Like Streams of Water in the Desert

For the last several years, my mom, sisters and I have spent a long weekend together each Spring as a Mother/Daughter retreat. This year, my mom and sisters invited Sarah and Katie to join us. We decided to meet in Palm Springs for a few days during Spring Break. 

The day before we left, Sarah got a text from her friend Brooke (from Cypress) who was visiting Los Angeles over her Spring Break. Since the drive to Palm Springs skirts the east side of LA, we were able to meet up with Brooke and her mom in Burbank on our way down. Sarah and Brooke immediately reverted into their silly, crazy ways, and it was fun to watch! I'm so glad it worked out for them to see each other on such short notice. What a blessing for Sarah!!

We left Burbank on an emotional high at about 4:15 and were immediately stopped in LA traffic. It took 90 minutes to go 17 miles! Talk about a mood buster! The girls did great in the car, reading, playing on their phones/itouches, and napping. We arrived in Palm Springs at about 8:00 and got settled in our cute Airbnb. The rest of the crew didn't arrive until about 11PM so the girls went to sleep and I settled down to read and wait.

The next morning, we went to the Palm Springs farmer's market, which was lovely. We came home with oranges and lemons, strawberries, a variety of veggies for roasting, several different delicious cheeses, and my girls each had a juice. A complete success! We spent the rest of the day cooking, eating, relaxing in the hot tub, and planning our remaining days. Very relaxing. 

Our second day we drove to Joshua Tree National Park for some hiking. It was a vast, dry, thirsty land. I felt like we were driving through the middle of nowhere just to get to the trail head! 

We did the Skull Rock Trail, which was 1.7 miles. Sunny, yes. Hot, yes. Dry, yes. Beautiful, Absolutely. It was so interesting to me. I have never really considered the beauty of the desert before, but I really enjoyed it. 

When we got back to the house, we were all tired from being in the sun. I took a little nap and then we relaxed in the hot tub for the rest of the afternoon.

The next day we went to the Living Desert Zoo, which is very impressive. My favorite exhibits were the road runner, the screech owl, the baby warthogs, and the giraffes. There were volunteers throughout the zoo that were full of interesting information to share. 

After the zoo, we found a great little Mexican restaurant (with VERY strong margaritas) for lunch. 

Our last activity was the Aerial Tramway, which took us 2 1/2 miles up the cliffs of Chino Canyon and provided breathtaking views of the dessert. 

It was quite chilly at the top, elevation 8500 ft., so we didn't stay long. By the time we got back to our house, that margarita had done me in, and I was not worth much for the rest of the evening, although I did manage to beat Sarah to the punch and win our game of Clue. We had family game time each evening with Yahtzee and/or Clue (both new games for my girls, but classic Estes family games), and that was one of my favorite parts of our trip.

As I reflect on our trip to Palm Springs, I am drawn to this verse from Isaiah 32:

Behold, a king will reign in righteousness
    and rulers will rule with justice.
2 Each one will be like a shelter from the wind
    and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water in the desert
    and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.

For me, spending time with my mom and sisters was like streams of water in the desert. These first few months in Bakersfield have been difficult. I have missed my community and my family. But I feel refreshed after spending that time with Mom, Ash, and Leigh. Especially since Mom came back to Bakersfield with us for the rest of the week, and Leigh came up over the weekend for Easter festivities. I feel like I've had a drink of fresh, cool water that will hopefully carry me until we go home to Houston in June. And I thank God for renewing my soul at just the right time. 

The Sweetness of a Friend

"Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel." Proverbs 27:9 (ESV)

Well, I can't attest to oil making my heart glad, but I certainly experienced the sweetness of my friendship with Aimee last weekend as we talked, encouraged, counseled and prayed together while exploring God's beautiful creation in Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands National Park. I feel like we just tried to soak in each other's presence for 2 1/2 days. It wasn't enough, but it was wonderful.

I picked her up from the Burbank airport on Friday afternoon and we tried to high-tail it out of LA and get to the coast ASAP.  Unfortunately, I kept missing my turns and having to reroute our path, so it took longer than it needed to. But, once we finally saw the ocean, we pulled off the highway and scaled down a small but quite steep hill, jumped over some railroad tracks, and ta-da---ocean!! Ahhhh (big sigh). Aimee had never been to CA and she never tired of looking at the view of mountains on one side and ocean on the other.

Aimee found a great seafood restaurant for dinner that looked out over Ventura Harbor. The view was beautiful and food was amazing, but the conversation was the best part. Aimee is a fantastic listener and she is slow to speak, usually asking questions that make me consider my situation in a different way and almost always giving advice that is more along the lines of sharing wisdom than telling me what I should do. Just one reason why I love her.

After dinner, we headed to the hotel and went to bed early, since Aimee had a long day of travel and her body was still on CST.

Saturday we spent exploring Santa Barbara. We walked and walked and walked some more! Our day included a delightful coffee shop, a farmer's market with beautiful and delicious treats, shopping for cold medicine, walking down Stern's Wharf, a wine tasting and olive oil tasting at Santa Barbara Winery, piddling around a few cute shops, some pretty delicious ice cream, and a scenic drive up to the Old Mission and then back down to the beach where we relaxed our feet waiting for the sun to set. After another great meal at a Mexican place Aimee picked out, we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

Sunday was Channel Islands day. A boat took us out to Santa Cruz island. It took about 1 1/2 hours to get there, and along the way, we spotted some California Grey Whales, dolphins, and a seal! The whales were truly amazing, but I love that we got to see a seal swimming freely in the ocean. I've never seen that before!

We spent about 4-5 hours on Santa Cruz Island. We did a guided hike that was very informative and then we hiked a little more on our own. The scenery was awesome, and the weather was perfect. We were so blessed to experience it. We brought a picnic lunch of some fruit and bread from the Farmer's Market and some cheese we bought at a little cheese shop in Santa Barbara. It was so delicious, we forgot to eat the Butterfingers bar I brought for dessert!!

When we returned to the mainland, we were both pretty exhausted. We decided to do an easy dinner of leftover bread and fruit, along with some wine and cheese and chocolate we picked up at Trader Joe's. We relaxed by the fire pit at the hotel and ate dinner while we shared more stories and struggles and encouragement and wisdom.

Aimee's flight left early on Monday morning so after a 2-hour drive to the airport, it was a quick goodbye.

The sweetness of a friend...that is the best way I can describe my weekend. I'm so thankful, for all of it.