Basilica of the Sacred Heart and the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes

 

After leaving the game, visiting touchdown Jesus, and a quick stop at the bookstore, we headed to the other side of campus to visit the church. I'm borrowing a photo from Google to show the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and the Golden Dome since it was dark by the time we made it over there.

 

 The famous Golden Dome sits atop the Main Building and is the centerpiece of Notre Dame's campus. When originally built, it was where students learned, ate meals, and resided. Now, it serves primarily as the headquarters for the Notre Dame administration. It was built in 1879 when the previous building was destroyed by fire. This is actually the third structure on this site.

Regilded in 2005, the Golden Dome was first added to the building in 1882. Impressively, the regilding processes uses only about a fist-full of gold leaf to cover the entire structure. Atop the Dome, you will find a 19-foot tall statue of Mary. With this adornment, the Main Building is 187 feet tall, making it the second tallest structure on campus after the church.

 

Next door to the Main Building sits the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Construction began on this magnificent, Gothic-inspired structure in 1870. It was later consecrated in 1888. The church itself forms a large, cross-shaped structure. 

A highlight of the church is its stained glass windows. Installed in 1873, these 44 windows give Notre Dame the largest collection of 19th century French stained glass in the world.

 

 In 1992, Pope John Paul II elevated the Church of the Sacred Heart to the status of Basilica.

 

The pictures don't truly show the beauty of this church.

 

Since 2002, Sunday masses from the Basilica have been broadcast nationwide. You can even find them on iTunes.

Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes

I was moved by how spiritual the Grotto felt. The Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes is based on the famed French shrine where the Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette on 18 occasions in 1958. Notre Dame founder Father Edward Sorin reproduced the shrine at one-seventh the size at his new campus.

Made primarily with boulders from surrounding farms, there is a small piece of stone from the original French grotto located in the right-hand side of the shrine directly below the statue of Mary.

Aside from these three areas, the rest of the Notre Dame campus is pretty bland architecturally.

Notre Dame and Navy Band Videos

Here are a few videos from the game.

The Notre Dame band performing their half time show.

Notre Dame band performing the fight song.

Navy band performing their half time show.

Notre Dame Football

What's this? An actual blog post! Trust me, I'm just as surprised as you are! With our move back home to Louisiana only eleven days away, I'm determined to catch up the blog before we leave.

Tony's second favorite football team has always been Notre Dame. I know. Try not to judge him too harshly. Overall, he's a great guy. You just have to let it go and not hold it against him. For this birthday last October, I surprised him with tickets to see Navy play Notre Dame in South Bend. This turned out to be a very busy sports weekend as we watched the Cardinals win the World Series in Game 7 on Friday night at our neighbor Mike's house, woke up very early to drive to South Bend on Saturday, and then returned home for the Saints vs. the Rams in the Edward Jones Dome at noon on Sunday.

It turned out to be a gorgeous day, but we hit torrential rains driving into the city of South Bend. Luckily, we missed a major hail storm by roughly 30 minutes. The car was only 2 months old at that point, so the possibility of hail had Tony stressing out!

Upon entering the stadium, Tony wanted to check out the snack selection. His first pick was this order of bbq nachos.

Prior to the game, we walked through the tailgating area. I was looking forward to this part of the day as we had always heard how great the tailgating scene was at Notre Dame. Living in SEC country, we are clearly spoiled. This was the most boring tailgating I've ever seen. Even Tony was highly disappointed with the atmosphere.

Notre Dame takes the field.

Navy takes the field.

We were talking to the guy next to us and he mentioned that Navy was the only opponent that he doesn't boo. He said that he just couldn't bring himself to boo a team that ran out with the American flag. There's a lot of truth to that! You really can't boo a service academy team.

We had great seats in the lower bowl area.

The stadium was much smaller than I was expecting. Tiniest, most uncomfortable seating that I've ever experienced at a sporting event.

The stadium is in the flight path for the South Bend airport. Throughout the game, we had planes flying overhead.

Tony demonstrating the size of the seats.

We ended up leaving the game with a few minutes left in the 4th quarter. Even inside the stadium, the atmosphere was very subdued. Not at all what we are used to in an SEC stadium!

The famous touchdown Jesus.

Our trip was right around the time that "Tebowing" exploded onto the scene. I begged Tony to let me take a picture of him Tebowing in front of touchdown Jesus, but he wouldn't. 

All in all, I'm glad we went once, but we'll never go back. It was by far the most boring tailgating and football atmosphere that we have ever experienced.

Hermann Wine Trail #2

I am finally getting around to posting the second half of our photos from the Hermann Wine Trail.

This is another family owned winery with beautiful views.

We loved their beautiful views, but didn't have much time to enjoy them.  They were closing soon after we arrived.

Robller Vineyard Winery

Aside from the views of the river at Oak Glenn, this was by far the most beautiful location.  Not long after we arrived, the sun started to set over the Missouri countryside.  It was stunning.

Mardi Gras Time!

When I decided that I wanted use deco mesh around our door, I never realized what I would have to go through to find it!  In Louisiana, every store has deco mesh.  Even Wal-Mart and Sam's carry rolls of it.  After calling and visiting over a dozen stores, I found it!  I've given up on finding large Mardi Gras ornaments to complete the look, so this will have to work for this year. 

I have some extra gold and green deco mesh, so we may add some swags down the stairs.

We had to move our favorite wreath to the second front door since our door is too small for it and the deco mesh wrap.

A Mardi Gras flag on the third floor completes the decor.

Sugar modeling his Mardi Gras style!

Christmas Baking

 

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a fan of the kitchen area.  Thanks to Pinterest, I have been feeling the urge to try new things in the kitchen.  Tony is very worried about this new found interest!

Thanks to some really adorable Christmas cookies that I pinned, I decided to try to make my own.  This is my first attempt at Christmas baking on my own.  My prior attempts with Nancy and Chelsea ended in complete failure.  Did you know that you aren't supposed to eat fudge with a spoon?

 

I learned something from this experience.  Cutting the cookies out is the easy part.  Getting them off the initial surface and onto the cookie sheet is the tough part!  I had to roll out many cookies and try again!  Also, the bell was one of my favorite shapes when I first cut it out.  Not so cute after baking!  Tony turned it into a gift box for me.

 

Tony helped with the decorating.  He wasn't thrilled about it, but he's definitely better at that sort of thing than I am.

 

Guess which star/snowflake is Tony decorated.  Yes, it is the pretty one.  I did the others though!

 

In addition to the gingerbread and sugar cookies, I also made some cake balls.   For LSU vs. Bama Part One, I made purple and yellow ones which were delicious!  This time, I forgot to add the dye to the cake batter.  It wasn't until the cake came out of the oven that I remembered.  Oops.  Tony suggested dying the cream cheese instead of to give it the coloring.  It worked, but they weren't as good as the first time.  They also didn't stay together as well, and I had trouble getting the white chocolate to stick.  I will definitely remember the dye next time!

 

Thanks to Pinterest, I learned that if you turn a gingerbread man upside down, you have a reindeer!  These were really fun to make since there are so many options!

 

Since it is just the two of us at home, I packed up all of the cookies and cake balls and brought them to work to share.

Hermann Wine Trail #1

On a beautiful fall Sunday afternoon in October, we decided to do a bit more exploring in the Hermann, Missouri area.  Hermann is right in the heart of Missouri wine country, and October is supposed to be its most glorious month.  The plan was to visit all of the wineries on the Hermman Wine Trail.



Our first stop was at the Adam Puchta Winery.  Tucked away on the original homestead of Adam Puchta and on the banks of Frene Creek, this is the oldest family farm winery in Missouri.  The same family has continously owned it since 1855. 

Adam Puchta emigrated to the United States from Bovaria.  Upon arriving in Missouri, the family settled on a 40-acre tract of land adjacent to the winery.  He later expanded the family homestead in 1849 to include the 40-acres that currently make up the winery.

Once Adam returned to Hermann following a gold-seeking trip to California, he purchaed the beautiful 40-acres from his father.  He began clearning land for crops and vineyards, and in 1855  produced his first wine using wild grapes and grapes from his father's vineyard.  This first production of Adam Puchta establishes the genesis of the winery.

Today, Adam Puchta Winery has a production capacity of 62,000 gallons.  That is a lot of wine!  They have won many awards where in Missouri, as well as nationally and internationally.

While there, I sampled four of their wines.  The semi sweet Adam's Choice and Vignoles, as well as the Riefenstahler and Jazz Berry from the sweet/fruit wines.  I didn't like either of the sweet wines that I tried, they were both way too sweet.  The Riefenstahler tasted like I was drinking jelly.  The Vignoles was probably my favorite.  It's a semi-sweet white wine with peach, strawberry, and kiwi fruit, and finishes with a citrus taste. 

Our next stop was to the Stone Hill Winery.  We had been before, but wanted to take a tour of the underground cellars.  Unfortunately, the electricity was out at the property.  Since you couldn't do anything, we quickly moved on.

Here is our previous post regarding Stone Hill - http://theseviers.blogspot.com/2011/10/as-you-may-have-noticed-i-traveled-for.html

The next stop was Hermannhof.  Based on the websites, this was the one that  Iwas most looking forward to as it showed a beautiful, sweeping view of the Missouri River Valley.  I have no idea where they took those photos from because this winery is actually located in downtown Hermann, right next to the train station.

While there, I elected to try four of their wines.  Vidal Blanc (Dry White), Chambourin Vin-Gris (Dry Rose), White Lady of Starkenburg (Semi-Dry White), and the Vignoles (Semi-Sweet) were my selections.  Of those, the White Lady was my favorite.  I am actually a little disappointed that I didn't pick up a bottle.  It is a German Riesling with citrus and green apple.  Definitely a great spring/summer wine.

Patio area for Hermannhof

In 1974, Hermannhof Cellars were purchased by the Dierberg family.  The Dierberg father had opened a small grocery store.  One of his sons took over the grocery store and has now grown it into a very large chain throughout the Midwest, while the other decided to make wine for a living.  In addition to Hermannhof, he also owns three vineyards in California.  I would say that he is doing pretty well for himself!    Three Saints Vineyard, Dierberg Vineyard, and Star Lane Vineyard are the three located in California.  Recently, they have opened up a small tasting room for the three right next door to Hermannhof.  These were by far the best wines that we tasted all day.  While others were good, the three from California were in a completely different class from the other vineyards that we tried.  If you ever see these on a shelf, do yourself a favor and pick one up.  I'm not a red fan, but Tony and Jean raved over the taste of their Pinot Noir.

OakGlenn Winery was next on our trail.  Once owned by internationally renowned horticulturist George Husmann, a founding father of the American wine industry, this winery has by far the best views.  Husmann also served in the Civil War, served as a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention, and drafted "An Ordinance Abolishing Slavery in Missouri," the first to be enacted in the United States.

Outdoor deck area takes advantage of the views.  They had a great musician playing while we were there.  We stayed much longer than planned because we were enjoying listening to him play.

Sitting high on the Missouri River bluff, OakGlenn Winery commands a spectacular view of the river valley and vineyards.  Unfortunately, their wines are awful.  These were by far some of the worst wines that I have ever tasted.  After tasting five of them, we gave up and just bought bottles of water to drink outside while we enjoyed the views and the music.

That's long enough for now!  I will cover the additional wineries on the trail in a future post.