So this weekend was one of the best I have had all year, and the kicker is, I spent it with my parents! You are probably wondering how spending a weekend with your parents at college could be any fun, but trust me, I had a blast.
The reason my parents were here was because it was Parent’s Weekend, and they were finally able to come after they had unfortunately been unable to make it the last two years because of scheduling conflicts. Let me tell you, when you live 2000 miles away, a lot has to go right with schedules to make a trip like this one work out.
With that being said, my parents drove up from their week in Hilton Head on Friday afternoon. I met them at the Marriot on the corner of Assembly and Blossom Streets. From there, we walked around a bit, checked out some housing possibilities for next year, and then it was time for some golf!
We took my car up and met Brad in the parking lot of Desaussure, my Horseshoe apartment, and drove over the Northwoods Golf course to play nine holes (see my previous entry “A Diamond in the Rough” for details on the golf course itself if you are at all interested). On the drive over, the sky threatened rain, and we even got a few sprinkles, but lucky for us, the rain clouds went away, and we were treated to a cool, pleasant round of golf. Now when I say the term “pleasant,” it can be taken many ways. We all had a great time, yes, but my score was far from “pleasant”. It wasn’t about how “good” the “scores” were on this day, it was just about being able to play some golf with my parents and Brad and to enjoy the time together.
After golf, we were treated to all you can eat barbecue at the now infamous “Palmetto Pig”. I don’t know if I have ever heard my dad rave about a restaurant as much as he did about the “Pig.” I guess that 2000 mile trip was worth it after all? After dinner, Brad went his separate way for the night, and I took my parents back to the hotel to get ready for the Parents Weekend “Beach Bash” at the Strom.
The Beach Bash was just one of several events put on for Parent’s Weekend, and it was definitely a fun time. Over at Strom, there was a DJ spinning some fun Carolina tunes while we had a chance to meet other students and their parents on a fine Columbia evening by the pool. We made it an early night because Saturday was to be a big day, starting early and “going long” (perhaps an illusion to the football game?).
Saturday, it was time to rise and shine bright and early for some tailgating before a 12:30 game against Vanderbilt. I picked my parents up from the hotel, and fought traffic down to find a parking spot about 10 minutes from Williams Brice Stadium. It was quite an experience to see my parents take in their first Carolina football “moment” as they saw the masses of people tailgating around the stadium and spreading out all over the place.
On this day, there would be multiple tailgating for us. First up was the special Parent’s Weekend tailgate. Complete with tables of traditional Southern Cookin’ along with the Marching Band to give a special performance, just for the parents. From this student’s perspective, USC put on a fantastic program for the parents to enjoy.
With the parents tailgate under our belts (and pushing against it after that spread!), we walked over to the Farmers Market, where I normally tailgate, and met up with the whole crew. Most of them had met my parents before, so it was a nice reunion for both parties. I must admit that I was just as excited to show off my parents as they were to see all of my friends.
Our tailgate for this week may have been the top of the year, considering we had the most people, the most and best food yet, not to mention getting to share the experience with my parents. The tailgate was over though, as it was time to make our trek into the stadium for the game.
The game itself, I won’t talk about too much, as it didn’t go that “great” you could say. I will say that regardless of the outcome, my parents had an absolute blast taking in their first USC football game: from the atmosphere, to the packed stadium, all the way down to “2001” and the entrance of the football team. On top of that, you could not have asked for a more perfect day weather-wise with nary a cloud in the sky.
After 60 minutes of pretty rough football, the game was over, I was tired, and so were the parents. After a few goodbyes at our spot in the farmers market, it was time to take them back to the hotel to start to pack it up for the 6:30 AM flight Sunday morning. We all agreed, as we ate a dinner of Pop’s Pizza, that we could not have asked for a better weekend, and that while they were sad to go, they sure did enjoy all the time they got to spend here with me and my friends at USC.
The ending of this weekend came Sunday morning, as I took them the 15 minutes out to the airport, dropped them off, and was unfortunately caused to have an abrupt goodbye thanks to an overzealous airport police officer who gave me the lovely parting gift of a parking ticket. It was well worth the price though, to get to see my parents.
I can only hope that I they will get to make it out for another week here in the future, but until then, I can fondly look back at how much fun I had with, and how lucky I am to have such great parents!
Until next time, take care!