Sheri's aunt, uncle, and two cousins from Birmingham, Alabama are visiting for almost a week. They have a hotel room just south-east of the Loop. Because of the visit Sheri's mom made the drive here from Ohio for a mini family reunion. She is staying with us.

This morning the B'hamers drove out to our house and then we all piled into our van and drove to South Bend, Indiana. Uncle Frank is a HUGE college football fan and wanted to go through the College Football Hall of Fame.

We left our house around 11:30 AM and got to the Hall of Fame around 2:00 PM. We spent a little over an hour walking through the HoF. It was pretty neat. Everybody that is inducted gets a little one foot by one foot tile with the image of their face molded into it. There seemed to be thousands of these tiles throughout the place. I found Woody Hayes' tile.

After that we walked down the street to BW3's for lunch. We piled back into the van and drove north two miles to the Notre Dame campus. We parked in the bookstore parking lot, and then went to the bookstore. Sheri and I bought all of the Notre Dame t-shirts we will probably ever need when we stopped by on our last visit to Toledo, so we sat in the coffee shop and split an iced coffee and a cookie. The rest of the crew picked up all of the Notre Dame t-shirts they will need for the rest of their lives. I asked the girl behind the coffee counter what the average tuition is. She said about $32,000 per year.

Then, at 4:45 PM, we walked in the pouring down rain to The Basilica of the Sacred Heart for the 5:00 PM mass. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Before driving back home we drove past the Touchdown Jesus.

We got back home around 9:00 PM. Sheri called in an order for a couple of pizzas from Lou Malnati's. The B'hamers raved about them. We got a pepperoni pie and a Lou. (spinach, garlic mushrooms, and slices of roma tomatoes on top. No sauce. Mozzarella and cheddar. My favorite.)

We ate, chit chatted, watched Mad TV and Saturday Night Live. They left to go back to their hotel in Chicago around 11:15 PM. They all looked exhausted.

I think the plan is they are going to do some things in Chicago in the morning and then drive out here again in the afternoon.