We have been busy with media events all day. I’ll try to give everyone the ‘inside scoop’ of what went down on our second day of Los Angeles adventure from the perspective of a football-illiterate photographer.

Six a.m. came early, but we stumbled to our white, 12-passenger van by 6:30. On schedule so far. With reporter Dan Johnson at the wheel we navigated down PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) and on to the freeway, taking advantage of the carpool lane. Traffic wasn’t bad and we quickly found the Beverly Hilton.

This is where things got interesting. The clearance to enter the parking garage was going to be close and our van was a bit tall. We bravely scraped our way in and soon realized this was a mistake. The ramp to go up a level was obviously too small. Dan cautiously backed DOWN the ramp, which caused a bit of a backup in the garage. We went down a level and wedged ourself in elsewhere. The truck next to us had a body in it. I hope the person was just taking a nap.

We went inside and found the sweet media rooms. After receiving our credentials we checked out breakfast. My favorite was the passion fruit iced tea and bagels. The reporters headed to the Illinois press conference while us photographers stayed behind for a bit… to play Moose Hunter.

Yes, the media room was equipped with free arcade games. Brad has apparently been moose hunting before because he was quite the expert. I failed miserably but managed to slaughter a few geese and a cute dog. Whoops.

Face and I headed down to the end of the press conference to get a few photos of the defensive players and coaches. Everything is and was extremely organized and media-friendly. We got the shots we needed and headed back to Josh’s house to edit and write.

Later in the afternoon, Face, Brad and Josh went to the USC campus to cover their football practice. I went with the reporters in the van to catch the end of the Illinois practice at the Home Depot Center in Carson. In all honestly, I don’t know much about football (hence my blogging about beef and moose hunting), but the players seemed to be relaxed and in good spirits. Everyone was leaving the field smiling and joking with each other. Juice told the reporters the teacup ride at DisneyLand was the highlight of the trip so far, which was pretty cute. Other players didn’t even seem bitter about turning down Hugh Hefner’s invitation to the Playboy Mansion.

On the drive home we spotted quite a few characters selling roses on the street. One gentleman decided it would be a good idea to stand in the middle of an intersection with peanuts and roses for sale.

We’re back at the Birnbaum’s now. Josh’s mom and dad are excellent hosts. They’ve definitely gone out of their way to make all eight of us feel at home. Right now they’re cooking us a huge barbeque dinner and it smells delicious.

“Who needs the Beverly Hilton when you have the Birnbaum’s,” Alex just said.

Check out today’s story and photos from practice on DailyIllini.com if you actually want to know anything about football.

Tomorrow is the pep rally and media day so we’ll be up early again bringing you the latest Illini news.

I should probably start carrying the real cameras around before the photographers completely shun me, but I’ve been getting some great images with my phone. Expect artsy beach photos taken with a real camera soon. For now, imagine having this a few yards away from your house

Moose hunters in action. This whole game was full of camouflage and country music. Very reminiscent of Illinois, and kind of out of place in the Beverly Hilton.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 29th, 2007 at 8:05 pm and is filed under bowl season, Rose Bowl. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.