The Journey Continues

Since we last left off, we've hit the road hard.  The trip has been awesome, even though it took four hours to get from one end of LA county to the other, and eight to get from Castro Valley to Susanville (road work and snow all over Donner Pass).  We were blessed to share in the main service of Ocean Hills Covenant Church in Santa Barbara, and then to the spend the afternoon at the beautiful home of Russ and June Michaelson.  We were off next to San Luis Obispo for a special presentation at a community center, hosted by Eric's parents.  There was really no way to predict the turnout, but 75 people showed up from a couple of local churches and lots of people from the neighborhood.  The response has always been the same:  "If we had known how good this would be we would have invited everyone we know."  Following those comments there is usually an inquiry into the rest of our itinerary so they can encourage all of their friends and family to show up.  The pictures show the rest of the story:

Performing for a small group out by a backyard pool in La Mirada.  Commenting on LA's constantly overlapping and intersecting freeways, one student very seriously said it feels like riding on a roller coaster.

Eric is learning the traditional Chuukese stick dance because one of our guys has to leave mid-way through the tour!  Protective lenses required . . . .

Even though it's pretty cold (from a Micronesian perspective), our students always plant themselves under a tree in the shade.  One of our students very seriously expressed concern that her "lips are falling off" in the cold.  She had never before experienced chapped lips and dry skin.

We took a detour to the colder side of the Pacific at Montana de Oro on the central California coast.  They had never before seen seals.  One student, after I explained that seals spend their day sleeping then eating fish, sleeping, then eating fish, etc., opined that seals must be Micronesian.

Hanging out at the tide pools of Montana de Oro.

Unbelievably, though this is Memorial Day weekend, we took the students up to Lassen Volcanic Park and played in eight feet of fresh snow as it continued to fall on our heads.  This must have been specially arranged by Someone who knew our students had never before seen snow!

Fortunately, Ceci was outfitted . . . .