geeky. Head sets are for Nascar, not football. I loved to be able to muffle the yells and noise. I felt I could pretend like I was listening to the radio. There was also a gentleman eating peanuts behind us. He was dropping the shells on the ground and on us. It was not intentional, just one of the experiences of going to a live game. I liked the feeling of insulation that the head set gave me. They also kept my ears warm as the temperature dropped during the game. We started out hot and removed our jackets. As the sun moved across the sky and the shade hit our area, we put our jackets back on.
It was a hard fought game. I think we were happy the Beaver stayed in it as long as they did. They had lost some key players during the season. Vegas had them losing big with the over under at 65 points total. The fans stuck with them until the fourth quarter, then from being down two touchdowns down they went to three. There just wasn't time on the clock for a miracle turn around. Tom suggested we leave before the end. I didn't argue. I was along for the ride.
Many people had the same idea of leaving early. There were a lot of unhappy Beavers cussing and swearing. Tom tells me Eugene is worse, but I wouldn't want to be a visiting fan in either city. We were hungry after the game so we headed to Applebees only to find it closed for repairs. We ended up at Ruby Tuesday. The meal was awful. Mine was cold. The food tasted like microwaved dinners. But we were having fun. Tom had a view of the TV in the bar from his seat. They did serve a good cocktail for me.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel. Trevor and I headed down to the hot tub and pool. The pool was unheated but the hot tub was great. You would get so hot that you would jump in the pool to cool off then quickly climb back into the hot tub.
One of the Beaver players was in the hot tub soaking a sprained ankle with his family. Another guest in the hot tub was a player from a decade ago staying at the hotel with his family. He had two small girls with him. Trevor and I headed up to the room after a while. But Trevor got board watching TV and put his pants on to go work out on the weight equipment in the room next to the pool. He was back shortly to put his swim suit back on. He said there were some really hot girls in the hot tub.
Riley throws on an Hawaiian shirt over his black long johns saying he is going to pretend to work out so he can see the hot girls also. Trevor comes back up to tell us two are Beaver cheer leaders. Tom tells Trevor to invite them up. Trevor laughs and ignores his father. I get the feeling the hot girls in the hot tub are the boys high point of the weekend.
I have to work Sunday so I am up early for breakfast and to hit the road to drive straight to work, leaving Tom and the boys asleep in bed. On the way out of town I spot a car pulled off to the side of the road. Two cute girls are standing by the car, one is slumped over vomiting on the grass verge. It made me laugh and smile, remembering how it once was to party that hard, and glad I don't feel that way now. Been there, done that.
It wasn't my dream anniversary weekend of 17 years of marriage. But there have been a few we have had which we have both forgotten entirely the date and done nothing. This was a fun weekend.
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