I'm 53 which I imagine a lot of the posters on here consider old. It's a great bowl game for sure but it doesn't mean what it used to, not with the national championship playoffs we have today. The biggest game of the year was played yesterday, the Rose Bowl is a consolation prize. Back in the old days of my youth and young adulthood it wasn't a consolation prize, it was THE PRIZE. It isn't anymore.
It would definitely be a great trip to make and will probably be a great game against a very good opponent in Stanford. Should someone choose to go you would almost certainly have a great time. I lived in SoCal for 7 years, drove 5 minutes from my house to watch the Hawkeyes in the 1987 Holiday Bowl. SoCal is awesome. But it isn't as big a deal as it used to be, like when they finally made it back my sophomore year in the 1981 season. Honestly which bowl they got into didn't make one bit of difference to me.