Everything went smoothly with the flights. In fact, since I have MVP status with Alaska Airlines they upgraded me to first class there and back. When I got to LAX, I caught the metro straight down to Long Beach. There is a lot of poverty there and seeing it all really reminded me how blessed we are and the difficulties that some people have to face every day of their life. I had just booked the cheapest hotel I could find and so it was in a pretty sketchy part of Long Beach. The hotel itself was fine and it had free wifi so that was good, but it was a little scary walking the 2 miles to and from the conference hotel every day. The conference was fine, but not one I usually attend so I didn't end up going to much of it or networking with other people. I did get to go touch the ocean on one of the days, so that was pretty exciting.
The most exciting part of my trip though was on the last day when I tried to go to church before heading to the airport. I planned on taking the metro into Los Angeles in the morning, walking along the Hollywood walk of fame and then making my way to a chapel that was just a few blocks away from that. Unfortunately, they had part of the metro that was closed for repairs and so I had to hope on the bus for a couple stops. They had it all planned out so the bus took us to the station where we could get on the metro again, but it had to do a lot of stops along the way. With those stops and the traffic, what should have only taken 5 minutes on the metro ended up taking an hour. The bus was packed and I had to stand for the whole thing. It was an interesting ride though. It was right through the Compton area of LA, so kind of a scary area. There was one part where the bus had to stop for a guy who was crossing the street. When he made it to the other side, he just dropped his pants there and started peeing right in the open, exposing himself to everyone on the bus. By the time we got to the metro station I realized there was no way I would be able to make it to church, so instead, I just got on the first bus going back to the metro station that I just came from. Luckily I was one of the first ones on so I got a seat this time. However, as the bus become more crowded there was an older lady standing, so I got up and climbed into the isle to give her my seat. When I did that I guess my backpack bumped into a guy and that set him off. So I had to go an hour bus ride with this guy yelling and swearing at me, telling me how he was going to punch me in the face, and telling me how stupid White people are. Luckily, by the end of the bus ride his anger turned toward the bus driver (the bus driver and I were the only White guys on the bus), so I was able to make it off without incident. I really enjoyed my first class flight home after the uncomfortable and frightening trip to the airport. I arrived in Salt Lake and 9 pm, Rebecca and the kids met me at the airport, and we drove back to Pocatello that night.
Based on Rebecca's report, it sounds like they had a much funner (and safer) time in Salt Lake. They got to spend some time with her brother of course, but they also got to visit her grandparents, her aunts and uncles and cousins, and my brother's family. Rebecca said that the kids loved playing with their cousins and she had a great time catching up with everyone.
Unfortunately we were having battery problems so the only picture we got from that trip was one my brother took of Agnes on his new motorcycle. Looks pretty fun. Maybe I will have to try to talk him into letting me take it out - the last and only time I rode a motorcycle was about 12 years ago when I crashed his first bike into our neighbor's house.
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