OK OK...all three of my blog fans (four including me) are asking for more pics. So here they are, including a few of yours truly. I had an Ohio State fan take the one of P and I outside the the entrance to the Rose Bowl. Nice guy and he took several. But he still managed to have the palm tree growing out of the top of my head. Perhaps he was just startled by seeing palm trees!
Almost Heaven Pasadena! California Dreamin! 
With due respect to John Denver, the great state of West Virginia, Brian Love and all three loyal fans of my blog, I am back with my tale of Rose Bowl Week-End 2010.
Everybody has a “bucket list”, whether formal or not, we all have a list of things to do and places to see before we depart this planet. These should be achievable experiences like, seeing Machu Pichu, skydiving, and climbing Mt Rainer etc. Sorry, a date with with Brittany Spears or a lunch with Rush Limbaugh should not be on your bucket list. If they are, stop reading this immediately and go to GlennBeck.com.
The Rose Bowl has been on my bucket list since I was a teenager growing up on the East Coast. With testosterone mixing with my love of football, how could I not be charmed watching the game and cheerleaders while I froze my ass off on New Year’s Day?
The warm California sun, the energy of 100,000 fans in a filled Rose Bowl, the bright uniforms, the mountains, the tanned and beautiful girls of UCLA and USC were an irresistible combination to this teenager. “Please Mom and Dad let me apply to UCLA?” Of course this was not to be, and I had to settle for North Philadelphia and Temple University. Have you ever seen the beautiful mountains surrounding Broad Street in downtown Philly? Keep looking!
I finally got to Southern California in the late seventies and it was indeed a beautiful paradise. Things have changed greatly in So Cal over the years and it is no longer a favorite place for me to visit or work. BUT the Rose Bowl, that’s another story.
Ever since Chef Jon went to the University of Oregon, I have been hooked on Duck Football. It looked like the Ducks would finally get to the Rose Bowl in 2002 and play Miami for the National Championship but the BCS computers put Nebraska ahead of the Ducks and we had to settle for the Fiesta Bowl where Oregon crushed Colorado 38-16. Colorado had beaten Nebraska a few weeks before. Nebraska lost 37-14 to Miami in the Rose Bowl.
Fast forward to this fall and when the Ducks won their last game in a thriller against Oregon State, the Rose Bowl was a finally a reality. The Ohio State Buckeyes would be their opponent on New Year’s Day. California here we come! And GO DUCKS!!
Ducks? Why in the world would anyone pick a mascot name “Ducks”? Why not “Mighty Ducks” or “Battling Ducks” or the dreaded “Wounded Ducks”? But if you know Oregon, the people and their love of the outdoors, the respect for the environment and their land, the name is a perfect fit. “Oregon Ducks “rolls off your tongue like one word.. It is a state of mind. You have to experience it to appreciate it. Entering the Rose Bowl a couple of Buckeye fans were trying to taunt some of the Oregon fans calling them “Tree Huggers”. They don’t get it, calling someone from Oregon a “Tree Hugger” is not an insult, but a compliment! Ha! More on the Buckeye fans later.
Day one: Driving to Beverly Hills with the Mona Lisa:
Off we go to Sister Susan’s place in Beverly Hills for New Year’s Eve. Susan is off at some friend’s ranch and my nieces are in Telluride with friends whose parents wrote the “Wonder Years” and several other hit TV shows. So it’s just us two Duck Fans in Beverly Hills 90210..
So what’s the deal with the Mona Lisa Shel? She is our entertainment for the trip, or rather the CD book, “Vanished Smile”, is.. What a great listen. It’s the story of the scheme and scandal around robbery of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. It is very well written and the reader is excellent. It weaves the story of DaVinci and his famous portrait, tracing its travels and ownership over the centuries. Interesting fact: Did you know that DaVinci painted her with no eyebrows. A beautiful woman without eyebrows, how about that!
Driving to So Cal is always such a treat-NOT. Not much in the way of scenery and Quartzite Arizona and Blythe California on the way are not exactly Venice and Florence. I suppose the windmills above Palm Springs are an interesting site but there is no confusing them with those in Bruges. And of course, the freeway traffic starts about 90 miles outside of downtown LA. This is so different from the California I remember visiting so long ago. Paradise lost for sure, unless you admire the imagery of Taco Bell, Denny’s , McDonalds, Home Depot and Best Buy. I am sorry to say that Phoenix is well on its way to becoming So Cal in this regard as well.
Game Day/Parade Day
Where do they get all those flowers?
Up before dawn and off to Pasadena for the Parade. No problem finding a spot on the sidewalk for a good view. We show up and start talking to the people around us, mostly Hispanic, and everyone is excited for the parade to start. One problem, two little girls in front of us are too short to see over this very fancy and tall white lady. The mom (Hispanic) tells us she asked the tall woman if her girls could stand or sit in front of her. No is her response. Paula will have none of that and intervenes. Don’t mess with her when she is in her photographer mode and never dismiss two small Hispanic girls in front of her. She supports three poor girls living near Jalisco Mexico through Children International. Problem is quickly solved.
The girls are happy, the fancy lady is not!
I have often seen the Rose Parade on TV and it is really beautiful, but seeing it in person is really special. The floats are not as large as I imagined but are so vibrant with so many colors and textures. The Grand Marshall of the Parade was “Sully Sullivan” the pilot who safely landed the US Air flight into the Hudson. After about an hour or so it was time to head down the hill to the Rose Bowl. Put the Rose Parade into the bucket. I give it a 10.
I will start by saying that 99.9 percent of the fans attending the game were not even born when the stadium opened in 1923. The stadium itself sucks by today’s standards. No seats, just benches, no shade from the sun, and very difficult to get into and out down very narrow entry/exit tunnels. The Rose Bowl sits in a valley surrounded by two golf courses which serve as parking lots and it takes forever to get in and out.
But the Rose Bowl is truly a special place, one that should be treasured by all football fans. Driving into the valley and approaching the Rose Bowl, surrounded by the magnificent San Gabriel Mountains my heart began to race. Walking into the stadium took my breath away as I almost started crying. It was a feeling reminiscent of the first time my Dad took me to the original Yankee Stadium. I was about seven years old. Things like that stick in your memory forever. Yankee Stadium was built around the time the Rose Bowl was opened. Yankee Stadium has been torn down, replaced with a modern marvel, minus the memories. I hope the Rose Bowl does not suffer the same fate. Let it stand (but better preserved) like that ancient Coliseum in Rome where Maximus, or was it Russell Crowe made his last stand. HA!
We met Jon in the parking lot (golf course) tailgating before the game. He had arrived that morning having worked the night before and took a cab from the Burbank Airport. He was operating on about 3 hours sleep but no matter. We hooked up with several of his old Eugene buddies before the game. Unfortunately, best friend Joe was under the weather but everyone else was in a festive mood and the beer was flowing.
Walking to the stadium and inside I noticed a decided difference between Oregon and Ohio State fans. I had heard the stories from my neighbors who also live in Ann Arbor and a friend who teaches at OSU that Ohio State fans border on the cave-man side. My guess is that they reserve their venom for Michigan and other Mid-West rivals like Notre Dame. With few exceptions, they seemed pretty well behaved and civil. I don’t think they knew how to react to the Oregon fans. Oregon fans love their team, they love their State but they are way laid back. This is, no doubt, very confusing to an OSU fan I think. Yet, I found it rather odd that the Oregon fans stood for game except for the time outs, the Buckeye fans sat except for the big plays. I suspect when you have a team that is always in the hunt for the National Title like OSU you take the game in stride.
The Game
The less said here the better. Oregon was favored , Oregon lost. They played like dog-dung. Give Ohio State credit, they were the better team that day and their Quarterback, Terrell Pryor, looked like Vince Young of Texas when they beat USC here a few years ago for the National Title. All year Oregon was making big plays to win games, today that was not the case. Disappointed and deflated we left the stadium. I think Paula shocked a couple of Buckeye fans leaving the game as she congratulated them on their team’s win. I gather this does not happen much in Ohio or Michigan or Indiana. After they recovered from the shock, they said that Pryor played the best game of his life past or future. Thanks! Our luck!
After Game
Too bad, no tailgate party into the night. Only searching for Jonathan on a mostly dark golf course. Eventually I found him and we shared our misery, but all agreed that, win or lose, this day was one to be remembered for the rest of our lives. What fun to be part of an event that has been going on each January 1 for nearly 100 years. Surprisingly, there was no excessive celebrating by the Buckeye fans and no great despondence among the Duck fans. I believe all were grateful to have been here, enjoying a special time in a special place.
A week later, in the night, in this same Rose Bowl Alabama beat Texas for the National Title. Watching it on TV, it was just not the same. This game, this place, is meant to be experienced during the day and at dusk. There is something magical about being in the sun-drenched stadium filled with Buckeye Red and Oregon Green and Yellow. And when the sun begins to drop, the San Gabriel Mountains are a site to behold.
College Football today is as much a business as it is sport. But on this day, at least, it was college sport at its best. I am not an Ohio State fan for sure, but watching their great band spell out the word Ohio and then having one of their members dot the “I” to the cheers of their fans, I could not but think about what a great tradition this is. It put a big smile on my face. .
It took us forever to get out of that valley but we spent the time talking to fans from both sides, no one was in a hurry to leave, we were all savoring the events of the day.
I am a sucker for sports, always have been, always will be. I got this from my Dad and have passed it on to P and the boys. Ask me to name my favorite movies of all time and three of the top five are sports movies. Hoosiers, with Gene Hackman, Remember the Titans with Denzell and Field of Dreams with Kevin Costner..In case you are interested.
