National Championship Trip to Pasadena

For our annual Connell Family Christmas trip we cancelled the plans to go to Memphis and quickly made arrangements for a 5 day vacation to Pasadena for the National Championship game. Todd's parents, his brother's family, and us all flew to Los Angeles a few days before the game. We met my parents out there who flew out a week earlier and had been staying at my Uncle Vincent's house (who lives 2 miles from the Rose Bowl). The flights out there went great and Claire behaved very well and slept about 75% of the time. It was fun to travel at the same time as so many other Alabama fans--we were definately in the majority at every airport we went through.

We traveled on Tuesday, and then went straight to Disneyland on Wednesday. Disneyland was a lot of fun for all of us. Thanks to my parents for keeping Claire and taking her to the park to play--she is still a little too young to enjoy everything at Disneyland.

On Thursday morning, Todd, Claire, my parents, and I went to visit my Dad's Mom that lives in a nursing home in Pasadena. The rest of Thursday was devoted to gameday preparations. My Mom dropped Todd, his Dad, Me and my Dad off about a mile from the Rose Bowl and the entire day could not have gone any smoother. It was definately a great game to be at and was an exciting experience from all the entertainment before the game to the game itself. (It might not have been so exciting had Alabama not won the game 37-21).

Friday we all took the 15 passenger van we had rented and drove to the Reagan National Library and Museum. It was located in one of the most beautiful areas of California and had some of the best views we saw on the trip. They also had a retired Air Force One that you actually got to go inside--definatley the highlight of the museum (besides my Mom stealing a couple of fresh oranges off the trees there-very yummy!)

Saturday, we drove up the Pacific Coast Highway for a couple of hours and then drove back through Hollywood and saw Rodeo Drive, Sunset Blvd, Kodak Theatre, etc. We also got out and visited the LaBrea Tar Pits. Sunday morning we all packed up and started the long journey home and got to experience the long waits of checking in at LAX. It was a great trip with perfect weather and was very exciting for me to finally get to go back to California to see my Uncle, grandmother, and where my Dad grew up for the first time since I was about 7 years old. Here are a few of the many pictures we took while there.

Thanks to my Uncle Vincent for being a wonderful host to us while we were in LA. It was great to get to spend so much time with you. Thanks to Todd for being a personal chauffeur to all of us driving that 15 passenger van all over in LA traffic while I concentrated on interpreting the directions from the GPS. Thanks to MiMi and Pop-Pa for another wonderful Christmas trip--I'm not sure if you'll be able to top this one though. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for being great California tour guides and keeping Claire a couple of days so Todd and I could enjoy some free time while on vacation.