Escape

We just returned from a mini vacation. An escape of sorts from our day to day life. Both Buzz and I were feeling the stress of working long hours and from not being able to go any where this summer. Then of course I added school again on top of that, so I was ready for an escape.

We went down to San Diego this weekend. It is about a 2 hour drive from home, the Biola cross country team was running, it was my birthday, and we wanted a break, no excuses needed - so we made a weekend of it! :)

We drove down Friday night after we picked up a couple of athletes (nursing students of course, who had clinicals that day and were unable to leave with the rest of the team) Since we were headed down anyways, the coach asked if I could taxi a couple of the girls. I gladly said yes.

We woke up bright and early Saturday morning to go to Balboa Park. This is where the race was held. San Diego State was the host school. Now why would anyone get up early on their vacation instead of sleeping in one might ask?? Because we wanted to see these girls run. They are a great group of women and we have gotten to know them well. We just want to support their team:
They were running against some top Division One schools. The girls held their own - coming in 3rd place, just behind Long Beach State (we were happy that the two top runners were from Long Beach since that is where Michelle goes to school....so we double cheered). Long Beach only beat Biola by 3 points. BYU won the meet - but only by 9 points over Biola. If you know anything about cross country pointing you know that this is amazing...one or two people placed any different and it would be a whole different picture. The other teams had significantly more points. You can read all about the race here.
The boys took 6th place - again they were running against some top notch runners. That race was quite exciting!

Erika is doing OK with her decision not to run this season and just 'red shirt' until next year. I really think I have struggled with it more. She is still such a part of the team and funny...she is the one that stands out in this picture in her red shorts!
Here she is getting practice at being a physical trainer. She wants to work with teams / coach when she is done with school so this is great practice for her.

Michelle came along as the assistant photographer for the day. Their dad takes multiple pictures for the team and Michelle has inherited that love of photography from him. So she took pictures of Biola and pictures of Long Beach for her school newspaper. I happen to think she is just too darn cute and should be in front of the camera instead of behind one.

After the race we headed back to our hotel. I really had nothing else planned for the day except rest and relaxation. As Buzz caught up on college football, I went and hung out here:

Our hotel(San Diego Marriott) had an amazing pool area. I had seen it before when we visited the hotel and it was one of the reasons we chose to stay there. I laid out in the sun for almost 4 hours (lots of sunscreen) and read a book - actually finished the one that I took down with me. I met a couple of girls from San Francisco, had a pina colada, dozed and just relaxed. Oh was it nice. When it started to get dark I decided I needed to head in, shower and get ready for dinner. We ate dinner at Roy's right on the hotel grounds so we did not have to drive anywhere. Sorry - no pictures of any of that - guess I was so relaxed I forgot to take the camera

This morning we did sleep in a bit. And woke up to a beautiful, sunny day. This was the view when you looked to the right from our room. We had a nice little patio on our room.

I sat out there and drank my coffee this morning. And started reading all of my birthday wishes on facebook. How fun was that?!?!

Check out this view looking the other way from our room! Nice ocean breezes...

After we checked out of our room we went to starbucks to hang out for awhile. We were going to meet Buzz's sister and brother in law for lunch and had a little time to kill. I actually got on line and started my NRP test (neonatal resuscitation) since it is due. See...I still did some work...I just didn't want to have to do it all tonight when I got home. It was way more fun doing it away from home then it would have been if I did it all here.

We then met Sarah and Wayne for lunch at this cute little restaurant
It is the Pier Cafe at SeaPort Village. We had yummy fish and chips and even better fellowship with the family. We don't get to see each nearly enough since they live in San Diego.

After lunch we walked around for a little bit, shopped but didn't buy anything. I take that back - Buzz bought me a carmel apple for my birthday but I haven't eaten it yet. Then we headed home. It was such a nice little escape. I think I need to do them more often. I feel refreshed, recharged and ready to get back in to things.

Debbie