Well we have hit the ground running in the OC. We've now been here for 8 weeks. We found a place to live at the end of our first week here and have been trying hard ever since to bring our lives down to some kind of normality – which is quite hard in a place that just isn’t “normal”! We are loving it though and day by day learning more about the place and the people we now live with.
We’ve visited Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Knott’s Berry Farm, Balboa Island (in Newport Beach), LAX (several times), the Hollywood hills and the Hollywood sign, Hollywood Boulevard, one small bit of Beverley Hills – Wow! Ali has done Disneyland – a childhood dream come true. We’ve driven many, many, many miles and visited countless shopping centers and malls. We visited Saddleback Church, Mariner’s Church, Newport Church and Cottonwood Christian Center. Oh yeah, can’t forget – we went to see Switchfoot at The House of Blues in downtown Disneyland. They ROCKED!
Daniel started 2nd Semester here at Pioneer Middle School. He’s made a bunch of friends, and one in particular who skates and comes to our church.
Somewhere in amongst that we’ve had church 8 times. We’ve had Adam Meredith and Cathie Dixon visiting, then Penny Webb with Jaxon and Tayla and Amanda Powell, then Kristy Howarth and her friend Jo on their way through to Kiev in the Ukraine. Just hours ago we said goodbye to Phil, and Adam will be back in about a week. Gavin Eva will also be here in a week’s time, Adam will be back again and Rian and Jess Van der Merwe will visit at the beginning of April... and then Garrick and Simone at the start of May.
So as you can see, we haven’t been short of things to do. We miss everyone back in Perth (but haven’t really had a chance to feel it too much). We're loving life and looking forward to whatever the next 8 weeks brings.
Maybe you could be part of it?! Drop us a line or come and visit!
As we were exploring this particular bit of the Hollywood hills we came across a horse riding place. It was like being way out in the bush, but it's only 5 minutes from Hollywood central. There were lots of horses, some chickens and a few dogs too. It was a very unexpected but very cool find.
Ohh, isn't that nice!
Even the chickens have big hair!
We took a walk down Hollywood Boulevard 'cause Ali wanted to see the "stars". It's a sad stretch of city that's for sure. These stars on the pavement are as glamorous as it gets. It's a very seedy area and you almost feel sick being there. But at least I can say I've seen Jimi's star!
This was taken at Lookout Point on the Newport Coast. I just thought it was interesting and you could make up a thousand stories to go with it. (The guy is actually a personal trainer. I just caught him in the act of sitting down while the 2 girls he was training had gone for a short run. It was about 10:30am and the Marine layer was still fairly thick... there you go - the story you make up is probably going to be better than the truth!)
This is a little bay hidden away along the Newport Coast. (Can you see the puppy dog rock?) It amazes me how many places you can find without going hours out of suburbia.
Driving under a freeway overpass I saw this out of the corner of my eye and had to go back to see if I really saw what I thought I saw. Now is this random chance, or did someone put it there? My guess is that it's a bit of both. Some creative person saw the opportunity to add eyes and a mouth to a random windblown pile of dirt and leaves. Good work! That is very often how creativity works. We take something reasonably ordinary and add an element to it in an unexpected way, resulting in an engaging piece of work.
