My son (John, III) was accepted to his first-pick college of choice – Michigan State University.   As someone who values education, it’s been a dream of mine that one day my son would attend one of this country’s best universities – that one day he and I would walk the campus together taking in all that it had to offer.  This weekend, that particular dream of mine was realized.  He had been at school for a bit over a month, so I thought it was time for me to drive up to Lansing, MI and pay him a visit.

Prior to my son attending there, I’d never actually been to Michigan State University – I spend a part of my undergraduate career at the University of Michigan before transferring and finishing at the University of Florida.  So I was eager to check things out – the weekend I picked happened to be MSU’s homecoming weekend, and also was absolutely gorgeous weather-wise.  Here’s the first photo (iPhone) I took as I drove on campus:

I made through my undergraduate and graduate education without ever having stayed in the dorms – a conscious decision on my part.  But John was adamant about actually wanting to stay in the dorms.  So for his freshman year, he was assigned to Hubbard Hall North:

I was fortunate to find a metered space right in front of Hubbard when I arrived:

John came down and brought me up to his dorm room:

His desk:

All I can say is that my son is a better man than I am – I could not have lived in such a confined space….but he loves it!  At least he has a nice view from the 9th floor:

I took him to dinner and was pleasantly surprised to learn that one of my favorite pizza chains from my time at U of M also operated at MSU – Cottage Inn pizza.  The cost of pizza really hasn’t gone up much in the last 25 years – I think I paid $4.00 more for the large deep-dish pizza I ordered for us than I did back when I was at U of M.

The next day John took me on a tour of the campus.  It was game day and home coming weekend, so there were plenty of fans and alumni showing their green and white spirit:

We took some pictures of the MSU stadium:

I didn’t have tickets to the game, so we headed over to the student union:

I was really impressed by the MSU Student Union.  Inside they had plenty of comfortable seating areas, and televisions set up to watch the game:

They also have a really nice food court, including a GREAT old-fashioned ice cream shop!  After the game we walked around campus a bit more:

Despite the healthy rivalry which exists between U of M and MSU, I’m more than proud to call my son a Spartan.  I’m a very, very proud parent – thanks for showing me an awesome weekend son!

I hope you enjoyed these photos!  The photos in this article were taken with my Canon EOS 5D Mark III, my Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens, and processed using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5, Adobe Photoshop CS6, and OnOne Software Perfect Photo Suite.