Labor Day

Are you ready for some football?!?!?!

This Labor Day I tackled my labor du jour -- mowing the grass -- before the fun. And I do mean F-U-N!

You may have seen it on ESPN (or maybe not) but Maryland played Navy today for the first time in five years. It was quite a spectacle! So as not to give either team an unfair field advantage, the game was played at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. Normally, it is home to the Ravens so there was a multitude of purple present. Heck, even the soap in the bathrooms was purple! Purple carpets. Purple seats. Purple printed menus. Purple banners. Purple signs. Did I mention purple soap? Purple, purple, purple!

Oops. I got sidetracked by the purple. Where was I? Oh, yeah...

It was an utterly gorgeous day in Baltimore. 80 degrees with very low humidity -- almost unheard of in these here parts!

 Terps warming up and the stands starting to fill.

The 30 companies that make up the Brigade of Midshipmen take the field for the National Anthem. They spanned the ENTIRE field. It was quite a spectacle. 

The Navy band was the last to arrive -- you can see them coming on to the field in the far right -- and they filled-in the end zone.

Terp fans decked in red in the purple seats, with the Brigade still on the field. See them on the jumbo-tron?

Bet you were starting to think we were just there for the pomp and circumstance and not really the game, huh? The game was actually really good. The basketball players were .... what? ... they weren't playing basketball? ... Hee hee! Got you! I totally knew they were playing rugby. :-)

Seriously. The FOOTBALL game was good. Lots of action, some good fumbles and not-so-good plays, and the right amount of Maryland scoring for us to leave as very happy campers. I took the picture above from our seats which were awesome -- first row of the second level, and right on the 45 yard line. Scha-weet!

 The Mighty Sound of Maryland takes the field at half-time for their usual pre-game show. Although the timing was a little backwards -- pre-game at halftime -- the band sounded and looked good for their first appearance of the season. The mega huge Maryland flag is always my favorite part of the show so I just HAD to get a picture. Heck, I get a picture of the flag EVERY time so don't be shocked if it makes an encore appearance some time this season. Hee hee!

Final score: 14-17 Maryland! Yay!

Up next: back to school and work. Boo!