ON THE TOWN:Seeing the beauty in nature and our children

No, I did not have a crystal ball to predict USC’s huge win over Michigan in the Rose Bowl last Monday. My 27-17 guess was probably more like Criswell channeling me.

A few people, some of them SC fans, told me I was optimistic at best; that if the Trojans did win, it would be close. But I believed otherwise. I believed then, and I believe now, that USC is either the No. 1 or No. 2 team in the nation and that USC’s loss to UCLA in the last game of the season was nothing more than the result of an intense rivalry in which anything can happen.

We did not attend the Rose Bowl and did not watch it on television, but settled instead for listening to it on the radio in the car on the way back from a long weekend in Yosemite National Park.

It won’t do me any good to tell you this because I may be fighting you for a precious reservation there in a few weeks, but what the heck.

I have traveled more than some, not as much as others, but of all the places I have seen, nothing comes close to the beauty of Yosemite. That so much heart-stopping landscape could be concentrated in one spot is enough to make a believer out of an atheist.

There are certain rules to which we adhere while in Yosemite, one of which is to avoid the use of a computer for work or to check e-mail. One of my great disappointments about the park is its recent ability to receive signals for visitors to do just that.

It seems a shame to me that anyone would go to Yosemite with a laptop to use for work or to check e-mail.

While there, the newspaper of choice was the San Francisco Chronicle, which is always good for a laugh or two. Liberal newspapers do that.

It was no shock then to note over the New Year’s weekend that the continuing coverage of the deaths of singer James Brown and former President Gerald Ford landed Brown on page two and Ford on page five.

Another chuckle arose in a review of the city’s future. It seems as though prices for San Francisco real estate will continue to rise, even while high-rise condominiums swallow up more and more real estate in areas that used to be questionable.

There’s a 600-square-foot condo for $1 million for you if you don’t mind living next to the Bay Bridge.

What grabbed my attention most was an analysis of the city’s population. According to the story, there were about 93,000 kids enrolled in San Francisco schools in 1968. Today, there are about 54,000.

That’s not a good sign. Every community needs children to restock its population. San Francisco, it seems, has become a destination for people who do not care to raise children or don’t care to raise them there.

That part of the story made me realize how fortunate we all are to live where we do, if for no other reason than we are an area that cherishes its children and provides places for them to play.

Yes, there may be a shortage of soccer or baseball fields, but in a way that is a good sign. After all, if there were a surplus of field time, it would mean that there are not enough kids using them or that they are not interested in playing some popular sports.

Either way, that would be bad.

When I look at the Daily Pilot these days, I often see page after page of kids and their successes, whether it is in sports or community service.

This year, it will be good to remember that with all of the challenges we face, we have a lot of children here who are doing some very good things and on whom we can count to make Newport-Mesa even better.

And that’s true even if they wind up attending UCLA.