Del Mar

The Above and Beyond Continues

Last blog I detailed my latest road in retirement segment involving travel to San Diego and how God cared for us in the journey, above and beyond our prayers and expectations. Looking back now, I’m in awe of God’s hand and presence, like Israel’s cloud in the desert; ever evident and carefully assisting our preparations and travel with immense favor. Let me set the theme for this west coast excursion using thousand-year-old prose from King David: 

By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
And by the breath of His mouth all their host.
He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap.
He lays up the deeps in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the LORD.
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. Psalm 33:6-8

The “Wrong” Hotel

We landed in San Diego on March 16 and headed for Del Mar, about 25 miles north where we hoped to experience surfer life for the next five days. Chris is such a gracious loving man (remember he types the blog 😊) and he took my suggestion for this trip and added a beach element, as a replacement for my Caribbean all-inclusive desire. He got in touch with his good friend, Chat GPT who recommended the highly acclaimed Hilton Hotel Del Mar, purportedly close to popular beach activity. But somehow, he mistakenly connected with the Del Mar Beach Hotel and spoke to a manager named Brittany. The Del Mar Beach hotel had less “hotel” amenities; but it was half the price and completely surprised us with sundry calming attributes that we progressively discovered throughout the week.

The Del Mar Beach Hotel

The recently renovated hotel was full of “above and beyonds.” First off, it's beach property and uniquely situated in the heart of a vibrant community of shops, eateries, and surfers. The hotel was old-school with rooms accessed from the outside via wide covered walkways and sunny patio spaces complete with outdoor tables, umbrellas and sunbathing chairs. Our handicapped accessible room was on the first floor right next to a ramp that proceeded conveniently to a preciously valued parking spot. Our entry door opened north into the outdoor patio-walkway which proceeded west into a large ocean view patio. Brittany’s description of the room’s proximity to the ocean patio was all Chris’s needed to book the room; and it delivered peace with every ocean swell. 

The Location that Kept on Delivering

All throughout our stay we were in awe of how this location and hotel just kept delivering. First, we learned that it was the only hotel on this public/private stretch of beach for miles and we were blessed, maybe ordained to have it. On top of that, it had two fine restaurants and two nearby public parks facing the ocean blue; and most importantly for us, all of this was within a two-minute wheelchair ride. I can’t extol enough gratitude for the Pacific-facing patio. It was literally 100 feet from the water depending on the tide. We spent most of our five days in California on that patio with temperatures the entire stay being unusually 20℉ above normal: part of that above and beyond awe and gratitude to the Almighty. The only regret for me about this hotel was that I couldn’t stay longer and for Chris it was that the busy two-story Lifeguard Station right next to it was nothing like that portrayed on Bay Watch. 

Three Delights

As I prepped for this blog there were three delights that stood out above all others: my brother and his family, “swimming,” and the peace afforded by God. Chris was hoping that the free-to-use beach wheelchair (Lifeguard Station) would make the top three. It didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it was cool and interesting, but when he wanted to take it into the waves with me in it . . .  let’s just say it quickly became annoying. 

Uncle Tom

I have six siblings: Tom the oldest and me the youngest (and cutest . . . as a baby . . . as affirmed by all). Tom, Jan and their children have been in southern California for many years; often playing host to frozen Midwesterners. He has a beautiful home 25 minutes east of Del Mar in the hills. When Chris sent a two-sentence text to Tom about our visit, he received a travel agent-like itinerary, by text, of things we could do in the area including an outing at Uncle Tom’s West Coast Beach Club (he has a sprawling stone patio and salt-water swimming pool). We accepted my brother’s magnanimous touring agency generosity and drove the coast, had lunch with the entire family at a beach restaurant, took a family photo on “our” patio, raised a Baileys toast at the Torrey Pines Gliderport face-timing my sisters on St. Paddy’s day (anniversary of my mom's passing), and finally on my last day in California we had lunch at the “Beach Club.” 

Swimming

The afternoon at the “club” was very special for me. After several years of physical challenges, I finally braved an outing in a swimming pool. Swimming with later stage Parkinsons is a challenge. It took Chris an hour to get my stiff limbs into a suit. Then at the pool he was going to just throw me in and figure it out, but Jan took over, thankfully and we descended gently in stages into the 80℉ water somehow slithering onto a floaty device. My dystonia riddled body didn’t allow my legs to go to the pool floor, so I was more like a surfboard stiffly unstable and suspended on the surface, only my body wanted to roll like a log face down! We “figured it out” and had a great time, not really swimming but floating; close enough. The sun was hot, the water warm, and I wasn’t sinking. It might as well have been a five-star hotel with a younger David Hasselhoff as pool coordinator. 

Peace

Finally, the third aspect of this journey was peace. I can’t figure out why any of us wouldn’t take Jesus up on his promise to provide peace, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.” Most of my week in Del Mar was centered on peace. Every evening along that seaboard of Pacific sand, everyone, even children playing in the sand or water, would stop everything and watch the orange orb descend. I even saw the elusive emerald green flash one evening. Peace. 

Great Expanses

About mid-week of our stay in our beach bungalow Chris made an early morning pancake run and we had breakfast on the sunny patio. As we relaxed under an awning in a salty cool ocean breeze, he said he had gotten up at 3AM that morning and walked out onto the beach, beckoned by the unfathomable awe of the two expanses: the infinite starry expanse above and the vast thousands of miles of dimly lit open ocean extending across the horizon. He said he pondered in awe that deep watery expanse extending west to Asia, a paradox of danger and peace to humans for millennia. On the one hand there’s fearsome awe of the threats swimming in the water, ripping currents, crashing waves, and thousands of miles of water with no human presence. In contrast, there’s this comforting awe and awareness of the One who created it all with its blue beauty, frolicking dolphins, fiery pink-red-orange sunsets, and therapeutic wave-generated rhythms. 

By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
And by the breath of His mouth all their host.
He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap.
He lays up the deeps in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the LORD.
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. Psalm 33:6-8

The Awe of it All

I'm learning more each day to live in awe of God. It's a great way to stay connected to his presence. Old Testament language uses “awe” and “fear-respect-reverence” interchangeably. I try to direct my goals, my actions, and words out of reverence for God’s holiness, but I am sustained with hope and strength as I stand in awe of him. The book of Hebrews says that our faith is challenged to believe the awe of it all; that God prepared infinite expanses above and vast oceans below all for us; spoken into existence with his own words; creating what is now seen from the invisible (Hebrews 11). I thank God immensely for my ability to travel when I still can, so that I can, if nothing else, be in awe of him, as often as I can, in whatever capacity I can. Oh, the awe of it all; the awesomeness of God.