Loveliest Village

My mom, nieces and I decided to take a quick trip to Auburn to visit. The girls have never been on a 'regular' day so we decided to take them.  We had been told about the amount of construction but it was amazing to see the amount in person.  The first and most obvious upgrades are the renovations of Toomer's Corner and downtown. This is one of the only places where it looks normal. The girls decided they were 'holding up' the War Eagle here. 

The new trees are plugging along. They are small but the wee trees are getting there. I have two live oaks in my backyard. They will grow pretty fast.  There is quite a large amount of construction in 'town' so to get from one place to the other, it takes a little longer. Sidewalks are blocked off, so you can't even walk from one place to the other normally. However, it is to make it look a lot better.  As you can see, there are nice little ironwork fences around the trees. It looks a whole lot better than the parade barricades that were there after the damage. 

One of my favorite places on campus has long been the Samford lawn. Almost EVERY sidewalk has construction fencing around it There are some small areas that you can walk and small areas of the lawn that are not fenced off. It was a Sunday afternoon, and pre-finals week, so it was very quiet on campus. As we took a walk toward Toomer's Corner, on Samford lawn, we came upon a couple where there was an OBVIOUS pre-proposal business going on. The fella had done a good job. He had candles on the cooler, rose petals spread around. My mom and I quickly tried to get the girls away from them. As we walked, there were a couple of girls in the bushes. They told us, "He's about to propose!" It seems he wanted them to get some photos of it, but it turned out to be harder than he'd bargained for since everything was blocked off. The girls did manage a picture and she did say yes. What a spectacular event it was to witness. It was very precious to see it. We tried to move on, but after, they called us over to say hello. It was good because Emma and Ella were asking why someone was singing! He had also gotten some singers involved. It was lovely. It made me really miss the fun of college and the excitement of starting my life. I love Auburn!

Continuing on, we wanted a picture of the sign. It's so crowded and congested on game day, it is almost impossible.  You can mostly get the great picture of the sign with Samford in the background but you still see the fencing a little. Samford is also getting a new roof. On the left side of the building is scaffolding. 

We had already walked to the stadium but walked back over to it. While we were walking, we passed some Camp War Eagle folks. The girls were ecstatic. They asked lots of questions about them. Then we got to the stadium. If you haven't seen this scoreboard, there are not words. It's big. I don't know what else to say. 

As you can see, there is a little construction going on outside the stadium. I am not exactly sure what they were doing. The Pat Sullivan statue is roped off, but I believe it is because they were working above it and didn't want anything falling on anyone. We did watch someone on the top of the light pole (ON TOP OF THE STADIUM). I am not afraid of heights really, but that is really, really high. 

We spent a while hunting this one down. We couldn't remember the last name so it took us a while to find it. Ella has it in her mind that she is going to vet school at Auburn, so she has claimed this as her hall. 

We did all the Auburn things. We ate at Momma Goldberg's, even though we have one in Mobile. We got lemonade at Toomer's Drugstore. We visited the bookstore, J & M, and Tiger Rags. I decide to write this blog in case you miss Auburn as much as me. So much of of childhood family memories are there. We always 'tailgated' with my grandparents when my sister and I were kids. Once, every year, we would all go to a game together- my grandparents, my parents, my aunt and uncle, and my sister and I.  We would visit the eagle in his cage. We would go to Anders since my dad worked there while he was in college. Yes, there is a lot of construction. Some might think it is hiding the full beauty of Auburn but it really isn't hiding it. The beauty is there always. The beauty is in the change. It's in the work and in the mess. All progress takes sacrifice.

 I am so glad we got to visit during the work and see the wonderful changes on our Loveliest Village on the Plains. 

WAR EAGLE!