I am finally back from my vacation/mission trip to Los Angeles, CA. A week-long trip experiencing the... interesting and varied cultures of this megaopolis. I really don't want to go over all of it now, so I'll put up the highlights:

Trip:

-Worked at Emanuel Babtist Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter in Downtown LA. Cleaned clothes room, office, and chapel.

-Cooked/served breakfast at North Valley Caring Services. Also organized clothes room. (everyone on the trip agrees that this is where we were the most help.)

-Washed windows at Casa Robles, missionary retirement center. Don't know if we'll go next year, they scramble to find things for us to do...

-Visited Hollywood blvd. and the walk of fame. Also saw Mars Needs Moms at El Capitan. (It was POURING.)

-Went to Venice beach. (Forgot my swimsuit because I thought it would be cold and rainy. It was gorgeous.)

-Disneyland (Duh. What's a trip to LA without Disneyland? It also rained on this day.)

Now, for the little happenings on the trip:

-one kid had a bit of a war with two of the chaperones. Included name-calling, mild shoving, and filling said kid's water bottle with salt water.

-During our trip to Hollywood Blvd., we saw that someone had put a small tent-type thing over Michael Jackson's star. When we came out of the movie, it had blown over. (It was raining really, really hard.)

-Also on that day, we saw three fire trucks drive up the road, followed by two ambulances. Later, we saw three fire trucks driving the opposite way, lights on. Did they get lost or something?

-During our trip to disneyland, it was gorgeous and sunny in the morning, and we were able to get to the best rides. Later on, it rained and drove most of the crowds away. (freeing the lines)

-Tried to get my brother on California Screamin'. Although he said he wanted to go on it, he seemed rather relived when we found the ride closed for World of Color.

-Visited Borders, which had everything 40%-60% off. Of course, all of the good ones were gone by then and all that were really left were vampire books.

-At the beginning of the trip, our youth pastor began to organize rooms, since we were sleeping in the sunday school rooms. He tried to shove three girls into a cluttered-filled room, while the only boy got a whole empty room to himself. (this was quickly rectified.)

-Finally got our youth pastor on Big Thunder Mountain. (He loves disneyland, but hates roller coasters and exciting rides...) Now he can say he's been on every ride at Disneyland.

-While we were at the mall, a random guy on the steet said that he had been with our youth pastor in jail earlier that year.

-On or way home, the van broke down, as it has every year (the last two times were brakes) This time, it was the regulator. Imagine being stranded in the middle of nowhere with dark falling and a broken van and 13 people to feed. Somehow, our pastor back at home found a church number that someone answered. Using this and my freshly achieved AAA status, we were able to get the van and trailer hauled to a family that not only took us in, but fed us dinner and offered up their showers. This family was incredible, and they were complete strangers to us. What a miracle! The men in our group were able to bypass the computer in the van and fix it enough for us to get home.

-So we finally got home the next day, after midnight. We cheered, prepared to pack up everything into our parent's cars... and the van wouldn't turn OFF.

So all in all, it was a really fun trip. (And interesting) I say that it was fun, a learning experience, eventful, and it's time to get a new Church van. I'll update the list as I remember more of the fun things we did!