Wonderful vacation

I've been off the grid for the past couple of weeks while my wife and I vacationed in Panama City Beach. Unlike some folks, I don't publish when I'm away from my house for extended times. I figure thieves get a lot of information from social media so I don't write anything about being away until I return home. However, I can now report that this vacation was great!

For one thing, we were away a full two weeks. We've had many one week vacations and a couple of 10 days, but this is the first time we spent an entire two weeks on vacation. It turned out to be very restful. Secondly, the weather was amazing. Not a drop of rain until the day we returned home (yesterday). Sunny skies and every day in the 80s and 90s.  It felt great until we got home yesterday evening in 50 degree weather.

Every day we either swam in the ocean or in one of the 11 pools in the condo complex in which we stayed. Most days we swam in both. The ocean was about a 3 minute golf cart ride from the condo so we went down there early many mornings just to watch the waves and the dolphins and then returned several evenings to watch the sunset.

We've made several trips to PCB, but this is the first time we've seen eagles flying over head. We saw two. A story in the local paper told about one man who took a picture of five of them flying over his home. Speaking of seeing things fly over, on two nights we watched the space station fly over. One night it was in view for six minutes and the next night we could see it for four minutes. I'm always fascinated watching it fly over knowing how high it is above the earth and how fast it is moving.

Although we ate several of our meals in the condo we had our fair share of fresh seafood meals in some of our favorite restaurants at PCB. Blackened grouper continues to be my favorite.

I did manage to get in some reading while there. I either finished reading or read Beyond the Ordinary: Spirituality for Church Leaders, Cash: The Autobiography of Johnny Cash, Crashing without Burning: Life After Failure, Merle Haggard: An Autobiography, and Winning with People by John Maxwell.

The condo we stayed in is being rented by our daughter and her family for a couple of months which means we spent time with her and three of our grandkids. That meant everything we did got to be shared with them which further means we got to make some great memories as a family.

Of course, the absolute best part of our time there was that we celebrated our 53rd anniversary. For many years we've gone to PCB to celebrate our anniversary, and every year it's better than before. I consider myself a very fortunate individual that Faye chose to say yes when I asked her to marry me.

I hope you found time to get away this year. If not, please set aside time on your calendar to do so next year. I've found that if you don't schedule such times, they often won't happen. You need time away from your church and/or your job. You'll find you'll return more energized and excited about what you do, and you'll make great memories that will last a lifetime.