Welcome Back

I'm back in Austin and all I can say is that this was an awesome trip.

In Ann Arbor we had the Lord's Table in the morning. We weren't the only ones visiting. Some were there from China, South Africa, and England so that we even outnumbered those from Ann Arbor. After the Table we all had lunch together from a takeout Asian food. It's awesome that the church is so small that they always eat together after. After, we got a tour of The University of Michigan. It might be the only school I've seen that could be better than UT so far.

After we headed to Chicago. On the way we stopped at the sand dunes off of Lake Michigan. This was really cool. The dunes are tall and steep and by the time you climb one your breathing hard and you can feel your calves burning. At the top we decided to run back down them and you go so fast that you trip and tumble in the sand. We got a video of that.

 Chicago is a huge city and the sky line looks like it stretches miles, especially with the Willis Tower which is one of the tallest in the US. The first thing we got to see was the meeting hall of the church there and had dinner in the apartment of a couple that lives next to the hall. This was a relief being our first healthy meal of the trip since we've been eating fast food the whole time. The next day we did a whole lot of stuff. We took a water taxi to downtown Chicago where there is a huge pier full of restaurants, museums, and carnival rides all on the water. I'm a food junky and there I got to try my first Chicago dog. These things are good. Covered in mustard, caramelized onions and spicy peppers these things hit the spot. Then that night we played some ultimate frisbee in the park and watched people light their fireworks for 4th of July. The next day we hit up downtown again and got to see a lot of Chicago's architecture. We even went in this building and climbed to the top to look at the awesome views of Millennium Park and the lake. In the park we took our pictures at the giant bean and listened to a free concert for a bit. Lastly we stopped at a cupcake store where we ate cupcakes called Surgarbliss and then got to try famous Chicago deep pie pizza at Piquod. This pizza is good and I wouldn't have minded eating it three more times if we had the time.

The best parts of the trip though were all the blending we got to do with the brothers and sisters in different localities. These saints poured out and took care of us taking time off from work even to spend their time with us. I felt really shepherded and now these ones are on my heart. Even spending time with the brothers I was traveling with was good. The Lord used that time to relate us and open the way for Him to blend us more. I'm looking forward to more trips. Man, I left stuff out and have so much more I could share but this blog is way too long.