I've always wondered if L.L. Cool J was referring to California, or some place more south (I think there is a Cali in Mexico or Colombia, or both). But let's assume it's California for the sake of this blog because that is exactly what we're doing next week - we're going back to California.

This will be Training Camp number three of this off-season, and the second time we have been to L.A. in 2008. Since we play in China at the end of this month, we figured a pit stop in Hermosa Beach along the way made good sense. On second thought, it doesn't take much to have a trip to Hermosa Beach make good sense to us. As you know from previous blogs, it is one of our favorite places. So, it's back to the Sea Sprite Hotel, Los Muchachos Burrito Hut, and all the other stores and hangouts that we have become familiar with over the last few years.

The only glitch for training will be that many of the AVP teams will be in Dallas during our stay, and will likely not be available for training until the last few days we are there. But that's okay, because we typically take a few days to get the indoor kinks out of our system. After that we'll be ready for action! We'll likely get a few games in with the usual suspects.... Rosie/Gibb, Scott/Lucena, and perhaps a few other international teams that are there training - like the Kiwis, Kirk Pitman/Jason Lochhead. 

The New Zealanders are always fun to hang out with. I enjoy ribbing these two Heesey Award winners (see The "Lost Baggage" Heesey Award blog, and The "Stretch-A-Dollar" Heesey Award blog), in particular, 24 year-old Jason Lochhead, not only because he is young and sometimes an easy target, but he is the one guy on tour who is actually shorter than me! Actually, they are both great guys and I have enjoyed seeing their progress on tour over the years. It's not easy being 5' 10" (178 cm) and siding out against players almost a foot taller. Of course, at a whopping 6' 0" (184 cm), I wouldn't know! Sorry Jason, but you can't teach height!

Nine days and counting and we'll be sinking our toes back in some of the best sand in the world - Hermosa Beach. "We're going back to Cali, to Cali, to Cali..." (If you just had a mental image of me rapping à la LL Cool J, I sincerely apologize)