Several of us rented a huge, beautiful home in Hermosa Beach, CA to celebrate New Year's and the Rose Bowl trip. Joe, Elena, Rob, Theresia, Beth, and myself (with special guest appearances from Uncle Lar). This house was amazing with three bedrooms, leather couches, a pool table, large TV, and a hot tub on the roof! The granite island in the kitchen was bigger than my bed. Joe and Elena used to live in Hermosa so they showed us around and we had a blast. It was the best New Year's ever! Parking at the Rose Bowl is not very efficient with 1-lane of traffic but we eventually got on the golf course (yes, we parked ON the course). We had a quick tailgate as traffic slowed us down. After some munchies, we had a 4 beer walk to the Rose Bowl (well, I had 4 M lites). Along the way, we negotiated the lanyard and ticket holder guy from $10 to $5, that was fun.
It is a well-designed stadium and looks beautiful. The B2 bomber flyover was silent until it kicked on the engines, that was amazing! The 1st quarter looked like it was going to be a good, close game. Then, Penn State had all kinds of penalties, which is unusual, and breakdowns in the secondary, to allow a huge 2nd quarter for USC. Their fans, players, and even coaches were getting so cocky. I have lost respect for Pete Carroll because he hoisted a ball in the air and was jumping up and down, leading his team. That is a lack of class, in my opinion. When I coach, I never act like that. He seems like a politician, very polished in his speeches but on the field, he shows his true cocky colors. Most of the fans seemed cool and respectful. One young guy right in front of us was obnoxious, wearing $300 designer sunglasses, and I really did want to knock him out. Penn State made a solid comeback in the 2nd half but it was not enough. We had a long walk back in the dark (those damn balloons are hard to see). Back at the van we drank some more to let traffic thin out.
Friday night we decided to do a bar tour of Hermosa. Man, it was awesome! We went to some of Joe's and Elena's old favorite pubs. Two of them were Boston/New England bars and I rubbed it in Theresia's face (silly NY fan). We all gave the mechanical bull a shot, which they kick the guys off pretty quickly. The ladies made great efforts! The tour was a great success and so was the entire vacation in California. Perfect!
