The South East

Hi everyone,
Once again, we will write a short update as well as a longer one.

Short version:
Spent a week in Haiti with our sister Naomi
Drove up the Florida coast stopping in Vero Beach and St. Augustine
Met a second cousin in Orlando
Spent 2 days in Charleston, SC with a couple we met over frozen custard (you might remember our post about Ted Drewe's frozen custard)
Camped in Congaree National Park
Are staying with friends in Athens, GA who we met a year ago in northern India

Long version:

I believe the last update we wrote was a few days before we left for Haiti so I will pick up from there.
So we flew to Haiti to spend a week with our sister Naomi who volunteers as a principle at a school.
Our purpose in going was to spend time with Naomi, enter her world down there, and spend time with the other foreigners who also volunteer there. We enjoyed our time doing just that. We relaxed during

the day (as much as you can relax when you sit and sweat...) and spent the evenings playing games and talking. Like I said, we really enjoyed being with Naomi and her peeps. I can't say I enjoyed the heat though... I like hot but this took it to another level, wow. And it wasn't even summer, ha! I am a wimp. On the weekend, we spent some time relaxing (in AC) at a resort along the coast and had a great time swimming in the Caribbean. Warm ocean water is a novelty to us Oregonians!






Our original plan was to go down to Key West and the Everglades but we were done with being in Florida so we headed north along the coast. I've heard about the fancy houses in Florida but I was still astounded by the houses we passed! And then the yachts! Holy cow! Definitely enjoyed seeing that.
When we were CouchSurfing in Gainesville, our host mentioned that her sister lives along the coast 3 hours north of Miami in Vero beach so we called her to see if we could stay with her sister. Her sister was actually in Miami that weekend but was fine with us staying at her house anyway. They had someone staying at the house dog-sitting and I guess she was fine with it too. We both laugh at the random situations we get ourselves into! It felt like a normal CouchSurfing stop in the end but we got to know the dog-sitter instead of the owners of the house :).











The people we have met have definitely been the highlight of our trip and we got surprised yet again by
a gem. We met a first cousin once removed and his wife (Caleb's dad's side), Steve and Shirley, for lunch and after spending 4 hours talking wished we could have kept on going. Our hearts quickly connected as God has done some similar things in our lives. It was a gift to meet them and leave having been encouraged by them.





While at the CouchSurfing sister's house, we found out our Gainesville hosts were going camping in St.
Augustine--our next stop--and they invited us to join them. So we camped near St. Augustine and got to see that family again.










On Easter morning, we got up before sunrise and had our own "sunrise" service on the beach. It was also our first time watching a sunrise on the Atlantic Ocean. I enjoyed sitting there in anticipation of the sunrise and thinking about what happened 2000+ years ago. It was definitely worth the lost sleep :).









For the rest of the day, we walked around historic St. Augustine. I vaguely remembered St.
Augustine from when my family went there 11 years ago and enjoyed going back to make more memories on top of those. It is a beautiful old town and actually wasn't very crowded considering it was a holiday. Before we left we saw the Easter Parade...nope, not a 4th of July Parade, it was the Easter Parade. So trade the flags for bunnies and you get an Easter Parade.





In one of our previous blogs we wrote about Ted Drewe's frozen custard in St. Louis and what we
didn't mention was that while we were wolfing down our amazing frozen treat another couple, also on a roadtrip, came to get some as well. They saw that we were also not from St. Louis so we started chatting. They were from Charleston, SC and said to look them up if we came to Charleston. So we did! We knocked on their door and after a moment of suspense they remembered us and welcomed us in. We ended up staying 2 nights with them and thoroughly enjoyed our time. They live in an old house in the historic district--some people stay at B&B's, we knock on stranger's doors and stay at a private 'B&B.' They

showed us around, we talked, made food for us, we had a great time staying with them. I can't say enough how hospitable they were with 2 strangers! I loved Charleston. The "site-seeing" we did was simply walking around the historic district looking at all the old houses. It was incredible, especially this time of year when all the flowers are just beginning to bloom. We've had so many of these "random" experiences that they are starting to become normal. But still, who would have thought we would have met a couple for 5 minutes over frozen custard in St. Louis (not even learning their names) and end up staying with them.


After Charleston, we camped for a night in Congaree National Park near Columbia, SC. It started to rain during the night and was to continue all day so we packed up and left.


Right now, we are in Athens, GA with our friends who we met in McLeod Ganj, India last year and we plan to stay here a few days.
Written by Hannah

From Caleb
Hey all, just wanted to say a quick hi from myself to you.
Things have been going well as you have read. I just wanted to put one more thing in here that I want to comment on.
Last time we wrote we were staying with a couple in Southern Florida that we got in contact with through people we had stayed with earlier on the trip in Alabama (the Webbers). They put us in contact with the Newcomers. They really blessed us with their hospitality. We were able to gear up for our trip to Haiti while at their place and they gave us passes to go see Bok Tower and Gardens. Very beautiful place. Known as the "American Taj Mahal".

 Heres a few pics from that time.

We are soon off to the Great Smoky Mountains. From there we plan to go to the Mammoth Cave, West Virginia, Virginia and then into the DC area for the rest of April.
Thanks again for caring about us.
Caleb