4-H Night With The Tigers

Each year we try to make it to 4-H Night with the Tigers.  It is an LSU football game where they honor 4-Hers.  Benjamin has been a long-time 4-H member and he's in his senior year, so this will be our last one!  They have a big tailgate party behind the Cow Palace with free jambalaya (it was delicious!) and ice cream from the LSU Dairy Store (always a favorite of ours!).  Here is my family in front of the Cow Palace.  "Pistol" Pete Maravich once played basketball in the Cow Palace.

What a nice looking bunch!

We walked down to see Mike the Tiger, but he was sleeping and had no time for pleasant conversation with us.  Too bad.

We watched the football team get off the bus and walk down Victory Hill and then we watched the Golden Band from Tigerland march down.

With 100,000 of our closest friends, yelled as the band played "Hold that Tiger" and got the crowd whipped up into a frenzy.  If you have claustrophobia, this is not the place for you.

As we walked up the ramp to our seats in the nosebleed section, I paused to get a few photos from a different vantage point.  Memorial Tower (the Campanile) is to the east and has scaffolding all around it as they are doing some work on it.

Looking southeast, you can see the copper roof of the Cow Palace in the distance, with the smoke stack at the old sugar mill in the foreground.

Looking due north you can see the Maravich Assembly Center with the Mississippi River Bridge on the horizon.

As the sun makes its home in the western sky, "It's Saturday Night in Death Valley!"  We enjoyed watching the sunset and seeing the mighty Mississippi River from our Upper East seats.  We were way up there!

LSU was playing Rice.  I felt sorry for Rice.  They were 1-10 and were not competitive.  A lot of people knew it wouldn't be much of a game and stayed home.  We still had a great time.

Our seats were only a few rows from the very top!  As the night progressed, it got colder and colder as the winds blew.  I did not bring a jacket or a blanket, even at the urging of my wise wife.

We enjoyed the game, the band, the atmosphere, we sang "Callin' Baton Rouge" and "Louisiana Saturday Night"...

But after halftime,we decided to sneak down and watch the game in the lower section.  We stayed for the third and fourth quarters in the southeast endzone level.  It was much warmer there!

I drove home listening to the post-game show as the rest of the family slept.  It was a good day.  Geaux Tigers!