...a much overdue reunion...

Consider yourselves forewarned...this is kind of longish...

Last Friday morning I woke up at 4:15am Houston time to catch at 6:45 flight to be in Burbank by 11:00am. That was just the beginning to of a 22 hour day!

As soon as I got to Burbank we (Jon, Liesal & I) hit a fabulous bakery called Porto's! It was yummy! Then we went to their great new apartment! We only stayed about 30 mins before we had to head over to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno!!! We stood in line for about an hour and a half before they let us in. It was super cool to see how they do it all! Jay was easy going and came out before the show to talk to us as the audience. My favorite part was seeing Shawn Johnson bring out all of her Olympic medals! Here's the 4 of us that went to see the show:

Then we headed back to their apartment, just to change clothes, then straight to the Hollywood Bowl to meet up with some of their other friends! For those of you who don't know (maybe I was the only one), the Hollywood Bowl is a huge amphitheater that seats thousands. The show for that weekend was John Williams conducting a symphony that played pieces from his famous movie scores like Star Wars and Indiana Jones...oh, did I mention he wrote the Olympic Theme song? It was super cool! Here's a pic of the dome the orchestra played in, and Liesal and I as we watched out in the cool night air. Oh, funny story, their friend Bob was in charge of getting the tickets for the night. But when one of the guys went to go through the ticket line, he was rejected because ALL of our tickets were for the next night!!! YIKES!! We had all ridden the shuttle to the venue, and were stranded there...so Bob went and haggled with the ticket people, who were so gracious to switch out our tickets for the that night! Whew!

I finally headed to bed at midnight after going 100mph for 22 hours straight!!! What a great first day in California!

Saturday Liesal and I headed to Hollywood Blvd & Rodeo Dr!!! Two extremely different experiences! Again, those of you who have never been, let me tell you, Hollywood Blvd is dirty/trashy...but worth the experience. It was cool to see where red carpet events are held - Kodak Theater. I also CRACKED up at the random people who dress up like movie characters and expect you to pay money to take pictures with them! Rodeo Dr was beautiful...and I was a chicken and wouldn't go in any of the stores...tooo expensive! Saturday night we went to dinner with a huge group for one of Liesal's friend's birthday! It was fun to meet some of their friends and see what their life is like!

Sunday we woke up early and headed to the church that Liesal & Jon volunteer at. They work with the special needs kids. Of course it was good to see them in action, and always interesting for me to see how other churches do things! Kind of neat to realize that they may be so far away, but there is still a common method in a lot of ways!

Then Sunday afternoon was by far my favorite thing we did!!! Jon was so kind to drive us down to Newport Beach...a little over an hour away. We picked up snacks and got there around 5pm. It was perfect! Warm, but nice cool breeze. We explored the rocks, took fun picks, threw the frisbee around...seriously, I could have stayed for days! Also, Newport is such a precious town!! Cute little homes...that cost millions I'm sure! We took a trillion pics...here are some of my faves, but if you're not on facebook and want to see all of my pics, follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2196506&l=28301&id=9205479

Monday we slept in and let ourselves chill! Then we decided to go see the "Hollywood" sign and the view of hazy downtown LA! Again, a good typical California attraction! Here's one last pic:

More than anything, it was just great to be with old friends!!! I love that some things never change. You can go so long without seeing someone, but overall, you still have that closeness, that understanding of each other, that love for each other! What a treat to get to go and spend 4 fabulous days with an old friend! Thank you Jon & Liesal for being such AMAZING hosts! It truly was a fantabulous vacation!

Super Duper: actually being home on my Friday off!

Super Pooper: my Philosophy of Religion class is torturous!