Grandpa's 80th

in

Eighty years old is still young when you're talking to a 96-year-old. That's how old one of Grandpa's cousins is who came to his 80th birthday celebration. Yet 80 is huge, so the boys, Lois, uncle Larry and Aunt Pam, piled into our Honda Pilot and headed out to Bridgewater, SD for the celebration. Lois spent her first eight years in Liberia, Africa, where her parents were missionaries until they returned to the U.S. and settled in Grandpa's home town of Bridgewater. About seventy-five friends and family joined us at Trinity Orthodox Presbyterian Church to celebrate the day.

I had a senior moment in the program portion of the celebration. Calvin, Grandpa Dale's best friend from childhood, was up speaking. I turned to my son Aaron and said, "It's hard to imagine those guys running around when they were our age, isn't it?" Aaron looked at me with that "You're kidding, right?" look and said, "Our age?" I could have laughed and pretended like I was joking, but it shocked me too much because I realized I was indeed thinking of myself as Aaron's age (20). I guess I'm just young at heart. Yeah, that's it.
80th1 80th2 80th3

Very Simple, No Agenda, Cheap

in

Del1 Del2 Del5 Great feeling to wake up and not have anything you have to do. We're on day three of our very simple, no agenda vacation in CA. We're sitting in coffee shop in Del Mar, our favorite beach town in the San Diego area. Lois is doing some writing, so I'm doing some blogging. When we woke up on Wednesday and realized we had nothing we had to do, absolutely nothing, we were a little giddy after weeks of going pretty strong.

We're staying at Pine Valley Bible Conference Center, about 45 miles due east of San Diego on Hwy 8, a straight shot into the mountains. They have a special deal for pastors. Very simple, nothing fancy room. The last two days we've walked to breakfast on main street in Pine Valley, four miles round trip, in the dry, hot sunshine, marveling at the beauty of the desert mountains, huge pine trees and serene quiet and getting all caught up on stuff.

We did this last year, too. No plans for the week except to read, hike and soak in some sun on the beach (if June Gloom doesn't set in...yes, San Diego in June isn't always sunny). The U.S. Open is in a few short miles south of where we are right now, but we managed to avoid traffic. The cool, sunny day couldn't be nicer. Very refreshing.