As usual, November and December were a whirlwind of activity. We spent some time with family at Thanksgiving, enjoyed holiday parties in December, and Iris started wrestling (at her own request).
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| She's a natural |
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| Our traditional Christmas Eve theme picture. :o) |
When the Badgers were selected to go to the Rose Bowl game this year, we jumped on the opportunity to go along. Nick and I hadn't been to a bowl game since the Badgers went to the Rose Bowl on 1/1/11, when Felix was a toddler. Again, we decided to leave the kids with Nick's parents and tag along with my parents on the trip.
30 Dec: We got up early and caught our flight from GRB to MSP before 7 am. It was rainy in GB and we flew over a snowstorm that was hitting home at the time. It was quite snowy and windy in MSP, which was slightly unnerving. We were joined by my parents, who had driven there the day before. We kicked off the trip with Bloody Marys at a bar, and relaxed before our flight. We were supposedly on-time for our 11:40 flight to LAX, so we boarded the plane. Then we waited an hour to join the deicing line and rejoin the departure queue. Had a nice view of the deicing machine and blizzard outside... Yikes. Very happy to finally get in the air. The flight was uneventful, and we landed around 2 pm PST. Palm trees! 65 degrees! Yay! We got our bags, got my folk's rental car, and endured the joy that is the 405. At least the traffic gave us many opportunities to spot interesting vehicles and license plates. We got to our Airbnb apartment in Burbank and rested for a bit. The folks came back to pick us up around 5:45 and we headed to Pasadena. An acquaintance of ours, Janel, found out we were going and invited us to a couple Badger family & friends events (She's the aunt of a current player). We joined her and others at the Brookside golf course for a dinner/party. We were introduced to Garrett Rand and his parents. Had a nice time, and stayed until about 8. The time change and lack of sleep was affecting me, so it was good to get back to our apartment, although I struggled to sleep in this unfamiliar room.
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| December 30 |
31 Dec: We headed to Hollywood today, since it was a gorgeous, sunny, low 60s day. Many other people had the same idea, apparently, because it was very crowded. Also very overrated, if I'm being honest. From there, Nick wanted to view Mulholland Drive, so my dad handed over the keys and let Nick take us on the twisty-turny road. It was lunch time, so we found a block on Ventura Ave that allowed Nick and I to get poke bowls and my parents to get burgers. All sated, we decided to go to a "Badger bar" in Santa Monica. It turned out to be more of a modern-German-style place with $9-10 beers. Yeah, not so Badgery on a non-game day. We then headed east to Pasadena and parked. My mom wanted to show us Barney's Beanery and we were not disappointed. It was on Colorado Blvd, and we passed many people set up to camp before the Rose Parade tomorrow. Also old cars cruised the strip. Party atmosphere. At the Beanery, we sat between a few groups of Oregon fans. We enjoyed ourselves talking with them and got some fun pictures. After a drink, we headed to the restaurant where I had made reservations, and we were joined by Nick's sister Natalie, his aunt Joanne and uncle Clarence, also in town for the game. We had a nice dinner catching up and eating tons of tasty Cajun seafood. Getting out of Pasadena was a challenge, given all the road closures put in place for the Parade. Made it back without incident. Too much spicy food, knowing we had an early night, and New Year's fireworks helped conspire to limit my rest that night.
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| December 31 |
1 Jan 2020: The folks wanted to get to the stadium early, so they picked us up at 6:30. Beautiful sunrise, light traffic, easy parking... among many Ducks fans. Sigh. Mom wanted to see the Badger Band in the Rose Parade, so we hiked the 2.2 miles to get to a place on the route. I found a large planter box on which I could stand and get a better view. We watched about 20 parade entries until the Band went by, then walked back to the car. We went to the 2nd Badger Family & Friends event, this one a tailgate party with many more people in attendance. We got some food, and since we were in a nice place with a table and shade, we decided to sit and play some cards to kill time. We left there around 12:30, headed back to our car for a pre-game Bloody and to get ready for the game. We discovered a way into the stadium with no lines, and took advantage of it. We found our seats... near the 50 yard line, press box-side, 3rd row from the bottom. We were in a great position... to have no view at all. We found ourselves watching the lone video board more than the field, since the players blocked our view. It was an exciting game, but it's difficult to win when you give up 21 points on 4 turnovers. That made us Sad Badgers. Did you see us on TV? A family member did! The lack of sleep was catching up to me, and there were times I was afraid I would fall asleep in the middle of the game. Then an exciting play would happen, and I'd get a 2nd, 3rd, ... nth wind. Alas, we lost and then listened to Badger homers break down the game on the radio as we waited for the parking lots to clear. We got back to our apartment around 7:30 and I called it a day shortly thereafter.
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| January 1 |
2 Jan: Our last full day in LA. We checked out of our apartment, and did a Warner Bros Studios tour at 9. Mom and I had been on one a long time ago, and thought it was a good one, so we did it again. Many costumes from newer movies (Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Harry Potter), and we got to see a few sets (like Conan's studio) and props. Our tour guide was from Milwaukee and appreciated seeing our Badger spirit still in action. Nick was interested in seeing the Griffith Park Observatory, so we headed there. Everyone else had the same idea, and the only available parking was FAR. Given our 5+ miles walked yesterday, that wasn't well-received, so we just drove past it. We headed to the La Brea area instead, stopping for some street-style tacos for lunch. Mom had the idea of going to the Tar Pits, but the parking lot was full, so we drove past and found the Peterson Automotive Museum instead. That was a great place for the 4 of us, with many interesting collector and movie/TV vehicles to see. We killed about an hour and a half there, then walked to an Irish pub we had passed. Not much for ambiance or patrons... we were 4 of the 5 people in there besides the bartender. Finished our beers, then headed out. We decided that a view of the ocean was one more to-do item, and headed to Santa Monica again. This time, we parked pretty close to the Pier, and took a walk to the end. On the way, we picked up some souvenirs (personalized key chains for the kids). Stopped for tropical drinks at the restaurant at the end as we waited for the sun to set. Boy, was it worth it. We decided to eat dinner there, too, and took in the pier's colors on the way back to the car after. Nick and I had a red-eye out tonight, so we headed to LAX after dinner. We bid my folks farewell, got through security quickish, and whiled away the time in the gate area before our 11:40 pm flight. We made it back to Green Bay the next morning after a connecting flight in Detroit and picked up the kids. It was nice to see them and get back home again.
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| January 2 |
Felix: 10 yrs & Iris: 7 yrs
