The three of us were fully anticipating a slow drive based on the feedback we had heard from others about the parade traffic. Evidently we left at close to the perfect time as we didn’t hit any traffic until arriving in downtown Pasadena. We found a garage and were parked by a little after 6am. Matt pulled up the address of the church on his phone and I entered it into my iPhone map. We were parked about six tenths of a mile from the church. The walk was quite enjoyable. Seeing all the people who camped out was thoroughly entertaining. The excitement amongst the crowd for the impending parade was palpable.
Eventually we found the Petal Pushers. We stood around for a bit, unsure if we should march up and say something like “Hey where are our seats?!?” Thankfully one of the ladies from the previous evening eventually saw us and said, “Hey! It’s our Oregon and Wisconsin friends!” At this point Ellie, the woman we primarily spoke with last night, and her husband Lynn came up and started talking with us. We talked with them for a good half hour before Ellie said she would go and find the Presbyterian Minister to see if there were chairs for us. As luck (or the Lord) would have it the minister put out 30 chairs for the Petal Pushers. This year their group had 27 members. Turns out there were exactly three seats for us! We marked the sticky notes on our chairs with our names and then went for a stroll to find some breakfast.
By the time we returned to our seats it was already 7:45am. The parade was set to kick off at 8am but we were told it would take about 30 minutes for it to reach our spot on the parade route. We sat in our chairs, enjoyed our breakfast and spoke with a lovely Indian guy named BJ. He shared his story of growing up poor in India and how he came to know the Lord. He also told us that he was currently working on his third PhD, this time in theology, at Fullerton.
Before we knew it a motorcade of motorcycle cops announced the impending arrival of the parade. The parade was truly fantastic. It takes something special for me to concede that it was worth getting up at 4:30am. In this instance, it was well worth it.
After the parade we made the half-mile plus walk back to the car. Getting out of the parking garage was surprisingly easy, however, the traffic once we hit the street was terrible. It was 11am when we got in the car. At 11:30am we were three blocks from the parking garage. Since traffic was barely moving we decided it might be smart for one of the boys to hop out of the car and pick up some lunch. Needless to say, shortly after Andrew hopped out of the car, the traffic started moving. Matt and I decided to pull over and wait for Andrew to catch up. Before too long we were back on our way to the Rose Bowl.
Two years ago getting into the parking lot of the Rose Bowl was an absolute nightmare. This year our streak of being blessed logistically continued. We took a few back-roads down into the stadium. The line of cars waiting to park was fairly short but even better than that was that we got to park on the baseball field as opposed to the golf course. Our spot was only a short walk into the stadium and our departure was quite smooth as well.
We parked around 12:30pm and made our way to find some of Matt’s friends. We found them with surprising ease. They were gracious hosts and offered us some drinks. We enjoyed a beverage or two and then set off for the game.
On the way to our seats, waiting to go through tunnel five, we ran into Bailey and John. It was convenient timing in that it took a good 15 minutes to get through the tunnel. We finally made it into our seats at roughly 1:45pm, the perfect time to see all of the pre-game festivities without baking in the sun for an excessive amount of time.
I could write a novel about my enjoyment of the game itself. I sat with Andrew, Matt, Han-Mei, Joe and a rotating group of Zehnders and one Smith. Our seats were from the 35 to the 45. The game had everything a true fan could want. Lots of offense, lots of big plays, many lead changes and it literally came down to the last play. Andrew and Matt were great sports about sitting in the Duck section and gracious in defeat. I used to always say I wanted to attend bowl games until I was there for a victory but now that I’ve experienced a victory, I had so dang much fun I might have to keep going.
We hung around to watch the post game celebration and to listen to the Wisconsin band play. Evidently after every game, win or lose, the band plays for nearly an hour. They are supremely talented. The Badgers may have lost the game but they certainly won the battle of the bands.
Once we left the Rose Bowl we went back to downtown Pasadena for dinner. Andrew had gotten a few restaurant recommendations from friends. We settled on an Italian restaurant, Louise’s Trattoria, that turned out to be fantastic. After dinner we were all quite tired from our long day. I took the boys back to their hotel, said my goodbyes and then made my way to my hotel.
I’m now thoroughly exhausted yet I can’t make myself fall asleep. I’m still on a victory high. A replay of the game just came on ESPN, so I might be in for a long night.
Here’s to the Ducks, the 2012 Rose Bowl Champions. Congrats on what is likely the biggest win in school history.
Katy
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