So this is why people live in California. . . .

Funny how you set out thinking you're going to do one thing in life, and end up getting that and so much more. . .

Janette and I were given free stand-by tickets on an airline and we used them to get away memorial day weekend to Santa Cruz. Janette has a good friend from high school, Leah, who lives there and we had a free place to stay, so we decided, "hey, lets go do this. we're going to need to just BE for a while after leaving our jobs. Let's go BE on the beach."

I'd never been to Santa Cruz and it was amazing. Amazing that a one bedroom home with a little bath can sell for $300,000. Amazing that the sun came out and the breeze gently played and we sat on the beach each day and tanned and watched the sailboats slice across the bay. So this is why people live in California!

Leah and her boyfriend Kyle were the most amazing hosts, taking us all over town, feeding us beyond the point of no return, and generally making life incredibly good! Thanks Kyle for the great conversation and good walks under the stars. Thanks Leah for opening your home and heart to us. (a shout out to Doug who went for beer when there was none. Now that's hospitality!)

Here are some things we experienced:

*people surfing off the cliffs of Santa Cruz on huge breakers

*sunshine

*wonderful conversation about everything from God to why girls smell worse than guys

*sunshine

*Vintage Faith Church--a worship service that brought the words "participatory" and "involved" and "Jesus-centered" to mind--incredible music played by a little group in the back of the building sitting on a little stage facing one another in a circle!

*sunshine

*sleeping in without being woken by these words, "Daddy come wipe me I pooped." (must be spoken in a sing-song voice with a hint of a lisp for the full effect)

*did I mention sunshine?

*watching Kyle drive "California style" and taking extensive notes for my return to Oregon (as I pulled into traffic today at 75mph, squeezing my truck into a space that wasn't there, I muttered to the driver in front of me who--of course--couldn't hear, "Watch out dude, I'm pulling a 'Kyle.'" Janette just looked at me and laughed. "You are crazy!" she said. "You can't drive like that up here!" Thanks Kyle for the motivation. . . .)

*sunshine, sunshine, sunshine. I started to scrape the layers of moss and lichen off my old hide with the beach sand but I got in trouble when the beach ranger guy came up and told me I was defacing the beach. "Take your Oregon trash back to the mists from which you came!" He yelled through his megaphone. To which I responded, "I'll take my moss and lichen back if you'll take that megaphone and place it in the one spot in California where the sun don't shine."

Okay, so I'm being a little drastic. The lifeguards were fine. It took about 17 of them to ascertain whether a woman had hurt her back while training on the the sand for sailing a catamaran. Truth be told--saw it with mine own eye.

There was so much more to this trip, so many layers that can't be covered in this little blog. But I need to say this: I shouldn't be surprised at all the cool little things God does but I am--surprised that we truly rested, add to that walking away with new friends and a new sense of what friendship is all about--It's being open and vulnerable and able to listen and share from your heart.

Seems like we only expect the cake and we get the frosting, the candles (lit up like a furnace), and the ice cream on the side. What a life. And sad to say for this part-time Oregonian, it happened in California.

Thanks again Leah and Kyle for the incredible weekend of rest. And thanks God, for California and the sunshine you put there. I guess.