A stroll down memory lane...

Last Friday we got up extremely early (for us - some of our friends, and you know who you are, are up this early all the time) and headed out on a road trip to visit our alma mater. It was where 'J' and I met (during our first week on campus), subsequently fell in love and four years later got engaged. Needless to say, the campus will always hold a special place in our hearts and we have many fond memories of our time there.

There has been and continues to be a lot of construction going on and there were several new buildings since the last time we visited two years ago. In addition the student union building was celebrating it's grand re-opening after a major renovation that lasted a couple of years. It looks great and has a much more contemporary feel on the interior than the outdated facility that we were used to. In fact, so much had changed that we had trouble remembering how it used to be and how the space was occupied before.


We walked all across campus and pointed out various buildings of interest to the Girl, such as the dorms in which we lived our freshman and sophomore years, the spot where 'J' proposed to me, etc. She was very unimpressed by it all and her mind was only on the ice cream cone that we had promised from Ferdinand's which is an ice cream parlor on campus that makes it's own ice cream (which is extremely yummy) as well as the famous Cougar Gold Cheese.

We walked through the lobby of the architecture building (pictured in the background of the top photo posted here), where I spent more time than any other building on campus including my dorm. In fact it was pretty much my home during my final semester, I had an air mattress, pillow and blanket set up under my desk in studio and toward the end of the semester only ever ran home to shower and change clothes. Anyhow, I was surprised to find a familiar model in the lobby, one that my classmates and I had built in
4th year. It was still mostly intact, just covered by 8 years
worth of dust.

We also ran into the school mascot, Butch, by chance and had the perfect opportunity for a family photo with him if it hadn't been for the Girl who pointed at him and screamed, "No!" as he was approaching us with a friendly wave. Ha, ha! I guess she's not big on life-sized furry creatures that walk upright.