It’s 9:30 p.m. on March 28, and Welch Avenue is just stirring from its sleep.

People slowly filter into the bars, just in time to catch the end of the ISU women’s basketball game.

In Cy’s Roost, about 20 eyes are glued to the television screens as the clock winds down. The last seconds are chaos, but when time expires, the room erupts with cheers. The ladies squeak by with a one-point victory.

Up and down the street, bartenders watch the scene and smile. Tonight’s going to be a good night.

Cy’s Roost – 9:47 p.m.

Jeff Cooling couldn’t care less about the basketball game. He’s from Iowa City and a proud Hawkeye fan, visiting his girlfriend, Amanda Thomas, junior in finance, for the weekend.

They sit with two other friends, surrounding a table littered with about 15 plastic cups, most of them empty. Cooling describes himself as a marathon drinker.

“I took the day off on St. Patrick’s Day, 9:30 a.m. till 4:00 in the afternoon — I was definitely drunk all day long,” Cooling said.

He said there is a noticeable difference between the drinking culture in Ames and that of Iowa City, primarily because Iowa City bars allow 19-year-olds.

“They’re a little bit wilder. Iowa City bars have dancing at almost every bar. You have a lot younger crowd because you can get in a lot younger,” Cooling said.

At the table next to Cooling’s, Andrew Hoch and a group of ISU alumni are celebrating a friend’s birthday.

Hoch graduated in 2007 with a Master of Business Administration and hopes to attend graduate school in the fall. Tonight, he hopes to get his hands on a Michelob Golden, but insists that “free beer is the best beer.”

He sits next to his friend Alex Gray, a 2006 ISU graduate who remembers the bars that have come and gone since he’s been in Ames. He holds to a theory that even though a bar’s name and ownership might change, the overall atmosphere of the bar does not.

“You can change names, but it’s always the same bar. Each bar has its own distinct feel,” Gray said.

Cafe Beaudelaire – 10:18 p.m.

Matthew Lipovac, junior in English, and Sydney Asher are tucked in a corner of Café Beaudelaire, sipping on Brazilian caprihinias. The crowd here is generally older and more ethnically diverse. The music is turned up, but not to the usual decibel level in a bar.

Lipovac and Asher say their usual routine is to start out drinking at someone’s apartment, then come out to the bars at about 9:30 or 10 p.m., and hop around for a couple of hours.

They’re here with friends with whom they traveled to Brazil in high school, so they decided a Brazilian bar like Beaudelaire would be perfect for their reunion.

“Plus, it’s a little quieter, I guess, not as intense as every other bar,” Asher said.

Mickey’s Irish Pub – 10:47 p.m.

The current of bar-goers changes every hour or so as the crowds hop from bar to bar, and for now Mickey’s is the hot spot.

“You gotta know the bars, where people are at. You gotta find them,” said Tyler Underwood, senior in agricultural studies.  He’s here with his friends: Aaron Ellensohn, senior in agricultural studies, and Eric Dial, junior in agricultural studies. Ellensohn said they take many of the same classes together and they usually go out to the bars together, too.

They’ve been at Mickey’s for about an hour and plan on hopping around a bit, but they always end their night at Outlaws.

“If you like to dance, go to Outlaws — but you gotta like dancing,” Ellensohn said.

Underwood agreed.

“Yeah, we’re ag kids, so it kind of goes with the territory,” Underwood said.

Meanwhile, Andrew Hoch and company have found their way to Mickey’s, where they take full advantage of the night’s deal — $1 Busch Light tall boys.

Hoch cradles one beer in each hand as he cheers on a friend playing Big Buck Hunter. He takes a drink from one, then the other, tosses his head back and cries out, “Oh, it’s so delicious!”

“I’m buzzing right now, but I’m still very thirsty,” Hoch said. “About four more beers and I’ll start hitting on random women. But I don’t think my girlfriend should know that.”

Welch Ave. Station – 11:23 p.m.

The expansive Welch Ave. Station is filled from front to back. Jess Mazour, senior in psychology, Becca Myers, senior in management and Hannah Quinn, senior in advertising, all sit along the bar.

It’s Myers’ 22nd birthday today, so Mazour and Quinn are helping her celebrate.

“I had my first shot of tequila tonight,” Myers said. “It was definitely an experience, I didn’t know what to expect. You could feel it.”

Mazour said she and Quinn go out together almost every weekend, but their main drinking night is Wednesday, thanks to “Dollar Pint Night” at Olde Main Brewing Company and Restaurant.

“I arrange my schedule around Wednesday nights,” Mazour said, laughing.

Mazour said they usually start drinking at a friend’s place, come out to the bars around 9 p.m. and stay until close. She said they hop around a little, but for now they are content with Welch Ave. Station, where they are enjoying the show.

One of the bartenders is Mazour’s neighbor, and according to Quinn, he’s “super hot.”

Mazour calls out to him as he walks past. “We’re talking about you, John!”

Paddy’s – 12:14 a.m.

Andrew Hoch has finally found what he’s looking for.

“Three and a quarter for a Mich Golden,” Hoch says, raising his bottle. “It’s delicious though. It’s my favorite, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Hoch is visibly intoxicated — he laughs loud and hard, his speech slightly slurred. But his night is still young, with Welch Ave. Station and a possible Perkins run coming up.

Chasers – 12:33 a.m.

One side of the beer pong table celebrates as the two teammates sink consecutive ping-pong balls into plastic cups.

Lindy Tsetseranos and A.J. Strom, 2008 graduate, cheer them on from the sidelines.

“I like Chasers because you can do a lot more, you can go from beer pong, to pool, to darts,” Tsetseranas said.

It’s getting to the point in the evening where some bar-goers start heading to the house parties, but Strom said he’s getting too old for that.

“I like to go to the bars because I like to hang out with my own age. The only reason I’d go to house parties is because I couldn’t buy alcohol,” Strom said.

1:31 a.m. – Bricktower Place

Just across the street from Es Tas is Bricktower Place, an apartment complex home to many college students, and a hot-spot for parties.

Five friends step on an elevator and one hits the button to stop at the fourth floor. It’s clear they’ve been drinking, and they all enter in seemingly high spirits.

Then there’s a sudden change — a member of the group heard something he didn’t like.

“Why would you mess with your girlfriend like that?” The man slurs out the sentence and gives his friend a cold, steely glare.

“Why would you mess with your girlfriend like that?” he repeats.

The two girls in the elevator tell him to calm down, that it was nothing. The elevator reaches the fourth floor, the door opens and all hell breaks loose.

The angry friend throws himself onto the other guy, slamming them both into the wall. Their girlfriends join in, desperately trying to pry the two apart.

They are eventually split up, and just as they are going their separate ways, the aggressor’s girlfriend turns and approaches the beaten man and clocks him in the face with a right jab.

Blood begins to seep from the man’s lip as he recoils in shock. His girlfriend pulls him down the hallway as he spits obscenities back toward the elevator.

1:43 a.m. — Welch Avenue

A man stumbles out of Welch Ave. Station, followed by a friend. He finds a picnic table, steadies himself against it and begins to vomit on the ground.

His friend pats him on the back, and reaches for his camera.

The night is winding down. Designated drivers pull their cars up to the curb to pick up their friends and street vendors prepare for the 2 a.m. rush.

Soon will be the last call — bar-goers will stumble out into the dark, and Welch Avenue will rest once again.

What’s the dumbest thing you’ve done will drunk?

“The dumbest thing I’ve done is getting kicked out of Bali. I think I threw up, and they wouldn’t let me back in.” — sophomore in elementary education

“I came home blasted and peed in the sink and the basement freezer, and my brother had to clean it up.” — sophomore in open option – liberal arts and sciences

“Praying to the porcelain altar all night.” — sophomore in aerospace engineering

“I once jumped into a hot tub with all my clothes on and then took off running into the woods.” — junior in advertising

“I defecated in the mayor’s pool in State Center.” — senior in management information systems

“Eating a bar of soap.” — junior in computer science

“I hid my beers in the snow and I pretended I was a squirrel and they were my nuts.” — senior in finance

“I tried carrying a keg by myself, dropped it and split my kneecap.” — senior in pre-business

“I once jumped into a kiddie pool with all my clothes on for a free beer.” — senior in graphic design

“I came home really drunk and I was eating chicken nuggets on the couch. Woke up the next morning and they were all over.” — senior in mechanical engineering

“My freshman year when I took like 10 shots on an empty stomach and don’t remember the majority of the night and apparently the girls basketball team helped me in my dorm.” — senior in food science

“Falling down and breaking my arm.” — junior in forestry

“I got really drunk Christmas night with some buddies and puked all over my bed, and woke up in the morning and had to clean it up without my mom knowing.” — sophomore in communication studies

“I was waiting for the elevator that wouldn’t come so I peed on the fourth floor of Brickstone. My pee rushed forward around my shoes, and I ran down four flights laughing with my pants undone.” — junior in child, adult, family services