August 12; Los Angeles

Owen: TODAY WAS AWESOME! Lets start out with the highlight of the day, Grandpa made a bountiful breakfast of eggs and sausage, bacon, and waffles! Oh, and I met Jordan Farmar of the Los Angeles Lakers! While out with the Cousins, hungry and in line for ice cream and cookies, a brand-spankin’ new Audi pulls up on the opposite side of the street. A man emerges and I instantly think, “Is that Jordan Farmar?” As soon as that thought crossed my mind, Liam whispers in my ear “Is that Jordan Farmar?” and my heart jumps. If any of you do not know, we are a Lakers family, through and through, and if you don’t know that, you have probably never met us. I grab Liam and bolt across the street, eager to meet this champion. We caught up to Mr. Farmar just as he was entering a California Pizza Kitchen with a couple friends and I asked if he would mind taking a picture with us. He said, and I quote, “Nah man…” and I was crushed. At that point, I realized, he DIDN’T MIND! I was foolish! I thought he meant he didn’t want a picture, but he DIDN’T MIND! Hallelujah! We got the picture, and I thanked him, then exclaimed how my older brother wouldn’t believe this! He then started talking to me! JORDAN FARMAR talked to ME! He asked how old we were, and where we were from, and if we played Basketball. Knees shaking, I answered, Congratulated him on his recent National Championship, wished him a good day, and I scuttled off. The rest of the day was a blur, really…..

Liam: We started the day at 9 o’clock with a breakfast made by Grandpa, when we were finishing up the cousins came over and we all got ready for the day and decided what to do. We decided to go to Venice beach for the first part of the day. Walking down Venice beach was fun and we saw many interesting people around. We walked around the beach for about an hour, and then went to a nearby restaurant and got lunch, I got a Caesar salad. After lunch we went to downtown Santa Monica and looked at the different stores. When everyone got tired we went to Uncle Dave’s house, this was about 2 o’clock. At 4 o’clock Owen, Ilse, Lesje, and myself went to get ice cream and cookies for everyone. While waiting in line Owen and I spotted a very nice car across the street and from it came Jordan Farmar, part of my favorite team of all time, the Lakers. We ran over and got our picture taken with him, then went back and got our ice cream. Soon after getting back to the cousin’s house, Grandpa called up and we all went over to their house. Grandpa ordered a fantastic dinner of Cuban food, we all ate then played a few games of Some-R-Set. At 9:45 Sean, Owen, Uncle Dave, and I drove to LAX, Uncle Dave dropped us off and we made our way to our gate where we wrote this very entry.

Sean: Today was more eventful than days past. For the first time during this trip we did not have to drive for more than a few minutes at a time. After Grandpas delicious breakfast we cruised the beaches of LA and made our way to Santa Monica. I found a new daypack for our trip and for school when that arrives in September…

We also played wii for a while and I thoroughly enjoyed the new game Sports Resort. Sadly, I didn’t go out for ice cream with the boys and I missed the Jordan Farmar sighting. It was great to see the LA family over the last few days. Ohh and It was very hard to be a vegetarian during dinner. Cuba food is one of my favorites but I managed to enjoy my rice, beans, and plantains.

It is nice to finally be at the airport! The bags our checked, we have our tickets, and we made it through security. Though tired, there is a growing sense of excitement!