After a whirlwind Christmas trip home to the land of Lincoln, we arrived back in SF on the night of the 30th and on the morning of the 31st headed out for LA so we could watch Stanford play Michigan State in the Rose Bowl.
The drive down was interesting, we went through Gilroy for the first time and I got to smell the garlic capital of the US firsthand. When we stopped for lunch it felt like we were participating in the great California migration as at least half the people at the gas station were in Stanford gear. Once we got close to LA, we realized we were lucky to be driving on New Year's Eve because traffic wasn't terrible. I managed to snap this photo about a second too late.
For NYE we went to a restaurant in Venice and I enjoyed watching people get out of their cars in ridiculous outfits. What is it about New Years Eve that makes adults dress like idiots? I think that it's probably exacerbated being LA -- we saw a lot of skin! The restaurant was called Primitivo Wine Bistro and was really cute; I tried to capture the moment but the photo of Brett didn't turn out great because of the lighting. Brett's grandma had given us some cash for Christmas so it was dinner on her! Wish she could have been there; I think she would have enjoyed the fruity pomegranate martinis!
After that, we met up with Brett's friend who had picked up our tickets earlier that day. Then we headed back to our Hotwire hotel, which turned out to be nice in only the places where they took pictures for hotwire and pretty crummy everywhere else, and NOT in the best neighborhood, but we survived. We managed to stay up past Midwest New Year's but didn't make it to Colorado New Year's, let alone California, because we had to get up early for the rose parade. It was totally worth it. It was fun to be part of the large crowd and to see the insane floats. We got the unfortunate answer to B's hopeful question-do they throw out candy at the rose parade? The answer is no. Here are some favorite floats -- we took a lot of photos that we thought our nephew would enjoy and sent them to him.
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| To get a better view, I put my feet in the really small window sill and B stood in front of me so I wouldn't fall forward. |
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| Sooooo many people in the streets after the parade! |
After the parade we kicked around Pasadena for a couple hours before heading to the stadium. It was really huge, the biggest stadium I've ever been in. Not to rub salt in an open wound or anything, but it was HOT in the sun. We had great seats by B's friends in the 6th row of the end zone. The game was really fun to watch but heartbreaking in the end. We found out that Michigan State has extremely nice fans, which made losing a little less bad.
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| We had great seats 6 or 7 rows back from the field |
After the game we went out in Pasadena with B's friends for Mexican food while the crowd at the metro died down. I think we took the metro more than most people in LA have. B and I headed back to our hotel after that but then decided to pass up our hotel and stay on the train and head to Hollywood. I was overtaken once we arrived to quote the guy at the beginning of pretty woman who yells out "welcome to Hollywood! What's your dream?" But I resisted the urge. We walked the walk of Fame and then walked up to the main drag. The highlight for me was the Plaza outside the Chinese theater where a lot of stars have imprinted their hand and foot prints.
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| We got excited about the weirdest ones. Roy Rogers and Chris Farley. |
On the 2nd in the morning, we got up and met B's friend from undergrad who bought a house in LA with her husband for breakfast in Manhattan Beach. It was a gorgeous day, the kind that makes you understand why people put up with the traffic to live there. We took the scenic route home and drove through Malibu which was beautiful.
All in all it was a great ending to our winter break and was energizing for me at least to get ready for the onslaught of January. I've always wondered what LA was like and I really enjoyed it for our short time there. 
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