Rebound '09 - San Diego, CA

This is the final post about our wonderful trip to San Diego (and I'm even more thankful for that time now that we have 12 inches of snow that blew around at 50 mph today)...

Wednesday
We slept in, had breakfast in our hotel room and basked in the sun at the poolside. Then we went out for lunch with Brent and Sue to a Mexican place in a historic area of San Diego. The food was excellent and again, the portions were HUGE! We even had a mariachi band play at our table.

the guy in the background was
one of three mariachi band members

After lunch we went to Cabrillo National Monument (again, I think my dad would be proud that I was enjoying some history while on vacation...although we didn't take pictures of every sign, just some of them). Juan Rodiguez Cabrillo was the first European to set foot on the West coast. We walked around the monument area where there is an old lighthouse. It was a beautiful view. You could see the military base, Coronado Island, San Diego and even Tijuana. Next we took the road down by the coast where there are some tide pools, and it was low-tide when we were visiting. We had a lot of fun hiking around and Jonathan got some beautiful pictures. It felt so good to be enjoying God's creation for an afternoon.

the next pictures are of our adventures at the tide pools

Sue and me

Brent and Sue

these things were all over the place;
if you poked them with a stick or rock they would squeeze together and water would squish out - gross but cool;
you had to be careful about not stepping on them, seriously they were everywhere

an aircraft carrier cruising on the horizon

looks like a dancing cactus

the stairs down the lighthouse

they had a great display on the science of the prisms for lighthouses

the historic lighthouse

After our nature-adventure we drove downtown to the Gaslamp Quarter and walked around some shops, eateries, and art galleries. It was pretty relaxing but I could tell I was getting worn out because I was pretty mellow.

this was a cute cupcake shop

Then we went back to the hotel, sat in the hot tub and went to bed. ;)

Thursday
And not much changed. We rested at the pool-side all.day. And it was great! It was just what I needed. I did a lot of reading, dozing and sunning (with my SPF 35).


In the evening we walked through the outdoor mall that was close to our hotel and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It was pretty surreal being in an outdoor mall, walking around looking at their Christmas decorations, ordering hot cocoa and we weren't wearing coats, or hats, and there was no snow. It was a funny feeling. When we got back to our room we rented Up on our TV and munched on some cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. Delicious!!

Friday
We flew home...well not really "home" but to Minnesota and then we drove to Rock Valley to see our boys.

It was a great trip and I hope you enjoyed the highlights!

Rebound '09 - San Diego, CA

posing by a famous statue of a sailor kissing his girl good-bye

As Rebound finishes up the fun continues...

Tuesday
We all met for breakfast and were led by Shane for our last session. It was a really great time of prayer, communion, and thanksgiving for our ministries and our time together. It amazes me every time when one of these youth pastors gets up to lead us in a Bible study, prayer or communion. They are so much fun and they really like to goof around but when it comes down to it, they love the Lord and are so passionate about Him. It was a blessing to hear Shane speak on Tuesday morning. He's a really solid man of God and we're so blessed by the job he's doing at the national offices in MN. We felt so blessed at the end of the retreat!!


After saying our good-byes to old friends and new, some of us went out for lunch to the Fish Market. Jonathan had grilled shark and I had Dijon-crusted tilapia with mango salsa. It was delicious. I just couldn't get enough fresh fish when we were out there since we don't have that opportunity too much in Iowa. ;)

the grilled shark - it was very good!

this was the tilapia - yumm-o

Then we drove north to Del Mar to play some putt-putt and had a great time together.

Me, Heather (MN), Sue (Ames), and Kari (Ames)

(see, I told you we had a good time)

Brent (Ames), Shane (MN), Mark (Ames), Jon (Ames)

When we got back to the hotel we ran to Target to buy some food and drinks for the next several days so we wouldn't have to eat out every meal. And that's when Jonathan found TimTams - Australia's favorite cookie. We decided to have a TimTam party when we got back to the hotel and invited the rest of the Ames bunch. Mark and Kari were the only other attenders to our now-annual party. ;) Somehow Jonathan always makes the ordinary more fun that it really should be. We laughed so hard during our party - really, it was great exercise. ;)

socks were optional at this party

there's Australia's favorite cookie - the TimTam

doing the TimTam cheer

Then we went to bed: happy, tired and full of TimTams.

Join me tomorrow as I finish up posting about our trip to San Diego...