Oregon Coast Vacation

We had great week away at Cannon Beach and the conference center. Dr. Palau was wonderful and spoke on Jonah and Paul; “The Reluctant Prophet and the Joyful Apostle”. A great compare and contrast between these two men and a reminder that God’s plans will not be thwarted, we can choose to participate and be joyful or we can resist and find our lives full of “belly of the fish” experiences – I know what I want. I’ll take joy in chains over rebellion and the belly of a big fish!! With these messages I felt a great renewal within my spirit and a confirmation of God’s love, acceptance, and joy in me as His son, if I can stay focused on that and not let the troubles of this world overcome me (parable of the Sower Matt 13:1-23) I can move and rest in the power of God and the promises He has given – TO ME!

Workouts were as great as I had hoped. The weather was incredible, better than we’ve seen in the last 7-years! Got over 40-miles in during the week and although I ate way too much, and generally not real healthy (too much ice cream and “Bruce’s Candy”), the running kept me sane! The first day I got up early at 6:00am and ran at low tide, this opened the beach up forever so I did 9-miles on the beach which was fantastic. Day-2 I dropped to 7-miles on the beach but later that day I had some “twinges” in the bottom of my feet that made me nervous over plantar fasciitis which hammered me last year (see my July 30, 2010 post for a bit more detail). The rest of the week I ran the roads which felt good and also provided some “hill” work but I did miss running the beach and marveling at the beautiful setting. I had to soak the beach up walking and watching the kid’s skim-board and wave-jumping – also not too tough of duty, but hey someone’s got to do it!

A good vacation away and looking forward to this week at home getting some “honey-do” list tackled and enjoying being around the house with the kids. Here are a few pic’s of my two favorite ladies on the beach.