Michigan plays at Northwestern - January 3rd

We are a month behind again but right after New Year's on Thursday January 3rd, Brady went to his first big ten basketball game.  Michigan was playing right up the road from us at Northwestern, so Charlie couldn't resist and wanted to take Brady to his first basketball game.  Luckily Brady got a warm snow suit for Christmas from Grandma Leslie because he definitely needed it that evening.  Once Charlie got home from work, we drove up to Evanston which was quite the debacle because we learned 3 things:  (1) there is no easy way to get to Evanston from Lakeview, only small side streets (2) an 8 mile drive takes way longer than you think at 5:30 on a Thursday in Chicago and (3) there is very little or at least hard to find parking at Northwestern's basketball arena.

After all this, we finally got parked at 6:20 (the game started at 6pm).  Northwestern's basketball arena is quite small compared to what we were used to at OSU.  It seemed closer in size to a big high school arena than a Big 10 arena - but it has a lot of character.  And, it felt like we were at a Michigan home game rather than a Northwestern home game.  Michigan has a lot of alumni and fans in Chicagoland because it was probably 80% filled with Michigan fans.  And I guess Michigan being ranked #2 in the Nation at the time probably helped their numbers.

Once we got to our seats, it was pretty much standing room only, and our seats were at the very top.  So we just squeezed in at the back of the stands.  Brady was mesmerized by all the people and sounds and Charlie was equally mesmerized by being amongst so many Michigan fans.

Living in Columbus for so long, he had forgotten what it was like to go to a game not in enemy territory.  Keep in mind that Katie is writing this post...so the specifics on the game might be a little lacking.  I'm not quite sure if Michigan proved their #2 ranking or if Northwestern was just not that good, but the Wolverines won 94-66.  Charlie seemed happy with the victory though and introducing his son to the Maize and Blue.  And of course all the Michigan gear that Grandma and Grandpa Mowry have gotten him got put to really good use.