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By Derek Levarse dlevarse@timesleader.com
Sports Reporter
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Josh Gaines wasn’t wishing for anything special.

A week before the Penn State captain made his way out to California for the first time, he made up his to-do list. Short and to the point.

“I just wanna see the Hollywood sign,” Gaines grinned.

Penn State’s first trip out to Southern California and the Rose Bowl in 18 years might be a bit of a culture shock for some of the Nittany Lions – particularly someone like Gaines, who has lived his life thus far in Fort Wayne, Ind., and State College.

But it hasn’t turned out to be all that dramatically different of an experience for Penn State during their early preparation to take on favored USC in Thursday’s game.

Even the weather has helped make the transition go a bit more smoothly. Temperatures this weekend around Los Angeles have actually been the same or cooler than most of Pennsylvania.

Regardless of the Lions’ comfort level leading up to the bowl, most everyone on the team is cognizant of the significance of playing in Pasadena on New Year’s Day.

Though Gaines hasn’t been anywhere near the region in his life before, growing up in the Midwest certainly gave him an appreciation for the scope of the Rose Bowl on the college football landscape.

“Watching the Rose Bowl growing up, in my eyes it was always a national championship,” the senior defensive end said. “It’s something I always looked forward to doing. I always placed myself putting a rose in my mouth. I always dreamed about doing that. It’s going to be a fun game.”

And if Gaines or any of his teammates is looking for someone perhaps to play tour guide this week, they have an ideal candidate in Lydell Sargeant.

Sargeant happens to be the lone member of the roster to have lived in California, and he hasn’t been shy about talking up the place since the Lions clinched a trip out there back on Nov. 22.

“It’s a dream come true,” Sargeant said Sunday. “I’ve wanted to come back here ever since high school. To come back in my last year and play in front of my high school coaches, friends and family is a dream come true.”

Sargeant has a pretty good perspective on the situation, having grown up outside of Pittsburgh before moving with his family out to Lompoc, Calif., for high school – about 150 miles up the coast from Los Angeles.

The senior corner hasn’t kept his excitement confined to his fellow defensive backs, either.

Wideout Derrick Williams hasn’t been further west than Oklahoma, where he has family, and San Antonio, where the Lions played in the Alamo Bowl last season.

“I imagined it being beachy, like shorts and sandals, just very wild – like a different world,” Williams laughed. “One of my best friends, Lydell, is from the West Coast and he keeps saying, ‘Come on I can’t wait for you to come out to Cali.’ Everything (he said to me) has been running through my head because I’d never been there.”

As he typically does before bowl games, Joe Paterno gave his players a few days to relax and unwind at the end of the week before getting back into full-contact practices now.

Some guys got Sargeant’s tour. Others explored on their own to see the landmarks. A few guys simply went fishing.

But most all of them agree that the surroundings won’t be a distraction for the game.

“For myself, it really hasn’t been,” defensive tackle Jared Odrick said. “I’m not really looking to do anything else other than focus on the game. The experience of L.A. is a part of it – and to enjoy yourself – but the general focus has been on the game.”