A Litte Rest in San Diego, CA

If you know my husband, you know he’s the king of great deals.  I guess that makes me the queen?  Well, I don’t know about that, but I do get reap the many benefits of his incredible financial awareness, planning and implementation of great deals into our personal lives.

After our New Year’s Conference with 500 college students, we spent four days in San Diego, CA.   After hours of planning and late nights, working about 18 hours per day and staying up way too late at MNYC, we welcomed the rest! We have decided to make this an annual trip to get away

somewhere and take time to rest, evaluate, plan, pray and spend quality time together.  It was a highlight of our marriage!

We enjoyed the blessing of free hotel points, free breakfasts and a free flight!  Can you believe that? The only thing we paid for in CA was one flight, a few romantic dinners at the nearby mall’s food court, one cab ride and one bus trip.  Though this trip afforded me many comfortable perks, guess what I enjoyed the most?  My sweet husband.  My luggage got lost for the first two days of our trip, and I didn’t even mind!  I was content to wear my jeans, Nick’s T shirts, and my tennis shoes without even having the choice to bother with make-up or cute hair.  So here I was, this frozen Minnesotan thawing out in San Diego, cribbing it up at the Hyatt San Diego, with no luggage, no car, and no plan.  It was so liberating!  It made holding my husband’s hand feel like I had everything in the world.

Eventually my luggage arrived, which was great because then I got to take advantage of the hot tub, which I would love to transport into our apartment on Huron Blvd. up in Minneapolis. Pleeeez Tony, I can just imagine begging our landlord.  I know, I know, its bigger than our living room, BUT…. oh the simple pleasures of hot water.  I really did feel like I was thawing out after flying out of -10 degree weather!

I was so incredibly exhausted from our conference, (joyfully exhausted) and Nick and I had done so much planning leading up to it that we decided to make no plans or schedule for our time in CA.  We like spontaneously exploring places we’ve never been.  So, each day we woke up when the sun rose (since their time is two behind MN)- which was beautiful, then took advantage of our free continental breakfast (which was amazing!), and then my absolute favorite part of each day: sitting under the shade by the poolside with our bibles, journals, and each other. We talked, prayed, reflected, & learned more about God and each other.  Then, we swam or ran and then walked a mile and a half to a nearby mall to eat dinner at the food-court!  Good stuff.  On our last night, we took a bus to the beach and explored.  We found this small beach-side candle-lit Italian restaurant, where we enjoyed my  favorite: spaghetti and meatballs!  Conversation was rich and deep.

Our time was focused largely on resting and praying for vision and direction from the Lord in our marriage and life together.  I highly recommend to all couples!  It was one of the sweetest and most intimate times I have had with Nick yet.  He is my absolute best friend in the world, which made our four days such a delight!  More than reaping the benefits of San Diego weather, I got to reap the benefits of being Nick’s wife.  I get the privilege of being married to a man who has been richly invested into by older and wiser Christian men in his life, who have cared about him so deeply.  Nick has become an incredible leader in our marriage and shepard of my heart.  He took the time to prepare a list of things to pray through in CA, a bible reading plan for us to do together in 2010, and a detailed life, marriage, ministry, and personal evaluation for us to discuss together.  I really feel spoiled to be his wife.  I felt so honored, nourished and cherished by the way he prepared for our marriage and spiritual reflection.  He was inspired by the way Jesus would retreat and pray.

If I had to go back to that place full of sunshine, palm tress, ocean and rest, you bet I would!! San Diego, you are too good to be true.  Thankful to be undeservedly blessed.