Day 2: We didn't do much on New Years Day, except watch football. I missed the Rose Parade completely. I should have taken pictures of my hotel room, it was probably as big as Styx's apartment, lol. And we got a deal on the price because my sister Sue knows someone who knows an employee (or something like that) so we got the rooms for $75 a night instead of at least $120. You enter the room, and there's a kitchen to your left, with a stove and dishwasher and refridgerator. Straight ahead is a couch (with a hide-a-bed) and a desk, and a television set. Just past the kitchen is the bedroom, that has a door for privacy. There's a vanity sink and mirror, another tv, a chair and ottoman, a king sized bed, and a nice big bathroom. Plus a closet, and an ironing board. It's almost more of an extended stay type places. It was called American Inns or something like that.

This is my great-niece Leah. She's six years old and already a drama queen. She started calling me "auntie Denisey neesy neesy" and of course her younger brother picked up on it and started it too. Her mother tried to stop them, but it still would slip out every once in awhile. Note the red hair? It's prevalent in my family, lol.

Here's Bob working his daily Sudoku puzzle, with Sam working his puzzles next to him. Sam is only three, but is VERY into construction. The box of puzzles has 4 puzzles in them, and he knows each one by it's proper name. One is an excavator, and he can actually say the word, lol. Note the red hair? LOL

This is my aunt Val. She's 30 years older than me, and still looks WONDERFUL for her age. For those that know how old I am, you can figure out how old she is, lol.

Side story about my trip that I didn't mention in my Day 1 post. When I got to the airport Monday morning, I was thinking that it was New Year's Eve, the flight wouldn't be full, there'd be plenty of room on the plane, etc. Since I was flying out of Midway, it was quicker than O'Hare, and I was able to use the skycap service to check my bag and avoid the ticket line, which was very long. Since I had my boarding pass, I went straight to security and then to my gate. As I was walking to my gate (only a few gates past security) I noticed there were a lot of people walking around in orange shirts, sweatshirts, hats, jackets, and they all said Illinois on them.

I thought for a second and then realized I'd hit the mother of all plane trips. University of Illinois fans flying to LA for the Rose Bowl football game against USC. I was afraid the flight would be rowdy, certainly knew it would be packed. I think at least half my flight were U of I fans going to the game, many were families with multiple children, all wearing orange and blue, lol. Who knew when I made my flight arrangements back in November that I'd have to deal with this, lol. Fortunately this flight went off without any hitches and I arrived safely and on-time in LA. My aunt certainly knew she was in the right area when she saw all the Illinois shirts of people coming down to baggage claim, lol.