City of Angles (Oct. 29)

We left our hot springs campground and quickly found ourselves in the longest line of RVs that we have ever seen. As far as the eye could see, before us and behind us, there were motor homes, trucks pulling trailers and pop-up campers. Almost all of them had four-wheelers or dune buggies on a trailer or in tow. It was slow going.

Then while scouting the map for the best way to navigate the web of L.A. freeways, we came to a standstill. And we were still 70 miles from L.A. proper! We sat in four lanes of traffic for close to an hour with the rest of the weekend-getaway traffic returning to the city for the work week ahead.

We met a good friend of Andrew's from Hope College, Noel Snyder and his wife, Heidi, in Pasadena. The college buddies met each others' wife for the first time (they met each other for the first time too). We had a great time with them, walking through Fuller Seminary where Noel studies, having an Italian family-style dinner at Buca di Beppo and catching up on the years since we'd left Hope and been married. We found this Harvest Festival in place on campus and took advantage of the photo opp. Noel and Heidi: Thank you for spending so much time with us! We will miss you guys.