7th December

---

Today Ryan woke up very excited as in the evening he was going to his first NBA game. He annoyed Theresa all day with his enthusiasm. After a much needed sleep in we decided that we would not donate to the LA taxi economy and instead work out the bus system. This worked well as we shelled out less than $2 each for a one way ticket to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. Here we walked around and were amazed at the wealth of the place. It was as you imagined it in the movies with a bit more rubbish laying around. We have also notice that it isn't an overly clean place. We looked at all the shops and marvelled at who would shop there. We found a Nike shop which was in sight of the Rodeo Drive sign so Ryan bought some shoes. We then walked further to look for Rodeo Drive expecting it to be its own road. We saw a sign, saw two roads with different names and were very confused. We then saw some people getting photos on steps and decided that must be Rodeo Drive. We walked up the steps and were correct. We walked the 200 metre that is Rodeo Drive which is actually a mall. We the walked back and decided it wasn't really that impressive. It was more of a short cut around a city block. I suppose it would be exciting for the designers who charge double if it's bought there. We then decided to walk and find a bus which could take us home, as we were informed it is silly to walk. After walking a while we couldn't find the right bus and realised we were close to our motel. We sure showed them. We then decided to head of to the basketball and headed for the buses. We found the right bus, completed the hour and 20 minute journey and were at the stadium. This alone was very exciting for Ryan. Just across from the stadium the People's Choice Awards so it was busy. We meet up with Ryan's friend Backo and his brother and sister for dinner then we were on our way to the basketball. On our journey we stopped by the merchandise store, which was a struggle as it appears they order at the beginning of the year and don't order through the whole year. This resulted in only have XL and XXL shirts available. We got to our seats about 20 minutes before tip of and saw the warm up. For a professional sport it was a very relaxed warm-up. They were just randomly shooting and stretching. We aren't sure if they did a full warm up earlier in the evening. The basketball itself was a,aIng. Ryan as jumping up and down, especially with the alley-oops Blake Griffin dunks. Unfortunately the lakers best player, and arguable the second best ever didn't do a lot and only scored 4 points. That was made up with 3 huge Blake Griffin dunks which sent the crowd into melt-down. The clippers dominate the whole game being up by 20 at half time and 30 at the 3rd quarter to the last guarded was just junk minutes where the bench players played. We left the stadium extremely happy with one of the highlight of the trio just complete. Hopefully the next two are a bit closer. To get home we meet up with some people from our trip who were here and caught a train to Hollywood where they were staying. We come up onto the walk of fame, which was grubby and dirty. The whole place had a king cross feel with dodgy people walking around and homeless and garbage everywhere. We decided to get the first cab we could find and headed for home, another trip which seemed to take forever.

---