Stanford- USC Game

Last weekend was exciting for several reasons. My dad was visiting from Kansas for the first time since we've lived out here and was coming to the Stanford USC football game. I'd been looking forward to tailgating with him and spending a little quality time with him.

He was a big help in setting up for the tailgate. We had to get out there early and even then there were already USC fans taking our usual spot in the lot.


For awhile only a few people were around, and it was actually kind of nice to be able to relax for bit before tons of others started showing up.
We had to teach Chuck how to play our games including beer pong and flip cup. I was on his team for the first round of beer pong and we lost, but after that he teamed up with our friend Brian and they won a few rounds.
Not too bad for an old guy and his first time playing!
Later on we tried out a new game called 'Lance Armstrong'. It is a combination game of flip cup and beer pong. I was excited to try out the new game and it was a blast. It was fast paced, involved a lot of people and was overall just really really fun. Dad took up flip cup very quickly and helped lead our team to victory.

Here is the first ever Chemistry Department Tailgate Lance Armstrong Champions.
I also enjoyed being able to introduce my Dad to a lot of our friends and I think all my friends enjoyed it too. He was such a good sport and was really involved in all the games and it made the tailgate a blast.
Later on Kevin was playing against my dad on a different 'Lance Armstrong' team. Kevin's team was behind so they decided to kick Pete off of their team and asked me to join. After that we picked up speed and came back to win the whole thing. Chuck tried to call 'illegal substitution', but the original call stood and the victory was ours.
It was another great turnout which we expected since this particular tailgate was funded by the Chemistry Department. We really appreciated the ability to purchase extra goodies and have some stuff leftover for the next home game.
Finally we headed in for the game and I can't even describe how intense it was. It was a shootout with very little defense from either team. USC scored a touchdown to take a one point lead with a little over a minute left in the game. (Stanford's kicker hooked an extra point earlier in the game). Stanford pushed down the field to score a field goal at the very end to win the game 37-35. It was incredible and we were so pumped.
Even though it wasn't a ranked team that Stanford beat, everyone was so excited that people started rushing the field. It looked like so much fun that we headed out there too. Sarah got my dad to come out on the field and I think he was glad he did.
I got up on Kevin's shoulders and he pushed us through the crowd towards the players. Later on my friend Moria who was out of town but watching the game told me she saw me on television! She recognized my ponytail and when I turned my head she confirmed it was me. We went back and watched it from our recording later.

I couldn't have asked for a better game to bring my Dad to for his first time visiting us. We were exhausted by the end of the night though and crashed pretty early. That was fine with us since we were heading to Napa the next day.

I'll try to get the rest of the pictures up from Dad's weekend soon. Things have just been insanely hectic and it might take me a bit.