Gone Bowling

Posted on January 4th, 2016

Great gifts are given when you give someone something they really want but would never buy for themselves.  The very best gifts are given when you also get to benefit from the present. #selfless  For Ian’s Christmas gift, I covered all of those bases and more.

Going to the Rose Bowl is something Ian and I have both wanted to do forever and ever (it’s on my Life List!).  We love football, and the Rose Bowl could not be more steeped in tradition.  It’s in California, which has been pretty inconvenient for us in the past, but with our new West Coast location and New Years Day falling on a Friday, I realized the timing could not be more perfect.  Stealthily, I bought tickets and flights.

From a planning standpoint, I didn’t want to completely spring the trip on Ian only a few days in advance, so I actually orchestrated the reveal a few weeks ago.  I got a bunch of red roses delivered and worked with the concierge in our building so they would be strategically placed on our dining table when we got home.  I loved the look on Ian’s face when he read the card and realized what it meant!

We were so, so excited for our trip… even though it meant waking up at 2:15am on New Years Day for our flight to Los Angeles.  The sun came up as we landed!  (Rose Quartz and Serenity, anyone?)

A huge part of the Rose Bowl fun is the parade, and while we did miss the beginning, we found a great sunny spot along the route to watch.  I loved the massive high school marching bands from all over the country, but as a good St. Louis girl of course my favorite part was the clydesdales!

It was a classic Rose Bowl day– sunny and high 60s, and incredibly luxurious for us Seattleites!  Between the parade and the game we watched the other football games on TV and had an early lunch at Slater’s 50/50, but pretty soon it was time to consume large quantities of espresso go to the stadium!

I had purchased the tickets a month before it was announced what teams were even playing, so but it turns out we were seated in the heart of Iowa Hawkeye territory.  In the beginning it was fun because they were so excited to be at their first Rose Bowl in 25 years…

But it became slightly less fun when they were on the losing end of the most lopsided in the Rose Bowl’s 102 year history.

We’re already debating which bowl game to go to next year.  (I vote Fiesta!)  Crossing off a Life List item on the very first day of 2016?  Not bad.