We're back!!

Hello friends.

We are back from our fabulous road trip to So. Cal. And what a whirlwind weekend we had. It was so much fun. Where shall I begin? We set off Friday morning and we had six cars in our crew. We all had walkie talkies and cell phones so we were calling each other and talking between cars. I was in a van with some hilarious folks so I pretty much laughed the whole way down. I kept a sweet "quote board" of comments from that ride. And we had a contest between a girl in our car and a guy in another: who could eat 16 Reeses Peanut Butter Cups in 10 minutes. SICK. It was so gross/funny to watch. The guy won. Our girl only got to 12 before she starting to feel queasy.

We hit LA traffic for 2 and 1/2 hours which everyone loved. So we stopped for dinner and let the traffic pass. Our hotel was right by Disneyland and when we arrived the fireworks were going off! No way! We had the most amazing view. My favorite part was everytime a huge firework would BOOM, this one car alarm in the hotel parking lot would go off! Over and over and over. Good times. A bunch of students went to hang out at downtown Disney, but I called my best friend Elissa and her hubby Mike (they live nearby) and they came to visit me which was so great.

Saturday-Universal Studios!!! It was a sunny, breezy, perfect day. There is a new ride there called Revenge of the Mummy, and oh my word, it was my favorite!!!! You go on this roller coaster type ride in the dark and then your car freezes and you go through it BACKWARDS! I think I went on it 4 times. Love it love it love it. We went on all the rides (Jurassic Park is another fav), saw all the shows (Shrek 3-D, Waterworld, Terminator, Animal Planet Live, Special Effects, etc) and just basically enjoyed each other's company. Most of our group stayed together the whole day so I got to spend some time with students I had been wanting to get to know. We putzed around City Walk afterwards and then drove back to the hotel.

Sunday we went to Saddleback Church in Lake Forest/Mission Viejo area. It would take WAY too long to type out everything I thought about the church, the service, and the people, so ask me sometime. But I will say that I am SO glad we went and that church is doing some amazing things. We all went to Venice Beach for lunch and hang out time. SKETCHY place. My co-worker Steve says Venice makes our town seem normal. =) It was fun to walk around and see everything, but I could see in the college students' eyes that many of them were a little weirded out. (But I think it's good for them to be exposed to it. I mean, that's the real world) Our car ride home was beautiful. We took the 101 home and got to watch the sun set behind the Pacific Ocean. Yeah!

My overall observations on the weekend are all awesome and positive. I really felt like I got to connect with a TON of students. I had some great conversations in the car with girls, which I appreciated. We all bonded and grew closer as a group. I love that this road trip fits in with our mission of wanting to build community this fall. All the students seem to enjoy each other. All these different people with different personalities...clicking. That was cool to watch.

I didn't have to work Monday (yeah!) so I came home Sunday night and slept for probably a good 11 hours. I was wiped. But man oh man, what a great trip.