Leaving LA behind. May 29th 2009

Well today started with us getting up at hmmmmm 5AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leaving LA behind to head off on the next stage of our adventure today. Our flight leaves LAX at 7:40am for Miami.

We will be staying in Miami for just the night and then head off for New York Saturday morning.

The flight was just under 5hrs and on arrival we had to find the public phones to call the Hotel we are staying at. This we did only to call the wrong hotel. Apparently there are heaps and heaps of Marriott hotels in Miami and we had called the wrong one. They were very helpful though and told us where to go and what our shuttle would look like. We found it no problem at all.

We were whisked off to our hotel on a very balmy morning by a chatter box of an American.

On the horizon to our left we could only see huge black skies looming. To our right the sky was blue. Our driver told us that with in two hours the entire city would be covered by those huge black clouds and that a storm would hit. We were kind of excited about that, but then he said that they must be due for a massive hurricane as they havent had one for a few years!!! Hmmm, now, not so excited! Well no storm hit at all and there was nothing to worry about after all.

Oh yeah, we just heard that a massive earthquake hit just off the coast of Belize and Hondurus, measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale. Aftershocks of between 3 and 4 are being felt across Central America. We spoke with our brothers there, and they are all fine. No major damage but everyone is very shaken up, literally! The brother I spoke to said "it was huge, we felt it BIG TIME". So we are pleased that they are all in one piece and are well! Lets hope that, thats all over by the time we get there.

Anyway, we get to our Hotel and have a seamless check in. We go up to our room and it is beautiful.

Now for the tale of how we got this Hotel room. Welllllllll, while in NZ, we were making plans for our stay in the US. We were given the contact details of a brother who loves to help arrange travel plans for the brothers from around the world. We still have not met this brother, but are extremely thankful for all his help. Anyway, he had a friend who knew a friend in Miami who emailed us in NZ (we also have never met this sister). She tried to find us somewhere to stay but due to deaths in her family and in the congregation it became difficult for her. What she did do for us though, is worth a million dollars to us. We had told her that we would be in Miami for one night before flying to NY and that we were concerned about having to take 6 suitcases into NYC and standing out like the tourists we are. This is not a wise idea in NY! Out of the blue we received and email from our dear sister saying that she had arranged for us to stay at the Marriott Hotel at no cost to us! She wanted to thank us for our efforts going to serve where the need is greater and she wanted us to enjoy a good nights sleep! We were blown away and literally did not know what to say. Not only that but she then added that she had arranged for a pioneer brother and his wife to meet us at the Hotel, they would take the bulk of our suitcases so we wouldnt have to worry about taking them to NY!!!! Well by this point we were both speechless, I know its hard to believe, but its true! I think I cried! What an incredible example of Jehovah providing again! We are soooooooo thankful to Fay (our sister) for all her kindness!

We got up to our room and rang Manny and his wife who came straight away and picked up our big bags so we only had carry on bags to take to NY. (Lets hope they really are brothers and sisters or we might never see those bags again!) What a delight they were. You could feel the love even though we were meeting them for only the first time. Again we cannot believe how much Jehovah has done for us!

We are truly blessed to be part of Jehovahs organisation, where else would you rather be! So far we have had a seamless trip, no delays with flight, no problems with bags going missing, meeting our rides at the airports with no hiccups. Awesome!!

We have made so many wonderful friends so far and we have only been in the country for a week! I dont really know what I was expecting, but this far out weights anything I could have imagined!

I hope someday, everyone gets to feel the unity and love on the scale we have.

Our stay at the Marriott was great and we wll leave tomorrow morning for NY. Get this. we have to get up at 4AM this time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See ya.

Redondo Beach 28th May 2009

Today we went down to Redondo Beach with some of Pattianns family. It was funny to see the little life saving huts like they have on Baywatch and then as we were sitting on the beach who should wander past???? A baywatch chick on patrol!!!! They look exactly like thay do on TV only without the huge plastic boobs and the slow motion running! It was quite funny, I couldnt help but get a photo.

There were guys down there surfing although the waves the day we were there werent very big.

The beach is lined in both direction with houses and condos that are worth no less than $10million usd and they go as far as you can see.

Patti told us today that if you surf or go swimming at the beach and get water in your mouth, which you inevitably will, you will have diarrhea the next day!!! How gross is that! I felt sorry for the little seal we saw.

At each of the beaches here there is a Pier. At the end of Redondo Beach pier there is an aquarium. It was little, but very interesting. Quite cool to see some of the marine life.

Today was a lazy day, just chilling out in the sun and relaxing, ahhhhhhhhh life is good!

Seasoned Metro Riders! May 27th 2009

We are now seasoned Metro riders. Throughout LA the is a Mertrolink that will pretty much take you any where in the city. Well we got on it today and went back to see everything we had seen a couple of night before with Jeff. It was great to see the city during the day time.

When you talk to people in LA they will tell you that they dont have a very good public transport system and that there is no underground section. We thought that was strange as we had looked online before leaving for LA and had seen which trains we needed to catch and where to get off etc. So we thought we would go and check it out anyway. The truth of the matter is there is a great public transport system, but no one wants to use it, they would rather drive everywhere.

We walked just down the road and found the Green Line Metro and bought our first ticket. The train arrived about 2mins later and runs every 10mins. On the Green Line from Redondo beach there were not very many people aboard (I think thats because its a more affluent area), from there we travel along next to the freeway, beating everyone stuck in traffic, he he he. We get off the Green line and get onto the Blue line which runs in to the city. This line went through some of the roughest parts of LA and man that was an eye opener. Houses that in NZ would have been condemned are lived in by heaps of people. On this line there are heaps more people getting on and off but we still felt quite safe. No problem getting a seat or anything.

While riding the Metro I would recommend looking out the window (while holding your bag tight) and listening to the sounds around you. People from every nationality chatting away, often at the top of their voices. Its quite funny listening to what they are saying. Some were preaching, some discussing how the Lakers would get to the play offs, others talking in languages we could not understand. It was very cool.

You have to keep an ear out for the stations so you dont miss your stop. That in itself can be quite challenging especially if the person mumbles their words and you can hardly understand them! We managed to make it to all our destinations in one piece, well educated, but in one piece.

We went everywhere in the city. From Union Station, which was beautiful and huge to Sunset Blvd, Hollywood Blvd, the Walk of Fame, Downtown LA and so much more.

Seeing the city during the day was a completely different experience. I would definitely recommend seeing it both during the day and then again at night if you ever get the chance.

Oh yeah, if you need to pee in downtown LA, be ready to pay 0.25c usd to get in the door! Or you could just use the sidewalk like some.

As mentioned in the first blog we went to a hotel called Bonaventure. We took photos of that during the day which are in our picassa album. I cant figure out how to give you all a link to that yet, so thats something to look forward to. That was the building which had the revolving restaurant on the roof.

Some more interesting facts:

You have to pay to use the toilets in downtown LA due to vandalism.
You can turn right at a red light as long as its safe
You have to tip if you want a photo with the "stars" on Hollywood Blvd. (we found that out AFTER our first photo!

So yeah that was our day time adventure to the city, I guess so much more happened, but its hard to remember it all. I had it all written up but the computer had a brain fart and now I cant find any of it! Never mind. Life goes on.

Love to you all, chat again soon.