Monday, December 19, 2011
Shoot around this morning started at 10 am and it went really good. After shoot around we went and ate Jersey Mikes Subs again since it has managed to be a great place for us to eat before the games in the past. After we ate, half of the team went to the mall to do a little bit of shopping so we wouldn’t be stuck at the hotel for the whole three hours before the game! When 6:30 pm rolled around we were all ready to hit the court and play our game!!
Tonight was our last game and our last night here in California and we went out with a bang! We played the University of La Verne tonight and came out with yet another win!! The final score was 97-84; it was a very high-scoring game. Although we won, the game was not easy. In fact, the team we played tonight had a strategy like no other team we have faced. Their strategy was that if they hit a 3-pointer for every one of our 2's they would win the game. The strategy was actually working for the first half of the game, but as we are usually a second half team, we came out playing our game and pulled out the win.
With all of the excitement over the win and everyone in a good mood, we ended our night with dinner at Chilli's. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to pack up and get ready for our flight back home tomorrow! Although we have all had a good time here in Cali we are all very excited to get home to our family and start our Christmas break! Overall, this trip has been very fun and successful considering we will be leaving 3-0 from the games here in California, making our overall record 10-0!! What a great early Christmas present for all of us!
Tomorrow we will be leaving the hotel around 9 am, allowing for traffic, so we can get to the airport two hours before our flight. Our plane leaves around 1 pm and we will arrive in Atlanta around 8 pm! This is my last blog since we will be stuck in an airport and in a plane all day tomorrow and I'm not sure you guys would want to read about all of that anyway!! Thanks to everyone who has kept up with our trip and who has supported us all the way back home in Georgia!! I hope everyone has a great break and a wonderful Christmas!!!!!!
Sunday, December 18, 2011
The past two days have been long and tiring for everyone here. We have had two big games and we have all played our hardest! After coming out with two wins we decided we all needed a break, so we decided to take a day off today and take it easy.
We woke up early this morning and left the hotel around 9:30 am. We arrived at the Staples center around 10:45 am to get ready to watch Toy Story 3 on ice!!! The show started at 11:30, so we all got our tickets and got settled into our seats. The show was entertaining and very cute! Mickey and Minnie mouse even made an appearance. :) I think that just being able to be inside the Staples Center alone was pretty exciting as well! After the show we headed back towards the hotel area where we ate at In-n-Out for lunch. It was pretty neat to eat there because there were only three different burgers you could order, and the fries were made fresh right before our eyes. After lunch we decided to go spend some time shopping at the mall. We shopped for about two and a half hours before we all met back up and came back to the hotel for the night. Instead of getting out again to eat dinner, Coach just ordered us all pizza so we could stay in our rooms and relax for tomorrow.
Tomorrow is another big day for the Lady Lions. We have a shoot around at 10 in the morning and then later on in the day we have our third and last game here in California!! Everyone is excited and ready to hopefully come out with one more win before the Christmas break. We play the University of La Verne at 6:30 pm (9:30 pm Georgia time). The game is going to be very interesting because this team lives and dies by the three. Defense will be key in tomorrow's game and hopefully we will all come prepared to once again show these California girls what Georgia Basketball is all about!!
Saturday, December 17, 2011
We started off our day today by going to our shootaround at 11 am. When we got there, we had to wait around for at least 10 minutes for someone to actually let us into the gym! The shootaround went good and then we went back to Jersey Mikes Subs to eat lunch. We had about an hour back at the hotel to eat and relax a little bit. When 2:15 rolled around we loaded the vans and arrived at Pomona's gym right on time. When we walked into the gym the heat about knocked us down! It literally felt like it was about 80 degrees in there, but somehow we managed to ignore the heat and start warming up for the game!
Despite the heat and our feelings of exhuastion, we came out with another win tonight!! Although we did not play our very best tonight, we still won the game 76-46. Tonight was great because each Lady Lion got to step on the court and contribute in some way! After the game, we all went out to Outback to eat dinner. Since it was starting to get pretty late, after dinner we just went back to the hotel to rest up and get ready for bed!
We have a day off from basketball practice and games tomorrow and we are going to spend it by going to watch Toy Story 3 on Ice at the Staple Center. The show starts at 11:30 am and we will be leaving around 9:30. Afterwards I think we are going to go shopping around at some of the local malls to try and get out of the hotel to see some different things!! Tomorrow is a good day for everyone to just enjoy the day and relax before another big game to come on Monday!
Friday, December 16, 2011
This morning all of the girls were supposed to get up and eat breakfast before 10 am. After breakfast we left out for our shoot around at 11 am. We got to see the gym we were playing in and try to get used to it a little bit. We went and walked around Target afterwards to waste a little time and then ended up eating lunch at Jersey Mikes Subs. We had a lot of time to waste after lunch, so we went back to the hotel to rest up and mentally prepare for our game. We left the hotel at 5:30 pm, got to the gym at 6, and started our warm-up an hour before the game as usual.
Good news!!!! We came out with another win to add to our record! The game wasn’t easy; we played very hard the first half, but so did Claremont, keeping the score pretty close. It took us a little while to actually adjust and get back into our game. After the half, we came out playing like we normally do and ended up pulling it out and winning the game 70-53. We played really hard and everyone’s efforts were needed to continue to keep the lead and finish out the game strong. Tomorrow we play Pomona College at 4 pm. Hopefully everyone’s excitement about tonight’s win will carry over to tomorrow to help us play hard so we can come out with another win!
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Today was another great day for everyone here in California! We left the hotel at 9:30 this morning for our practice that started at 10. We had a really good practice that lasted for about an hour and a half. We did a lot of game-like situation drills and I feel as if we are very prepared for our first Cali game tomorrow!
After our practice we went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for another long day. We had to pack up all of our bags and load them into one of the vans because last night was our last night staying at the Marina International hotel. After we cleaned up and loaded the vans we ended up at a restaurant named Islands for lunch and the food was very good! After lunch we decided to drive to the beach instead of taking the tour of beaches. We all agreed to go explore Venice Beach and it was beautiful!!! There were palm trees that lined the strip and from the strip you could see the sand that led right to the ocean! We mainly stayed on the strip and shopped at all of the little stores they had there. Not only did they have little stores, they also had stands where people had their own artwork, jewelry, or clothing they were trying to sell. It was so interesting to see all of the different items that were for sale, and of course just watching the people was also very entertaining!
When our beach trip came to an end we all piled into the vans and were on our way to the Sheraton, our next and last hotel we will be staying in. We were then surprised by what we thought was going to be about an hour drive ended up being a three hour drive!!! The Los Angeles traffic was so backed up. Picture Atlanta traffic, but worse! As soon as we arrived to the hotel, we checked in and went and got dinner at the Wendy's right by the hotel. We got our meals to go and ate them in our rooms. After a long day of walking and driving all of the girls and coaches were pretty tired, but the exhaustion was worth it. Now its time for us to rest up and get ready for our big game tomorrow!!! We play Claremont at 7:30 pm (10:30 Georgia time). Wish us luck!!! I will update you on the game results tomorrow!
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
We started off our day today by leaving the hotel at 7:30 am for our practice at 8:00 am at Loyola Marymount University. The practice started off kinda slow due to getting used to the three-hour time difference, but we slowly warmed up and ended with an overall very productive practice! We will learn more about the personnel of Claremont, our first game here in California, at our practice tomorrow which is at 10 am.
After practice we ate an early lunch at IHOP then headed to the hotel to clean up a little before we went on our first tour of the city. Our first tour we took was the tour of homes. We got to see the homes of many celebrities that we knew of and some celebrities that none of us were very familiar with. On the tour we saw the homes of Christina Aquilera, Dr. Phil, Lucille Ball, Simon Cowell, David Beckham and many more! We also got to see the house where Elvis Presley lived and the last house of Michael Jackson before he died. The homes were not as spaced out as you would imagine; most of them were around five to ten feet away from one another. They were also covered up by tall hedges and bushes or fences to where you couldn't actually see the whole house.
When we finished the tour of homes, we hopped onto another bus and got to experience the tour of Hollywood! While on the tour of Hollywood we got to see the local courthouse, jailhouse where Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton stayed, CBS (home of the Price is Right), Paramount Pictures where many movies were filmed, the Hotel that was used in the scenes of Pretty Woman, Capitol Records, and of course the Hollywood sign. We also got to walk part of the Hollywood Walk of Fame and saw so many familiar celebrity names who have recieved stars! We ended our day by eating Quiznos subs and having a relaxing rest of the night in the hotel!
Tomorrow we will be practicing at 10 am, followed by a tour of the beaches on the West Coast. After our tour we will be loading up and heading to our next hotel where we will stay for the rest of our trip here in California! :)
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Hey everybody! I am going to be keeping a blog of our trip to California! This is a very exciting trip for us and hopefully I can allow you to experience some of our fun and excitement as well!
We are going to be facing three teams while we are here. Claremont McKenna College on Friday the 16th, Pomona College Saturday the 17th, and University of La Verne on Monday the 19th. We have been coming together very well as a team so far and hopefully will continue to grow and become even more successful throughout our stay here in California.
We left campus at 7am this morning (Tuesday, December 13), stopped for a quick breakfast and were on our way to the airport! We finally made it and loaded the plane at 11:25 am. The flight went very well with no complications while taking off or landing. The plane ride lasted approximately 4 hours and we arrived in Los Angeles around 1:00 pm California time (4:00 pm Georgia time). We made it out of the airport and to the hotel just in time to get settled in before we met for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. We were all very tired from the trip and the time change, so after dinner we decided it would be best to relax and rest up for a long day to follow!
Tomorrow we will be practicing at 8am and then doing a little bit of sightseeing to end the day! I'll update you guys on all the amazing sights and other details tomorrow!
