infinite illumination: spring break...the real deal

It has been way too long since I have had my last post. I am so glad to be able to write today. Today is back to school for me, however I am going to tell you about my amazing spring break trip. I did a preview post but get ready for all the wonderful details of how it actually went. We left Ames on Saturday March 10th at 6am. It was a 2 day drive to get to the camp. It was a beautiful drive (except Nebraska). I hadn't been farther west than Colorado until this trip and I loved every minute of it! We stayed in Grand Junction Colorado on Saturday night and continued our journey on Sunday. I seriously felt like we would never get there, however we eventually did. It was dark by the time we got there so I was disappointed that we didn't get to see the beautiful ocean in the light that night. We did make our way down to the beach after unloading our things. The sound of the ocean is magnificent. There is nothing more beautiful than the ocean in my mind.

On Monday, Abby and I woke up at 6am to go explore. We walked around the town and got some coffee. We were so excited for our big day of surfing ahead of us. In the late morning we met with the camp owner and she gave us the low down on everything that would be happening and where everything that we may need was located in the camp. Finally our first surf lesson was upon us. We got a little speech on the beach about how to stand up and what the parts of the board were called and then it was out to the waves we went. The instructors were there to push us into waves and tell us when to stand up (at least for the first day). I was totally surprised when I was able to actually ride a wave and all the way in within my first few waves. Guess all that dancing and having to be able to balance helped me out here. If you have never surfed before I will tell you it is very exhilarating. I don't know if I have ever felt so alive. It was amazing. So we did that for about two hours and then our lesson was over. The rest of the day we went on a bike ride to get familiar with the town and Emily (one of the owners) took us to some neat local spots.

The rest of the week went something like this.... wake up early, go for a walk + coffee, surf, and explore.

If I wrote out everything that we did this would probably be a short chapter book. However I will give you some details of some exciting parts. The 2-4th days of surfing the waves continually grew bigger as did my fear. The biggest thing I feared was getting knocked off my board and swallowed by the waves. It was terrifying to be pulled under and then get up only to realize you would be pulled under again. I had a mini-panic each time. Until finally I thought... If I just breath and anticipate it I will be fine. So that fear somewhat went away. Another well...not so exciting moment of the trip was on the second day my friend Abby got into a little accident. She tried to eat her surf board.... actually not quite.... her board smacked her in the face chipping 6 teeth. YIKES! Pretty scary stuff. But they were fixed within an hour and she was looking and feeling much better.

After a week in California I pretty much want to move there. I don't know if I have ever been in a better place. Breathing in the sunshine and being filled with an indescribable happiness was so inspiring. I feel that a part of me is still in California and I hope to return soon.

Enough of my writing... here are some sweet pics for you to take in.