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Bama v. Texas: Second Quarter

Alabama Third Drive: I'd say this one went significantly better than the first two. Someone finally decided to run it. And the Heisman Trophy winner did his thing. He capped off a running drive that included one complete pass.
UA 7, UT 6

Texas Fourth Drive: Still not good. This poor Gilbert kid -- the freshman backup -- is lost and just got hammered by Courtney Upshaw. This is sad.

Alabama Fourth Drive: Blah. Another sack for Kindle.

Texas Fifth Drive: Like the last two or three. Just awful. Although, on that last batted pass, the receiver was WIDE open. So it goes.

Alabama Fifth Drive: I'm thinking Mr. Richardson has a new favorite memory. Earlier this week he said his favorite memory from the season was making a tackle in his first college game. A TD in the National Title game prolly trumps that.
UA 14, UT 6

Texas Sixth Drive: Finally got a little something going and here come Javy. Interception for Mr. Arenas ends a UT threat.

Bama v. Texas: Quarter 1

Alabama's First Drive: Hmmm, that coulda gone a little better. No gain on an Ingram run, a sack, a bad incompletion and then a strange fake punt on fourth down that was intercepted. Very weird. Texas gets it at the UA 37.


Texas' First Drive: We have a score. The Longhorns moved to the UA 1, but couldn't punch it in on three tries. Settled for a FG. They also lost starting QB Colt McCoy. Seemed to just get the breath knocked out of him. Don't know. Still on the sideline.
UT 3, UA 0

Alabama's Second Drive: Didn't get one. Someone forgot to field the kickoff, so the Longhorns just took it. They're starting at the UA 30.

Texas' Second Drive: Still no McCoy. That's gotta be a problem. Another Lawrence field goal was the result of that great field position.
UT 6, UA 0

Alabama's Second Drive (for real this time): Better, especially on running plays. Ingram picked up 18 yards on run. Richardson picked up nine. The problem was they couldn't overcome the yards lost by McElroy and the OL. This is beginning to look like the 05 Iron Bowl.

Texas Third Drive: I can't believe McCoy isn't in this game. Texas looks awful without him, so someone either should find a jar of Icy Hot or let's start the running clock.

End of 1, UA knockin' on the door

At The Game

Well, hello there, boys and girls. We are mere minutes away from the start of the BCS National Championship Game here at the lovely Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

The place is packed, with Alabama fans holding a rather large advantage. So, if a full stadium brawl erupts and Vegas allows wagering, go with the folks in crimson and white. I have roamed the place, took lots of photos and had every intention of sharing. Unfortunately, the photo software on the ol' laptop is all bugged up, so you'll just have to take stock photos of random things, such as the random photo of the Rose Bowl Stadium to the right.

On my journey, I ran into several ... eh, "stars" might be too big of a word for some of these people, but they're certainly rather well known. Watched former Texas QB exit an SUV with a couple of kids who obviously weren't his. One of the stars of "Private Practice," Audra McDonald, was roaming around before knocking "America the Beautiful" out of the park. Josh Groban was hanging out and a very cordial dude. Couple of media well-knowns -- Michael Wilbon and Colin Cowherd -- could be found.

Random sighting of the day, though: Larry McReynolds.

That would be Dale Earnhardt's former crew chief and current Fox broadcast commentator. He was roaming the sidelines, wearing a Alabama hat.

Last Trip Update

OK, boys and girls, sorry for the delay in the posts here. We took a ride up to Riverside yesterday afternoon to take a few shots of the Mission Inn and the trip took much, much longer than we anticipated. Add that to the fact that work took a little longer -- stupid work, gettin' in the way -- and it was a late evening. Sorry, but I fell asleep about halfway through this post and I'm just now getting back to it.

Thems the breaks, folks.

But now that I am back, I can let you all in on a few more nice stops. Obviously, this won't do you much good if you're flying in for the game and then jetting right back out, but if you're planning on hanging around through the weekend or if you have plans to return, here are some decent stops for you.

First, the Mission Inn.

It's a very, very nice hotel in Riverside, which is about 40 miles or so north of Irvine/Newport Beach. The Inn is a remarkable place with a ton of history -- which I'll go into shortly. It's also the center of Riverside's downtown area. Several bars and restaurants in that area, including a couple of very nice restaurants inside the hotel.

Our main reason for going was that my dad was stationed at an Air Force base in Riverside -- the since-significantly downsized March Air Force Base -- and he was housed at the Mission Inn. This would have been back in the 1960s. He worked as a VIP driver during his time here, chauffeuring the bigwigs back and forth between the base and primarily LAX. His 21st birthday party was held at the hotel.

I know you don't care much about the personal part of that, but it is a very nice place with quite a bit of history. It was built in the late 1800s by an engineer. It started as a 12-room, adobe-style building, but after the engineer died, his son, Frank Miller, took over the property and started to build. Some of the most architects in the world designed one piece or another of the property and it grew into the structure you see pictured above.

Miller was apparently a rather odd little dude. He kept changing the scale of the work in order to make his height-challenged sister feel better, so there are very small corridors and narrow hallways in some sections. Not to mention the (deep breath here) exterior arcades, a medieval-style clock, a five-story rotunda, innumerable patios and windows, castle towers, minarets, a Cloister Wing (with Catacombs), flying buttresses, Mediterranean domes and a pedestrian skybridge among many other features. There are also over $5 million worth of artifacts inside the hotel that Miller gathered during his travels, including rare stained glass windows in the chapel and a bell from 1274.

So, see, now you've got a place to go and check out if you're ever in Riverside. Hey, the Osbournes (that would be Ozzie and the gang) did so not too long ago, so it can't too bad, right?


Huntington Beach

This was our only other touristy stop this week. It's a short drive up the Pacific Coast Highway (that's the PCH to us locals) from Newport Beach. The fine folks in Huntington (I didn't bother to tell them they were misspelling it) built themselves a pier a while back and allowed Ruby to put one of her diners on the end of it.

We strolled along it and the little shopping area. We watched as a street performer hammered objects into his head (never once thinking, "Hey, we should record this with some sort of magic picture machine.") and another street guy passed out dollar bills to people for answering trivia questions correctly. (I don't know. That's just what he did.)

We had lunch at a nice little pizza chain called BJ's. It was good -- a little different, but good. We also watched a few volleyball games and a whole buncha dudes surfing. There must have been 50 surfers on each side of the pier. And nice waves. Mrs. Kimberly got these couple of shots that you see to the left and right (she's good). The pelican was a big star on the pier. Don't know why, really. Just a pelican.


Welp, that's it for the travel and sightseeing (ie, fun stuff). All that's left is the game.



Remember

There are tailgate gathering in Parking Lot H and K tomorrow evening. Have fun.

Places Seen, Things To Do For You

As promised, my Bama Bandwagoners, I've got info galore on your trip to sunny Cal-lee-forn-yuh, as the state's governor calls it.

First, let's hook you up with some pertinent info about Alabama-related gatherings and parties in the L.A. area. I'd like to thank our man Chris Dobbs for putting these together and passing them along. (While I have checked through a couple of different sources to make sure these are legit gatherings, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of all the info. So, before heading out blindly, make a call or two.)


Gathering One:
Location: SOUTH (3001 WILSHIRE BLVD SANTA MONICA 90403)
When: Wednesday, January 6 starting at 3:00PM
Please join us at South on Wednesday night
Alumni from Alabama to California will be attending!
I've been told it will start around 3pm till the bar closes at 2am, so come whenever you can!

Gathering Two:
Where: Village Idiot in West Hollywood (7383 Melrose Ave.)
When: Tuesday at 7 or 8-ish p.m.
More info: www.villageidiotla.com


Gathering Three:
Where: South in Santa Monica
When: Wednesday at 7 or 8-ish p.m.
More info: www.southsantamonica.com


In addition, there are several things going on around the stadium on Thursday. The official Alabama alumni gathering has been sold out for weeks, but tickets to the ESPN party are still available in certain spots and different groups are meeting up in parking sections H and K prior to the game.

One other big one:
Where: Universal Studios
When: Wednesday; 9 a.m.-6 p.m. for all rides, 4-8 for private party
Features: The Million Dollar Band performing and an appearance by comedian John Lovitz
Tickets: $69; can be purchased at www.universalstudioshollywood.com/ua

Now, for a little more goodness ...

Things To Do

Myself and Mrs. Kimberly rolled up through L.A., Hollywood and Beverly Hills this afternoon. We had to cram quite a bit into a small window, but we're planning on rolling back for another round tomorrow.

Let's break this up into two categories: Eats and Sights. (Pretty self explanatory, I'd say.)

Eats
Couple of different spots -- Il Pastaio (an over-priced, not-so-great Italian cafe a block away from Rodeo Drive) and The Ivy (an over-priced, trendy cafe with better food and a decent celeb hotspot on Robertson Blvd.). Also, there's a Crumbs Bakery just off Rodeo that you will likely be unable to leave.

Sights
We started with a drive through downtown just to get a few quick pics of the usual stuff and then took a drive down Sunset to go through Beverly Hills. We're not big into stalking people, so we didn't bother with the star maps or any of that -- just admired the very nice, very well-kept homes.

We then moved on to Rodeo Drive. There's a parking lot off Sunset and Rodeo that runs like a buck an hour, so no big deal. (Enjoyed that immensely, actually. Cheapest parking of the week so far. I started to sleep there.) We took a stroll down the most expensive lane in the land, checked out a few very over priced products and gawked at all the luxurious people, cars and buildings. Yes, you could cut the pretentiousness with a knife, but it is a pretty place.


From the Rodeo experience, we ventured to the craziest spot on Earth -- downtown Hollywood. We parked on Hollywood Blvd just a couple of blocks down from Grauman's Chinese Theatre (pic above) and strolled down the Walk of Fame (photographic evidence to the left -- we selected our stars based on merit and the opposite of merit). The scene around Grauman's and the Kodak Theater is nuts. There was a guy dressed like Chucky, the killer doll from the movies, another dude in an Incredibles getup, a couple of girls dressed in tight cop outfits and some other guy in an Obie Wan outfit with a Yoda head -- all to make a buck or two taking photos with folks.


Things I noticed: Folks from other countries love them some Michael Jackson. There was a waiting line if you wanted your picture taken while crouching over his star on the Walk of Fame. ... It wouldn't kill the elected officials of L.A. to clean up around the Freeways. I'm no beautification award winner or anything, but some of those exits appear to be just minutes post-atomic bomb. ... The housing prices in the upscale neighborhoods in Beverly Hills are weird. I have an iPhone application that allows me to track real estate prices for the homes in my area, so as we were creeping through the Hills, I checked out what was for sale. On one street, there was a four bedroom home for a little more than $5 million. Just around the corner was another four bedroom for a little less than $2m. There was a single home lot for only $129k. And there was one home for just $567k. All of it out was out of my price range -- except for the empty lot. Me and Kim are contemplating buying it and moving a trailer in.


Tomorrow: If time allows, we're planning on making it to the Universal Studios tour and to the Mission Inn in Riverside.