Day 19 - Friday 14 January

Well, here we are sitting at gate 41 of Terminal 4 at Los Angeles Airport, preparing for our departure. The boys are wandering around, buying the last of their junk food and talking excitedly about getting home.
Today we got ourselves organised and packed early, and with Jeff's expertise we fitted the 90 bags in under the coach. At 9am we met together at the hotel to give out some awards (I'll post these here once I get home) and a few of our future leaders got up to say thanks to our staff.
We boarded our coach heading for Universal Studios and had a wonderful fun day in the sun of LA. First stop in the park (I made it compulsory) was the studio tour which we all enjoyed and then we all headed for the rides! The Simpsons Simulator, the Mummy Rollercoaster and the Jurassic Park water ride all got a good work out (yes, even by me!) and many of us also enjoyed a couple of the shows. Closing time of 5pm came all too quickly, and after a short bout of shopping at Universal Walk we boarded the bus for the last time and drove toward LAX - avoiding the overcrowded peak hour freeways - arriving around 7pm. Check in went very smoothly except for the messy luggage arrangements but we easily got through security and now we sit, awaiting the boarding call.
One young man I haven't yet mentioned in my thanks is our official photographer - Chris Tippelt. As he finishes working on the photos and we post them onto Flickr you will see the incredible talent and hard work he has put in throughout the trip - thanks so much Chris for all that you did.
One more blog entry to come - on Sunday when we arrive home - just to round it all off!