We flew into L.A. on Wednesday night. We toured Malibu and some of the beach towns on Thursday, We stayed in Santa Monica, and visited the pier with its quirky characters and homeless people. On Friday, we went to LaBrea Park and the Academy Awards Museum. My wife is an actress, so it was great to take her photo next to a statue of her future Oscar. The museum was OK - it could have featured more movie memorabilia and more classic movies. I really enjoyed the current exhibit on the Godfather movies, which included props like the horse's head and the Godfather's desk. James Gandolfini would have approved.
We visited the USC campus before the game, and as others said, the heart of the campus is beautiful, but It was a bit disorienting to have to go through a metal detector and ID check just to set foot on the campus. Some of the buildings that were not in the heart of the campus were pretty ordinary tough.
One of the impressive campus buildings included a museum of their athletics program, and featured something like 8 Heisman trophies in a circular display. I can't imagine trying to recruit against that kind of tradition, but we have to do that.
My personal highlight of the visit was getting to walk around the School of Cinematic Arts buildings. When one of your buildings is named after George Lucus and the other has Speilberg's name carved in the stone entrance, you know that the school is in a league of its own. Side note: I think that Rutgers should build a media/broadcasting complex, complete with a Hollywood-style back lot on the vacant land on the Livingston Campus. There is no reason we can't have the preeminent media/broadcasting school on the East Coast (NYU film school is ripe for the taking!).
The Coliseum is impressive, and I enjoyed the bucket seats. The energy in the stadium did leave a lot to be desired though. They had a very annoying DJ, and I think the crowd at SHI stadium is louder and more intense. Our tailgating environment is also much better. The drone show was cool, but was also anti-climactic. Also, the announcement that they could not light the Olympic Torch in the 4th quarter "due to technical reasons" was disappointing.
We spent Saturday at Universal Studios, where they really amped up the back lot tour with two immersive video experiences since our last visit. We ended our West Coast visit with a trip to Laguna Beach, which is the closest experience to visiting Hawaii on on the US mainland. The views of the beach, the ocean, and the flora was amazing.
One other note - we experienced a rolling fog that blocked the view of the Ocean on some of our beach visits. That was a surprise.
Except for the game, the trip was a great experience and I would definitely like to go back the next time we play USC.
Scarlet Jerry
