Why would anyone want to leave the Coug on Homecoming?

And we're back from three days of straight drinking. I must have assumed I was a freshman in college. I think I am finally drying out a bit. I feel for anyone who has the Coug game this weekend in Seattle.

We got into Madison on Friday afternoon, checked in to our hotel across from the capital and started touring around. We walked down State street to check out the stores, find a Starbucks and discover potential watering holes for the evening. What we found? Rude Wisconsin fans. "Why did you even come here" "Is that for Washington State?" "You guys suck" and our favorite, "Are you actually from Washington State?" I think Mary said it the best - "What gave it away?" (We were all in Wazzu stuff, all weekend). So, note to anyone thinking of travelling to Madison, you will find very unwelcome arms. We did however find State Street Brats which looked like the Coug after a football game. Somehow Coug fans had taken over the bar and we received full-on applause's when we walked by, so we did it twice. On our way back we actually stopped in for a beer. The rest of our crew met up with us Friday night, we had dinner, and went directly back to State Street Brats to enjoy fighting for bartenders to notice us and waiting in line to get back outside. Ah, college.

Saturday morning we were up, got breakfast and headed to the Stadium Bar across the street from Camp Randall. It was a little warm and we were standing in mud, but, they had beer. We got to the game a little before kick-off to find we were in the front row, behind the Cougs, on the 40-yard-line. HOOKED UP. We have only to thank Lindsay's connection of alumns for getting us our same seats in Martin Stadium, minus the annoying Pi Phi's. The game was electric and the entire stadium (that seats 80,000+) were silent until the end of the first half, when things took a turn for the worse. We enjoyed the game, minus a few questionable calls and like most Cougar football games, wished it would have ended in the first half.

After the game we headed to Regent Street Retreat where we continued our depressed-drinking. Then we started seeing scores for Michigan and Notre Dame, and things seemed to get better. From there we headed back to State Street Brats to get cheese curds, meet up with a few AXO's and then headed to the Tree Bar. I have no idea the name of it, but there was a live tree in the middle that was filled with dust. Our bartender was a Husky. It was a fun night.

Sunday, we drove back to Chicago, only to resume crazy-drinking night #3 for my non-bachelorette, bachelorette party. There was a Wazzu theme and plenty of embarrassing photos for everyone to see, thanks to my Mom and Andrea. I like to forget the days of the bowl-cut as a child and the boy-hair in college but it seems those were the favorites. Steve refers to it as the "dark time." I decided I was too full for beer, started drinking wine, and switched to champagne when we moved inside. They did a quiz and I got to hear everyone's favorite Wohn-story which was by far, my FAVORITE part of the night. Funny the things people remember about you. Most embarrassing, some were sentimental and the champagne kept going, even through a power outage (thank god for the light-up rings). We headed to the bar, I lost my ID on the way, came home upset (my ID is still gone), ran face first into the kitchen cabinets and was put to bed my fiancee who said he's never seen me like that. All in a night. Maybe I should have just stuck with beer.

Here are some pictures, hopefully they entertain you. One of the most fun weekends I can remember ..

Walking around Madison, this is where their Student Union is ...