Hey, who wants to talk about Christmas and the Holiday Bowl? Anyone? Anyone? If this is too long, borrrrrring or irrelevant, just delete it...
So I had sort of a crazy 10-day span over the holidays... First Sandy invited me to the UNLV game with her in Vegas... we had lunch at the Hard Rock, went to the game... I mean, it was sort of crazy to be hangin' in Vegas with the AD! Can you imagine if this had been Rishi! So while the game sort of sucked, I did have a close-up encounter with Tark the Shark who was looking VERY old... (yes, he IS very old...).
During introductions they shoot off a bunch of fireworks, all of which I managed to miss with my camera... so you have to trust me this is the result of really cool fireworks going off and not some tragic event about to happen (you would have heard about it)
I was sitting close enough to offer some suggestions, but as Sandy was sitting next to me I decided not to...
Here we are about to run a play that will result in a missed shot ( I think, but I feel safe that it is what happened)
Game was just about over but Monty was still working the refs...
So that was the game, I dropped Sandy off at the airport and headed back to the Venetian. By the way, if you ever want to go to Vegas for SUPER cheap, the week of Christmas is the week. My suite at the Venetian was $60... The highlight for me was the Christmas tree... I was absolutely mesmerized by it... Check out this video I took of it... Click on the photo... seriously I could not stop looking at this thing....
The next morning I passed these folks on the Strip...
So then it was off to the Holiday Bowl... I swung by the heart of inner Orange County to pick-up Atoms and off we went to San Diego, no top on the Jeep! I got a free ticket to go to the Holiday Bowl Luncheon... you know, it was really cool... Even had I had to pay for it I would have thought so... It was in huge ballroom at the San Diego Convention Center... I would guess the crowd was 65 / 35 Cal / Texas. Everyone was sitting at round tables and at each table there were two players... very cool. At our table were Cecil Whiteside and Steven Fanua. I didn't get to talk with Fanua too much but sat next to Whiteside and we talked the whole time. What a great representative of Cal... articulate, social, totally comfortable in that environment. Count be impressed.
So here is a little video of the Cal Band playing....
Atoms and I headed to the hotel to check in and meet up with our other friends and then it was off to the Hilton for the pep rally... The whole team and staff were there
And of course the Cal Band played...And for some reason the sound goes out but you can at least get a feel for the setting...
After the rally we headed to dinner at Blue Water Seafood Market and Grill for some GREAT fish tacos and seafood... Atoms back me up here...
After dinner we dropped friends off at hotel and Atoms and I headed out for part of the Cal pub crawl through the Gas Lamp district... it was a blast and I was impressed with how many Cal folks were out and it was great seeing the Band (though you can barely see them in this photo)
The next day a quick airport run and then we met up at The Mission in North Park for what I think is the world's best French Toast!
And then it was off to the game... We stopped by CalBandGreat's most excellent tailgate!!! What a lot of fun that was and so much fun for me to reconnect with folks from back in my days. Thanks CBG!
Then we settled into our seats and that is pretty much where this part of our story ends...
Atoms lucked out because I somehow managed to lose my voice so the drive back to OC was FiatLuxTalkingFree.... We stopped off in San Clemente to do a little shopping (Atoms got a dashing pair of sun glasses!) and passed this guy (seriously).. This photo would have been so much better had we won!
We then stopped off in South Coast Plaza to do some 1%erish stuff, and then I dropped Atoms off at his abode and there you go...
I'm running out of steam here, but I then headed up to the UCLA game... I was pleasantly surprised to see such a big line outside
There I got to meet up with Cugel and Son, some other old folks and I sat front row in the student section... I posted this in another thread but these folks were behind us and stood up and yelled the ENTIRE game... they are my heroes!
OK, that's it... one last photo... I just love this... it's the sad sad state of UCLA basketball right now... here is their temporary home at the LA Sports Arena... You can see, they really went all out on making UCLA feel at home...