On Sunday, September 28, the family piled into two cars and drove to the Lawrence Welk Resort in Escondido, CA. Over the past couple of months, it became obvious that a vacation was in order and this was the perfect time to take it.
This was the first long trip that we have taken with our new car. It was a very comfortable drive and we had excellent gas mileage!
About 2.41 minutes after arriving, we were in the pool. The resort has a nice waterslide and multiple pools at the different activity centers.
On Monday, I had to work. It was nice sitting outside with a cool breeze, but it was not fun. Working on vacation is a huge oxymoron.
On Tuesday, Tiffany and I went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. This was a great opporunity to give our new camera a workout. We took a ton of pictures at the Animal Park and had a great time. It was around 100 degrees, so we made sure to pace ourselves! In the evening, I attended a "Casino Night," at the resort. We were playing for prizes, but I didn't win anything. It was a lot of fun to play though.
Wednesday brought us back to the Animal Park for a return visit. This time, most of the family joined us. It was about 100 again and I took about the same number of pictures as I had the day before.
Balboa Park and Corondado were the destinations of choice on Thursday. Balboa Park was beautiful. Tiffany and I decided that we could easily spend a day or two trying to visit everything there, so we will have to plan that as a later trip. At Corondado, we relaxed on the beach for a while. The beach was practically empty which always makes a beach trip that much better. In the evening, we visited long lost family. It was nice to meet some of Tiffany's cousins and eat yummy Hawaiian food at the same time!
On Friday, Tiffany and I went to Legoland for the day. For most of the day, the place felt like a ghost town. We truly felt like we had the park to ourselves - It was fantastic. We had a great day at the park. It was a little chilly in the afternoon which was quite nice. It brought back fond memories of Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. Before leaving the park, we both got to play with robots.
Originally, we were all going to travel home on Saturday. Since we were enjoying our vacation so much, Tiffany and I decided to stay another day. We had a great time lounging around the resort, swimming, playing tennis, playing pool, watching movies, eating pizza and sitting around an outdoor fireplace in the evening. We also took some pictures of old cars at a local winery. It was a great day and very relaxing.
On Sunday, we decided that it would be boring to drive home and waste the day, so we went back to Legoland and an outlet mall before driving home. The trip home was great too. I love driving on the open highways between Phoenix and California. The desert and mountains are beautiful!
On vacation, it is easy to relax. Life just seems to stop for a while. Unfortunately, our busy lives always seem to catch up when we get home. Why? I am really beginning to think that stress and all of the busy "stuff" of life is self inflicted. How is it that I can relax on vacation? It's because I choose to set aside the stress and stuff that "needs" to get done. I think it is very important to take regular time to step away from life and refresh. Unfortunately, the easiest solution is the one that I fight the most. In Psalms, David often had a lot of conflict. Many of the Psalms start out with David fighting something or someone. In the end though, his vision is corrected by reflecting on God and how wonderful He is. I need to make a committment to spend more time in the Word and spend more time talking with God. It's not a superficial feel good thing to do - It's a relationship that I do not take advantage of enough. Spending time with God is real. It produces real results.
I also need to take more time to write down my thoughts. By trade, I am paid to think and write. Unfortunately, that means that I have a lot of thoughts and information flowing in my tiny brain. It always helps to write it down and get it offline and out of my active thoughts. It was easy to relax on vacation because I didn't have to think. Riding roller coasters and playing in sand do not require as much brain power as writing a high level design for a project (Although, I do find a lot to think about with roller coasters and sand). Writing thoughts down tends to help the brain rest better (The best proof of this concept is David Allen's "Getting Things Done" and "Ready for Anything").
By writing down my thoughts and spending time alone with God, I will be able to have a "daily vacation," from life. Vacations shouldn't be the only time that we step away from the rush of life. It needs to be a daily action so the stress and stuff will not be able to build up and swallow the things that life is really to be about. As you will see in the coming months, Tiffany and I are going to be very busy between now and the end of the year. How I choose to spend my time in "mini-vacation land," will determine how I feel on January 1. Will I choose to spend time with God and have time to reflect or will I let everything consume me in the end...
