Northwestern landed in the Holiday Bowl on December 31, so after our San Francisco house sit we rented a car and headed to SoCal for a few days including the game. We stopped for a night in Carmel and stayed with Brian and Anne (uncle and aunt). We met Jack the cat and lined up another house-sit. They’re heading to Europe for three (or four?) weeks when the school year ends in June (Anne is a teacher). We’ll take care of Jack and rough it in Carmel. The US Open is at Pebble Beach during our stay (how nice), so get in touch if you’d like to come by for that or some other part of our stay.
We next stopped in Los Angeles and stayed a night with my college friend Maria. Another college friend, Andrew, joined us. We all jumped in the car and headed to San Diego the next day. To break up the drive, Andrew found us a nice brewery to visit.
Unfortunately, it was overcast on game day with a few showers thrown in. We met up with Branaca, another college friend, at her tailgate.
Andrew, Maria, Branaca, Leena, Drew.
We also connected with Randy and his tailgate. The west coast crew made plans to meet again for Northwestern’s 2019 opener at Stanford.
The weather was looking decent at the start of the game.
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Midway through the first quarter, rain was imminent, so we moved to some mid-field seats just under the stadium cover. That was a good call because it rained for the rest of the game.
Northwestern was dominated by Utah in the first half and we found ourselves down 20-3. Oh well, we were 7-point underdogs. We got a stop to start the second half, and then drove for a touchdown on our first possession. But Utah moved the ball down the field and had a first-and-goal from the six. Then came the game-changing play: a strip-sack fumble followed by an 86 yard return for a touchdown. Suddenly it was 20-17. Northwestern got three move turnovers in the quarter and two touchdowns, taking a 31-20 lead heading to the fourth quarter. I can’t ever remember Northwestern scoring 28 points in a quarter.
Northwestern controlled enough of the ball and the clock for a scoreless fourth quarter to win 31-20.
The team headed over to the band for the Alma Mater after the game.
We drove back to LA for a few days before flying to Cabo San Lucas on the fourth. I got in a last round of golf (for a few months) at Rustic Canyon. From the 16th tee just after sunset. I finished on 18 in pitch black.
