Better Than Ice Cream: Cougar Country

Monday, October 12, 2009

Cougar Country

This past weekend, Isla and I took a road trip with my parents to the thriving metropolis of Pullman, WA. I am ashamed to admit that my brother Josh has been attending WSU for 5 years and this was the first time I'd ever been over to visit. Graham was working 12 hour shifts on Friday and Saturday so couldn't join us but kindly allowed me to take his daughter away for two nights. We had a wonderful weekend and Isla was quite the trooper! It was a 5 hour drive and we only had to stop once each way to let her eat. It was FREEZING over there though (actually, below freezing) so I pretty much packed every article of clothing Isla owns and layered her up to keep her warm in the 20 degree temperatures.

Did you know that there are bears at WSU?? No joke! Here is Isla meeting her first bear.

And since it was hard to see the bear in the above picture, here's another just to prove it. We probably saw about 5 or 6 grizzly bears. Two of them started fighting each other which made for quite the show. Now I understand why you never want to meet a bear while camping....

Isla made her first trip out of state to Idaho! We stayed just across the WA/ID border in a little town called Moscow, ID. Our motel was....well....quaint. I was perfectly comfy but with a crib in the room, there was no extra square footage to spare. And Grandma and Grandpa Wilson got a chance to experience what it is like to sleep with Isla in all her grunting glory. She actually had a couple really good nights. Good is a relative term I suppose. My parents were surprised to learn that her degree of grunting, noise making and waking were classified as "good" by me...

We had tickets to the Cougar football game on Saturday which was really fun. Thankfully, the sun came out and made it feel a lot warmer than it actually was!

It got so warm that we even traded Isla's warm hat in for a "hat" made out of my Moby wrap cover. It worked perfectly! Doesn't she look like a pea in the pod?

Isla's opinion of football...maybe her feelings would be different if the team were playing better this year??

Now, I must say that WSU is something else when it comes to team spirit! I now have a much better understanding of how alumni become and remain such strong Cougar fans. It is insane. I mean, the school blocks off a bunch of parking lots and converts them into RV "campgrounds" where hundreds to die-hard-for-life fans stake out for the game weekend, partying their little hearts out. And we're talking grown, mature (???) adults here. It doesn't even matter if the team is horrible. And, I don't think I've ever seen such a sea of school colors. Look at all the crimson and gray in the crowd!