California Part 1

Several weeks ago I decided that if I just sat around and waited for someone to do something with, it might never happen, and I'd get older and wish I had done things, even if I had to do them alone. And so I contacted some of my favorite people in California and planned a trip to go see them. And here's all about my journey. (I should note here that not a week after I booked my trip I started dating the most amazing guy, but that's a whole nother story on God's awesomeness.)

I currently have Wednesday afternoons off and decided that in order to make the most of my time I would fly out in the late afternoon on Wednesday and come back on Monday. The other reason is that I'm not a big traveler and really enjoy being home, so by the time I am somewhere for a week I am usually really ready to leave, and so I thought I'd avoid that this time. So last Wednesday I headed to KC to fly to San Diego. Now this is only the second time I had flown and I was excited. I mean the view is simply breathtaking, being above the clouds and seeing God's glory. I had a layover in Denver and Denver was having some really windy weather, so everything in and out was delayed. The good part is that everything was delayed, so I didn't miss my connecting flight, but I landed in San Diego an hour and a half later than planned.

My roommate from college, Yuriko, came and picked my up at the airport, it was so good to see her after 5 years. She took me to an island with a huge bridge called Coronado so I could see the San Diego skyline. It was pretty cool. 

We also went to a place where they put tapioca in everything. So I have a mango smoothie type drink with this tapioca in it. It wasn't too bad.

The next day I was up at 5:30 because my body thought it was 7:30. I had a great place to stay (Thanks Yuriko!) so I just chilled for awhile. Then we had to take Seijiro to preschool. He wasn't too sure about me at first, but it didn't take long for him to warm up to me. 

Then we were off to Balboa Park, there are so many fun pictures from there, but I'm just going to post a few. It was such an interesting and fun place to walk around.

After that we headed to Old Town. Old Town was full of the heritage of San Diego, ate some real deal Mexican food which was delish.  And I pushed Sakurani in the stroller. I am not a very good stroller driver, but I got better as the day went on.

Then Yuriko was telling me about how close Mexico was and I hadn't ever put that together. I guess I just think of Mexico being attached to Texas. So to show me we went to an outlet mall where you could see the fence.



Then we picked up Seijiro and headed to the beach. My first time seeing the Pacific ocean. The only other ocean I had seen was the third coast, the Gulf of Mexico which I've been told doesn't count. There were seals and birds everywhere, it was so beautiful.

Then Yuriko and I got to have a girls night while Sujeev watched the kids. The next morning Seijiro wasn't so shy and decided to wake me up by jumping on the bed. I however was not as responsive as he wanted me to be and just laid there.

And after I finally got up we went to a differnt beach. This was a sandy beach and we stood in the water and let the waves hit us. Seijiro really liked the water, even if his jeans and shoes got soaked.

Our final stop was at Seaport Village, a cute little shopping area. 

And this concludes the first part of my awesome California adventure. Check back for Part 2. 

change

so let me just clarify here; i am not talking pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters here. i am talking about how things differ from the way they used to be. i had the pleasure of going to my hometown today (had to get my hair did). and I took the same route I always take and there unexpectedly was a stoplight. my little 5 stoplight town suddenly has 6. my first reaction is that i am dismayed, i mean who does that? who adds a stoplight to a town that for the last 25 plus years has only had 5? well apparently my people do that. and so because i can do absolutely nothing about it, i will accept it and try not to be surprised next time i come to that intersection. now i must say this is so much like how I view serious change. my first gut reaction is resistance. but i've come to realize that almost always there is no need to resist. God is always in control, and knowing that, i can have peace and know that every change is in His control and i can completely trust that He knows what is best. so bring on the change, i am ready and excited for what God has in store for me. noni fun fact: i am addicted to coffee, or maybe just the caffeine in it.