bet365 Travel Diaries: Using the off day in L.A. to reset for Game 4

It was an off-day for the hockey club, which meant we had the opportunity to explore Los Angeles a little bit and recharge before tonight’s Game 4 matchup at Crypto.com Arena.

After waking up, finishing off a few work items, and fuelling the temple with a hearty breakfast, we wandered around the hotel for a little bit to grab some snacks and explore the area. What I didn’t expect, however, was that Tyler would drop a line that had the rest of us crying with laughter. This Kobe Bryant mural above is close to our hotel, and my man Tyler expressed that he didn’t think it looked like him at all. If you’re reading this right now, please let me know in the comments what you think.

With laughing at Yaremchuk out of the way, it was time to jump in a cab and make our way to the Windrift Hotel to make use of the incredible little par three course they have behind the facility. With rest and relaxation as the mantra of the day, we knocked the ball around for a couple of hours and enjoyed the sunshine.

Seeing as Jay, Tyler, and Liam are all decent golfers, I knew that I was going to be the hot mess in the group (I was), but that didn’t stop us from having a blast anyway. When all was said and done, Tyler ended up winning, Jay came in second, Liam finished in third, and I was the caboose. The bright side? I only lost one ball to a water hazard, so I’m going to claim that as a small personal victory. Great success!

With a quick round of golf under our feet, we wandered down to Manhattan Beach to enjoy the sunshine and give Tyler the chance to watch the waves roll in. Even though we only expected to be down there for a little while, we ended up hanging out in the sand and watching the surfers for a couple of hours. As far as Zen moments went, this was as good as it gets. Skin bronzed (read: burned) and a belly full of delicious Rosé, we wandered the streets for a little bit to check out the shops and enjoy the sights.

If you’re into people watching as much as I am, hanging out on a patio with a glass of wine to watch the world go by is a fantastic way to spent some time. The best thing, to me, about the Manhattan Beach area is the cool houses and fancy cars that line the shoreline. I don’t know what any of these folks do to afford these ridiculous houses/whips, but I sure do love checking out the situation.

Fast forward a few hours to us being back at our hotel, we decided to go for dinner somewhere to watch the Dallas/Vegas game. The problem was that we weren’t really paying attention to the time, and wandered over the L.A. Live right as the Lakers game was ending. Every establishment within eyeshot was jammed full of basketball fans, and finding somewhere to proved to be impossible. The good news is that there are food trucks everywhere.

We actually found the food truck pictured above a couple of years ago when we came down to cover the first round, and you have no idea how happy I was to find out that it was still here. And since the restaurants/bars were all packed with excited Lakers fans, I couldn’t have been happier to grab a raman soup (elite) and some tacos (electric) to eat back in the room.

For the four of us, Saturday was about relaxing and fuelling up for what will be a massive game day today, and we completed our mission to a tee. Now if I could only figure out how to sort out this nervous energy I have in the hours leading up to puck drop.