My dad won the gold star for the day after he volunteered to pick up my friend, Melissa, at LAX. Cliff, my brother, and I walked over to the Colorado Bar (a dive bar just east of all of the Colorado Blvd/parade madness) and had some drinks and my dad dropped Melissa off. We enjoyed the bar... the prices were fairly reasonable, and the crowd was rather eclectic.
Melissa, Me, and My Bro:
Some Wisconsin girls walked in, and I had fun talking to them (although I could talk to a door after a few drinks... and I would still probably laugh at my own jokes).
My Madison BFFs:
We rang in the new year and walked home at around 1 am. I tried not to over indulge, and I was ready for bed when we got home. The boys still had their party pants on though! I woke up at around 8 am and the bloody marys cured my minor hangover. It was a bit of a challenge for Stacy and Kristel (my other friends who stayed with a friend of theirs) to get to my brother's place in the morning, but somehow they managed. Cliff and my brother went on a field trip to get us donuts and coffee (so we were double fisting the coffee and bloody marys) and we had a quick breakfast. Once we heard the parade coming up Sierra Madre at around 9:30 am, we walked about 2 blocks and we had a great view of the action.
Rah rah TCU!
Spirited parade viewing:
We watched the first part of the parade and walked back to my brother's for a bathroom (and champagne!) break, and then watched the end of the parade (and by "end," I mean my brother stays until the emergency vehicles and protestors go by).
We all walked to Stacy and Kristel's rental car and my brother drove us towards the Rose Bowl stadium. He dropped us off at the Shell station on the corner of Walnut and Fair Oaks, and we walked a mile or two to the stadium. This was much less stressful than trying to drive down to the Bowl and park (even though we had bought two parking passes for $30 each).
We ended up going straight into the game, which was a good idea because there were a bazillion people. By the time we grabbed a beer and got to our seats, we watched part of the pre-game festivities, and it was time for the game to start! I had never been to the Rose Bowl stadium before (even though I swam at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center for 8 years and we would run the 2-mile loop around the stadium for "dryland") and I was amazed at the poor layout (but I guess that's why they're renovating the stadium now!). It was so exciting to be there though, and the football game was absolutely amazing. My only regret is that we didn't record it on DVR (it would have been fun to see it afterwards on TV), but I'm sure we can find the game somewhere. The celebration at the end was really exciting, and it was hard not to get a little teary-eyed.
I'm realizing that I'm not using the right settings on my camera. The night pics were horrible, so here is some pre-game action:
Cheering on our Horned Frogs:
Celebrating the victory!
My dad picked us up after the game (so we logged another walking mile or two) and we all headed to Island's (pause for nostalgic effect... that was my first job, as a hostess) for dinner. I endulged (once again) and ordered the "Bluenami" burger (I'm now fully realizing my Christmas break blue cheese consumption). I was fading fast though... such a long (but fantastic!) day. We were ready to call it a night after dinner.
During our last full day in California, we drove to Torrance and took my Grandma Marion out to lunch. I had the weirdest veggie omelette ever... they used a stir-fry vegetable mix (snow peas, carrots, etc.). After lunch, my dad drove us around Hollywood so Melissa could see the sites. It was raining, but she still got a bit of the LA experience. We went to Di Pilla's (again!) for dinner. I was a little adventurous and I ordered the seafood pasta and it looked like they scooped it out from the bottom of the ocean. Once I de-shelled everything, it was a bit more manageable. It was just very labor intensive!
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