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Highlights from the 2018 Rose Bowl between Oklahoma and Georgia.

Come one, come all! Gates are now OPEN and #BoomerSooner and #GoDawgs fans are pouring in pic.twitter.com/2Sa6sUrsAa

— Rose Bowl Game (@rosebowlgame) January 1, 2018

The Dawgs are in the house! Head coach Kirby Smart and QB Jake Fromm lead @FootballUGA down the tunnel past a swarm of fans and into the locker room pic.twitter.com/cyfn2ShT3Z

— Rose Bowl Game (@rosebowlgame) January 1, 2018

Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield looks relaxed pregame catching passes #Sooners #RoseBowl2018 pic.twitter.com/qqMxoZ47t7

— Fred J. Robledo (@SGVNSports) January 1, 2018

If you were up early to catch the 129th annual Tournament of Roses parade, you might have seen an ad with the save the date for the return of a music festival to Pasadena.

And unlike Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon’s Cord & Tish commentary on Amazon Prime, this wasn’t a joke.

Arroyo Seco Weekend, which made its debut on the grounds surrounding the Rose Bowl in 2017, will return June 23 and 24 for its second year.

The festival, put on by Goldenvoice, which also helms events such as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach Country Music Festival, launched Arroyo Seco with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Mumford and Sons at the top of the bill.

Unlike those destination festivals, Arroyo Seco was aimed at the locals who could spend the night in their own beds after being able to catch entire sets from artists rather than rushing from stage to stage. It had a feel that was more like a street fair, but with a population the size of a small city.

Related: Arroyo Seco Weekend isn’t a stress-tival, it’s all about chilling out to summer jams

Set on the grounds outside of the Rose Bowl, at the Brookside Golf Course among grass and large sycamore trees, Arroyo Seco had two large open air stages as well as a more intimate stage in a tent that hosted a number of jazz performances, including a memorable set from Jeff Goldblum that included trivia about the actor.

Related: The good, bad and the weird of Arroyo Seco Weekend

While a number of festivals have been stepping up their food game, Arroyo Seco had more than 30 percent of its food outposts from Pasadena restaurants, including Union, whose chef and owner Bruce Kalman is currently competing on reality show “Top Chef.”

The festival’s social media channels posted about the return as did the event’s website, but offered only the dates for the 2018 festival. However, you can sign up for an email newsletter via the Arroyo Seco Weekend website for more information in the future.

Save the date 🌳 Summer can’t come soon enough pic.twitter.com/WbdnLGhmmx

— Arroyo Seco Weekend (@arroyosecowknd) January 1, 2018

The hundreds of thousands who packed Colorado Boulevard Monday morning for the 129th Tournament of Roses parade likely weren’t disappointed with this year’s edition of Pasadena’s most famous event.

From international marching bands to Earth Wind and Fire, and from panda-filled floats to the Rose Queen herself, there was plenty to see at the 2018 Rose Parade.

Here’s a few of the images our photographers embedded along the route captured today.

Keep these yachts in mind as you plan your 2018 holiday adventures.

It’s never been easier to stick with those New Year’s resolutions at Switzerland’s newest wellness retreat.

The TV star has thrown in the towel on bringing Singapore-style street food to New York City.

The most high-tech hangover cures, plus a dose of the traditional.

The equestrian estate includes an indoor ring, three outdoor rings, 27 stalls, and staff quarters.

CARSON — Maybe this was the last time we will see Antonio Gates on a football field. Then again, maybe it wasn’t.

If it was, at least he’ll leave us with a vintage moment to remember him by. It occurred just before the end of the first half Sunday at StubHub Center, aka Black Hole South.

Gates got open just enough on a second-and-9 from the Oakland 26, Philip Rivers threaded the needle to get it to him and Gates caught it and dragged both feet in bounds before getting out with 30 seconds left, for a first down at the 6.

It set up a touchdown pass to Keenan Allen that sent the Chargers to intermission with a 20-10 lead over the Raiders. They finished with a 30-10 victory that provided a rousing conclusion to their first season in greater Los Angeles, even if all of those hiccups at the start of the season ultimately kept them out of the playoffs.

No, Gates wasn’t ready to announce if he wanted to return in 2018, which would be a 16th NFL season at age 38. He did say he’d prefer that it be here, with a team he thinks is awfully close to breaking through, but that “winning a Super Bowl is a priority.”

To be perfectly frank, it might not be his decision to make. This is the NFL, after all, and players are disposable. And the market for an aging tight end who finished the season with 32 catches for 316 yards and three touchdowns, and who went through a mid-season stretch where he was barely being targeted, might well depend on who’s doing the asking.

The deciding point could well be what people don’t see, what takes place between Sundays. Gates has been a mentor for second-year pro Hunter Henry, and while he wasn’t delighted to be a backup to Henry at midseason he accepted the role and made it work for all involved.

“I’d love to have him back — that’s it, bar none,” fellow tight end Sean McGrath said. “I want him in the room because I’m selfish, because you can learn so much from him. Everyone can learn so much from him.

“ … I think it’s showed dividends in Hunter in just the short time they’ve been together. You get that tool set in this game, and it’s hard to send someone like that packing.”

When Henry went down two weeks ago with a lacerated kidney, Gates stepped back up. He had six catches for 81 yards and a score last Sunday against the Jets, with the Chargers playing to keep their postseason hopes alive. This week he had four for 46 against the Raiders, on an afternoon the Chargers needed help to get to the postseason and didn’t get it.

Gates acknowledged after Sunday’s game that the individual goal of breaking Tony Gonzalez’ record for touchdowns by a tight end was an early-season emphasis; he took care of that in Week 2, his L.A. debut against Miami. But by Week 6 he was second string, something he hadn’t experienced since he was 10.

“I don’t know if I enjoyed it,” he said. “But I think when you have the group of guys we have, you tend to accept that and appreciate your role and say, ‘OK, this is what they want me to do. I’m going to be the best backup guy in the league.’

“And I think that was more my mindset coming in. This is the road they want me to proceed with … One thing I said to myself, despite how this season was going, was that I didn’t want to get so caught up in my role that when my time was called I wasn’t prepared for that moment.”

He’s not the same force he was for this team in San Diego, as the guy Rivers always looked to when a key play was needed. But his teammates see a guy who’s still got it. He just uses it more judiciously.

“I have a little saying I (tell) my kids: I still got the juice,” he said.

Keenan Allen noted that he marvels at Gates’ route-running: “You still can’t play man-on-man against him, because it’s a no-win … he makes guys miss just as much as I do.”

And as Rivers, his long time running mate, put it:

“I think you saw the last three weeks where he needed to be the so-called every down tight end, he can certainly still do it. He was very effective the last few weeks where we needed him in a bigger role.

“Obviously, his contract is up. Those things (about his future) are better left to ask him. He’s had a heck of a go thus far, so we’ll see where it is from here on out.”

The guess, given Gates’ post-game comments, is that retiring is not in his plans at this point. A more definitive answer probably will be weeks away, and it may hinge on whatever discussions he has with general manager Tom Telesco and president of football operations John Spanos, and maybe even higher up to the office of Dean Spanos.

Gates hasn’t given it much thought to now for one good reason.

“Once you start making those decisions, you’ve already got one foot out,” he said.

And wasn’t it obvious? Throughout this strange first season in L.A., Gates remained all in.

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@Jim_Alexander on Twitter

LOS ANGELES — USC’s rocky opening to Pac-12 Conference play leveled a little Sunday evening.

The Trojans handled Washington State, an 89-71 victory in which they never trailed and lead by as many as 28 points, averting a potentially disastrous home sweep.

Six players scored in double-figures, led by 17 points from senior guard Elijah Stewart, while Jordan McLaughlin added 10 points with 11 assists, his second double-double this season.

USC, which improved to 10-5 overall and 1-1 in conference, held the Cougars to just under 40 percent shooting, an about-face two days after one of its worst defensive performances in more than a decade.

“I feel it was more urgency this game,” Stewart said. “We had to come in and redeem ourselves.”

In an 88-81 loss to Washington in their conference opener Friday, the Huskies had shot 67 percent. It was the highest percentage any team had made against the Trojans since 2003, adding to a season filled with turbulence.

Following the defeat, USC coach Andy Enfield told reporters he was “disappointed” with his veteran players’ defensive effort.

“They’ve been to two straight NCAA Tournaments, they’ve won a lot of big games, they set the school record for wins, and we have a lot of returnees from those two years,” Enfield said. “They know what it takes to win. They know what it takes defensively to have a chance to win big games, because they’ve done it many, many times. That’s what I was so upset with.”

As part of their defensive effort, playing in front of a small New Year’s Eve crowd of 2,518 at the Galen Center, the Trojans forced 10 steals, equaling a season-high, and held Washington State’s leading scorer, Robert Franks to nine points on seven shot attempts. Franks, a 6-foot-7 forward, averaged 18.2 points in his first 13 games.

“We had more energy,” McLaughlin said.

Stewart said the Trojans tried to slow down Washington State’s top shooters.

“We just stopped them from doing what they were good at,” Stewart said.

Enfield reiterated his concerns with players at practice Saturday and in the lead-up to tip-off against Washington State (8-6, 0-2 in Pac-12).

“We’re not down on our players,” he added, “we just had to point out that they know what to do.”

The Trojans were without sophomore guard De’Anthony Melton, their best defender, who missed his 15th consecutive game as the school investigates his eligibility, connected to an FBI probe into bribery and corruption in college basketball.

The preseason top-10 team, which has also dealt with a wave of injuries, including second-leading scorer Bennie Boatwright for a pair of games, did return backup point guard Derryck Thornton, a Duke transfer, who scored two points in nine minutes off the bench. Thornton appeared on the court for the first time since November after a nine-game absence.

USC, though, was not without issues against the Cougars.

Forward Chimezie Metu was ejected late in the first half for swiping Washington State’s Carter Skaggs in the groin following a 3-point attempt, a sequence that could also draw a suspension for its conference road opener at Cal on Thursday.

After Skaggs hoisted a shot from the corner, Metu sprinted toward the 3-point arc in effort to contest the attempt. Rather than raising his arms to try a late block, Metu dropped his left arm to swipe in the direction of Skaggs’ crotch. The Cougars’ guard dropped to the court in some pain.

Officials reviewed the sequence and called a flagrant 2 foul on Metu, prompting his ejection with 5:43 left in the first half.

Enfield said in a news conference after the game that he had not yet seen a replay of Metu’s groin swipe.

“If it’s poor sportsmanship, we’ll address it,” Enfield said.

Without Metu, the Trojans went more than three minutes without a basket, until a jump shot by Jordan Usher, while Washington State went on an 11-0 run.

Before his ejection, Metu in 10 minutes had scored seven points, including a slam dunk on the possession prior to the ejection.

USC ended the first half on a quick spurt, closing with a 41-31 lead at halftime.

The Trojans shot 54 percent from the field, though only 25 percent from beyond the arc.