It had been several months since I last drove down. Here I am rolling down the I-5 towards LA in the twilight with a lovely moon in the background. A nice image to break up the monotony of the otherwise uneventful drive.
The next day, I found myself back in good old DTLA (Downtown Los Angeles) on a sunny September morning enroute to the USC campus.
On campus for the first time in ages, we head straight to McCarthy Quad to immerse ourselves in the college football tailgating experience. Lots more folks than I remember, though you can really see how the success of the teams during my college tenure really laid the groundwork for this increased popularity. Just saying...
A brief pep rally in front of Bovard Auditorium (and near the Tommy Trojan statue) prior to the masses begin to migrate towards the Coliseum.
A beautiful sunset over the LA Coliseum as USC exerts its superiority over a gallant but overmatched Hawaii team.
Some of the folks I enjoyed the game with including some key friends from my time at SC (Cat, Claudia, Melissa, Ryan, Brad and Diane). Such a glorious start to the season!
We even got to use our football ticket stubs to get us into the Galen Center to watch some Women's Volleyball!
The very next weekend, I headed out to the East Coast to watch the next game in the season against Syracuse. The awesome weekend began with a late night dinner in Koreatown with Phil (sorry, no pics). The next day, I met up with Kurt for a bit of wandering about town starting with lunch at Ippudo. Good ramen, though I'm a bit partial to Ramen Dojo in San Mateo.
After lunch, we ventured to Queens to check out MoMA PS1 (called so due to it residing in Public School Building #1). One of the memorable exhibits was this room filled with confetti and industrial fans. It looked kinda like a colorful snowstorm as the paper swirled around in the wind. Quite pretty.
After getting our fill of art and also having sufficiently digested lunch, we headed down to Brooklyn to grab a Steak & Cheese pie from Down Under Bakery. Yum as usual!
After our quick snack, we tried to decide what to do next and ultimately came up with the idea to have dinner at Kurt's apartment. We bought some fresh lobster in Chinatown on the way back and carried them all the way back on the Subway. Quite an experience cooking live lobster and I'll simply say that next time, we'll have to try the freezer method to see if that might be better for them.
The ultimate result of our combined cooking: Surf & Turf (steak & lobster with mixed white/brown rice and a wilted arugula salad). Delicious!!!
The next day, we ventured to New Jersey for the USC v. Syracuse game at the New Meadowlands (home to my beloved NY Giants). A very modern and beautiful stadium on a lovely summer's day.
An early possession for the SC offense who got off to a bit of a slow start, much to the chagrin of the sizable traveling SC fan base.
After enjoying halftime, authorities alerted the thousands of fans at the game that the second half would be postponed to allow a thunderstorm front to blow through. You can see us all here calmly evacuating our seats to take shelter in the relative safety of the stadium. The storm generated significant wind gusts, heavy rain and lightning/thunder to boot. I'm glad we stayed dry as we waited out the storm. An hour later, everyone went back to their seats for the second half and USC overcame the lengthy break to score enough points for the victory over Syracuse.
It took a longtime on the NJ Rail to get to the game and they did a slightly better job getting folks out. Here we are waiting for the next train back to Manhattan (with Traci's friends, Traci, Kurt & Gigi).
After a yummy dinner of Japanese Izakaya, we met up with Phil for desserts at Kyotofu (a dessert bar that uses tofu in all their dishes). All the desserts tasted great and I'd recommend this place for a late night sweet tooth indulgence.
I had heard a lot about Shake Shack from many friends and I figured I should go see what the fuss was about. I'll say the burgers tasted great, but I don't agree that it warrants all the high praise that others have heaped on it. Ultimately: good but not exceptional.
Certainly an odd sight to see an aircraft carrier and the Manhattan skyline, but here we are at the U.S.S. Intrepid.
Of course we came to see the Space Shuttle Enterprise in its temporary home in all its glory. I know this shuttle hasn't made it to space like the others, but it certainly has a lot of prestige being the first of its kind and also being named after such a prestigious ship...
Kurt on the Bridge of the Intrepid, just in front of the wheel.
The Enterprise aside, this Lego model of the Intrepid could possibly have been the next coolest thing I saw there (complete with crewman overboard).
Ultimately a busy, busy two weekends but an immense amount of fun for sure. I'm glad I got to see my football team at the peak of their season (all downhill since those first two, glorious weeks) because it had been a while since I tasted College Football. More importantly, I'm glad I got to see a lot of old friends during these two trips on both coasts! Much thanks goes to Grant, Phil, Traci & Kurt for letting me stay over during my visits!!! Keep an eye out for the next update and Happy New Year/新年快乐！
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