Anticipation....

We got settled into our hotel yesterday and boy is it nice! It is night and day compared to last year's accommodations. Thank you, Dallas for finding us such great digs! Well worth the extra effort. The rooms are very spacious and brand new and most of all extremely clean.

After we got settled, refreshed and reorganized we set out for some Saturday evening adventures. Dallas, Jake, Taylor, Bussy, Teresa and Nicholson headed out to Citifield for the Mets v. rangers. Apparently they had great seats and Nicholson and Teresa tag teamed to catch a t-shirt. They took a cab back to the hotel and got some great information from their cabbie.

The rest of the group headed out to Little Italy to have a fine Italian dinner. We got a reservation at Da Nico where we had an authentic meal served by an authentic Italian stallion. It was so yummy. We had spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, chicken Marsala, etc etc etc...after dinner we headed down to Ferrara for some authentic Italian canolis and gelato! Yum yum yum. We were in Guido heaven.

After dinner we got back on the Subway for the long ride home. We got off at the Brook Ave stop and Saturday night around 10:30. It's preeeeetttttty happening and in maybe not the best way. We hurried home the rest of the way and vowed not to go that way again. :)

Sunday morning we woke early and met in the lobby around 7:30 to head to the Brooklyn Tabernacle for worship. Once again...the choir was off because they had a 3pm concert. They still had a group of 20 of their best singers. They sang some of my favorite songs. We met Wes and brittany Wilkerson from Savannah first CP church for worship. We all had a very rousing hour worth of music and hour worth of preaching. I'm pretty sure we all got the message: god wants us to be in his will by being pure and obedient. Preacher was pretty entertaining to say the least.

After church we had lunch at a super cool hipster joint in Brooklyn off of Hoyt Ave called Mile End. I had the best Reuben sandwich I think I may have ever had. Others had delicious frittata and bagel sandwiches. After lunch we met at the Jackson Ave location for orientation and discovered we are working with a group from the same church we worked with last year from South Carolina. It was nice to see some familiar faces. Later that evening some of us ventured to Chelsea and explored the Chelsea Market. Dallas, Jacob, Taylor, Mary Helen, and Malory bravely went to Coney Island. According to them there were a quarter of a million people there and only 10 bathrooms. I think they had lots of fun riding rides and exploring the beach.

Dallas and I are in a huge competition with our Jawbone Up Bands. I recommend them to anyone looking for a good walking challenge. We've been walking our butts off (hopefully literally) and yesterday I logged 22,142 steps.... That's roughly 10.7 miles! And I certainly can feel every one of them throughout my body.

After a long day of adventure we all bedded down for a good nights rest in anticipation of meeting the sweetest kids in New York City. :)