The Final Leg - LA

10th Mar, 2008

Arrived safe and sound in LA yesterday afternoon. The hotel is lovely, the Intercontinental at Century City on the outskirts of Beverley Hills....




Today we headed out at 10am for breakfast. Of course, we were only going to have breakfast at the best of addresses....




We then had our nicest breakfast of the whole trip and as it turned out, our cheapest. We were about halfway thru our meal when we were approached by the manager and another chap, who turned out to be a builder, to inform us that there had been work carried out on the air conditioning and they were concerned that when they started it up shortly that traces of builders dust may come down. We all told him not to worry and had a bit of a laugh about it. He recognised our accent and asked us if we were Aussies. We told him we were and not to worry about things.

Whether they were relieved that they weren't dealing with the usual Rodeo Drive prima donnas I don't know, but the builder turned to the manager and said "Put their bill on my tab, breakfast is on me" A bloody beauty we said, breakfast at Rodeo Drive and all paid for.

We then walked around and had a look at a few shops, you may recognise the names, Clive and I didn't....












We then went to the Beverly Hills Centre where Clive and I were enthralled by the Macy's shoe section....



We then hopped a cab to Downtown for more shopping before heading to the Ice Hockey for the evening at the Staples Centre....




The local team, the LA Kings were playing the Vancouver Canucks. As LA are running last in the comp and Vancouver are in the running for the finals, we decided to follow the local side and cheer for the upset. The game is a fantastic spectacle and after watching the baseball on my previous 2 trips to the US and thinking I'd probably be divorced if I lived here because I'd want to spend 4 nights a week at the baseball during summer, then 3 nights a week during winter watching the Ice Hockey would clinch the deal, no doubt.

It is fast and at times furious....





Scores were level 0-0 as they went into the third and final 20 minute period. Vancouver had the better of play, but the LA goalie was having a good night and came up with some great saves. Finally a goal, to LA....



....and the local crowd is going wild. Only 11 minutes 29 seconds to go and the underdogs hit the front....



LA Kings are hanging on, then disaster strikes in the form of an equaliser with 2 minutes 41 seconds left....



The clock counts down to zero and we have a 1-1 draw. But no draws in the NHL, so we have a 5 minute sudden death extra time. If scores are level after that they have a shootout where a player goes one on one with the goalie. It's overtime....



Unfortunately for us and the Kings, it was a very short overtime, just 36 seconds long when the Canucks slotted a second and winning goal....




Overall a really enjoyable night. The game went for about 2 and a half hours all up, even though actual playing time is 1 hour. Every stoppage of play is greeted with some sort of crowd involvement event with the MC orchestrating random lookalikes and other fun things.

We caught a taxi back to Beverly Hills for a very late dinner and we arrived back at the hotel well after midnight.

Well, tomorrow we pack and come home, albeit not till very late at 11:45pm.

This will be the last entry. Thank you to everybody who has taken the time to respond and leave a comment on the blog. I've enjoyed delivering the news to you each day and all 4 of us have enjoyed the feedback from all those who have responded.

See you soon....