This last weekend my wife and I met our daughter in Pasadena, California to attend the University of Oregon football game with the UCLA Bruins.UCLA plays their home games in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Oregon won 24 to 10 and it was good seeing our daughter who took a flight in from Washington DC where she lives. We drove down I-5 from Medford and we stayed at the Pasadena Hilton which was the Oregon team hotel. In addition to the game we got to got to go to "Old Pasadena" and visit the shops and had a couple of good meals at some of the restaurants there. All in all a very good trip.
TRIP DOWN
We left Medford early on Thursday and traveled down I-5 with a stop for a picnic at a nice roadside rest area. While driving we listened to Rush Limbaugh on the radio and some of our music CD's.Thursday night we found a nice Best Western Motel across the I-5 freeway from the Harris Ranch. I would highly recommend the Best Western there. It was all on one floor and the rooms have all been newly reconditioned. We then drove over the freeway overpass to the Harris Ranch for dinner. I had my favorite the tri tip steak diner with eggs. On Friday we continued on down the road and took the "grape vine" over the mountains into L.A. We got to the Pasadena Hilton after a few false turns about a half hour before our daughter arrived from LAX in her rental car. While waiting we met a nice couple who were Ducks from Eugene who had flown down for the game.Throughout the weekend we kept running in to this couple and enjoyed their company.
PASADENA
After we met up with our daughter we checked into our room and then walked over to a large Record/CD store about 6 block from the Hilton. We then walked over to Old Pasadena and did a little shopping. I found a great book on Bob Dylan at Barnes & Noble. The book covers all of the songs from his albums released between 1962-1969. After freshening up in our hotel room we went back to Old Pasadena for dinner and then we called it an early night to get ready for the game.
GAME DAY - SATURDAY
We got up early and had breakfast in our room from items we had purchased the night before at a fancy grocery store. We watched ESPN Football Gameday on TV. We then took our daughters rental car to Old Pasadena to a parking lot where they had a shuttle bus to the game. We got to the Rose Bowl about 2 1/2 hours before the game and walked all around the outside and got some great pictures. We greeted the three Oregon Team buses when they arrived at the Rose Bowl. We then found a nice shady spot to rest while we waited for them to open up the stadium. The new President of the University of Oregon and his wife came by and gave us a "Go Ducks!" We also saw the nice couple from Eugene again and talked to them. Once they opened up the stadium we walked around the stadium inside the fence and stopped at the "Rose Bowl Hall of Fame." We then go some chicken teriyaki with a rice bowl and found another place in the shade next to the couple from Eugene. We then found our seats in the corner end zone (the upper left in the picture above on the press box side) along with about 8 thousand other Ducks. We met a lot of Ducks from Southern California, Arizona and Nevada.
THE GAME
It was a sunny day in the mid 70's.The first half was fairly uneventful and ended with a 3 to 0 half time score with UCLA leading. The UCLA QB was unable to test Oregon's back up CB because he could not accurately throw deep. Oregon's defense played a great game and had some great sacks. At half time our daughter went to get us some frozen lemonades and missed Oregon's two touchdowns in the opening seconds of the second half. In the opening kick off of the second half Oregon took the ball in their own end zone and ran it back 100 yards for a touchdown. Then, when UCLA had the ball Oregon intercepted the UCLA QB and ran that back for a touch down with only seconds burned in the second half. When our daughter got back to our seats we told her to go away so Oregon would score again. This was picked up by other Ducks sitting around us in a good natured way. After Oregon scored again the UCLA fans who had been late arriving, to begin with, began to exit the Rose Bowl as we waved goodbye to them. All in all the UCLA fans are nice folks but I don't think they take football that seriously.The stadium replay folks managed by UCLA would only show replays when UCLA did something good. When an Oregon defensive player really blind sided the UCLA QB for a sack they wouldn't show it on replay so all 8000 Ducks started to chant "Show the replay" over and over but with no luck. I could feel the hit were I was and it was a spectacular legal hit. After the game with almost every UCLA fan gone "slick Rick" (UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel) or "New Weasel" came to a microphone on the side of the field to apologise for his teams poor performance and begged the fans to come back next week as they would "fix the problem." Oregon fans have hated Neuheisel since he went for a fake punt in the Cotton Bowl when his Colorado team lead Oregon with a big lead late in that game.He then went to hated Washington and led his players out to Oregon's midfield after he had defeated Oregon for a little celebration and picture taking.No love lost there! After the game the Oregon players came over to the Oregon fans to thank them for coming. It's always a good day when Oregon can come down to LA and get a victory on the road.
POST GAME - GAME DAY
After the game we got in a long, long line for the shuttle bus to take us back to Old Pasadena. The line was long but moved fairly fast and we then went to one of my favorite places to eat Buca di Beppo for dinner. We then went back to the Hilton, called our son to share the win with him,(He watched it on his computer on the internet) and then watched some more collage football on TV before we drifted off to sleep.
SUNDAY
On Sunday we checked out of the hotel and had a goodbye brunch with our daughter at a nice Pasadena restaurant before we headed back to Medford. We drove up I-5 through Sacramento and stopped at a motel in Woodland.
MONDAY
We drove the rest of the way back to Medford and our daughter made it back to Washington DC.
The Ducks have a bye next week and I sure need it. I have been to 5 straight games and I need some rest!
