California (NOTE: Apply Arnold S. Accent)

So I am writing this post from Pasadena, California. I am sitting in our hotel room at the Sheraton. It is 8:00 pm local time (11:00 pm back home). I thought that since I have a free moment while Natalie is getting ready to watch 2 hours of Grey's Anatomy that I would give you an update on how things are going in California.

We flew out of Indianapolis Monday morning at 7:15 (Eastern Time) and arrived in Los Angeles at 9:00 am (Pacific Time). We drove up the coast taking the scenic route to Pasadena. We passed through Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and Hollywood to preview what we would be coming back to see later in the week. We arrived at our hotel around 1:00 pm, settled in, took a nap, and went out to eat with Jeff and Laura (Laura is Natalie's boss at Pathway) who invited us out here for the ministry conference. We came back after dinner, watched some TV (24), and called it a night.

Tuesday morning we went to Mosaic Church campus in Pasadena for the Origins Conference with Erwin McManus. Our first day was great. I found that rather than learning lots of new ideas for ministry, we were confirmed in the ones we already had. It was very encouraging. We went out to dinner Tuesday night with Jeff and Laura, drove down to see the Rose Bowl, came back to the room, ordered some dessert, and called it a night.

Wednesday we went back to the conference. We finished up there in the afternoon and went to Burbank for lunch at a Mexican restaraunt right across the street from IKEA. Being so close we decided that we HAD to visit IKEA. So we spent an hour or two just walking around the store and dreaming about all the things we can do at our new house.


On our way back from Burbank, we stopped at some of the TV Studios to see what kind of tours they offered. We found out that you can get free tickets to the Jay Leno Tonight Show. We came back to Pasadena, took a short nap, and ate dinner at The Melting Pot (a fondue restaraunt)...it was awesome!




On Thursday (today), since the conference was over, we decided to head back to Burbank to get tickets to see Jay Leno. We got in line at 7:30 am and got our tickets at 8:00 am. We drove to Beverly Hills and Hollywood again to see if we could spot any celebs. We did see some camera crews recording for a commercial. We came back to Pasadena for lunch and went back to NBC studios at 1:15 pm. We stood in line for two hours (we were 10th in line) and finally got in the studio at 3:30 pm. We had amazing seats...just feet from the stage. The show airs tonight (Thursday). We might be on the show...if nothing else I did the "be the last person clapping so that you can be heard" thing and made sure to laugh and yell real loud. Let me know if you hear or heard me. It was so fun...a must for anyone who comes to the area! We couldn't take pictures in the studio...they were very strict about it. So the only pictures we have are of our tickets and the studio outside. It was a blast...one of the most fun things we have done on vacation together.






More to come once we get home...hope that's enough to suit all of you for now. God bless!