Mount Hermon Extravaganza

This past week was our first "real" vacation since our honeymoon last year. We had the privilege of being able to go to Mount Hermon (a Christian camp in Santa Cruz) for Dallas Seminary week. Basically, the average day looked like: wake up, go to breakfast, hear an amazing speaker, eat a donut, hear a second amazing speaker, eat lunch, [insert fun activity here], dinner, hear a third amazing speaker, [insert another fun activity here]. The chaplain summed it up well by saying it seems like we're just eating and going to church... it was a wonderful experience, but here are the highlights:

• Riding the zip line. If you've never been on one, basically you get harnessed in and you hold on while you glide across in the air over a multi-hundred yard space from one side to the other.
• Going to downtown Santa Cruz and checking out the boardwalk. This is where that "Share the Road" picture comes in. While we were driving to get to the main mall area I saw this sign and thought to myself, "Only in Santa Cruz would you have a sign that includes cars, bikers AND hitchhikers/bums."
• Speaking of bums, in downtown Santa Cruise there was a guy just laying in a sleeping bag on the sidewalk right outside the shops and sat up abruptly just as we walked by... that was interesting. And then, there was another "entertainer" who was dressed up like a woman and was holding an umbrella while silently looking at people as they walked by...
  
• Getting our pictures taken in one of those photo booths where it's like 5 pictures in row and they print out on a long strip. I can't remember the last time I did that, but it was a lot of fun.
• Playing hours of ultimate frisbee. Priceless. I love that game.
• Tim Lundy. He was my favorite speaker of the week... he had great illustrations and you could tell he was speaking straight from his heart.
• Being able to spend time just relaxing with my wife.
• Hanging out with my wife's nephews/nieces/cousins that we don't get to see very often. One of them was repeatedly saying "Wendy's" (in reference to the restaurant) fairly regularly to show his devotion. A couple days into it I responded with "Carl's" every time.
• Archery. We were taught how to shoot a bow and arrow (though I vaguely remember this skill from our Boys Brigade -- basically Boy Scouts run by our church -- days)
• The "East vs. West" ping pong tournament. Every year the West (or White Dallas professors) challenge the East (or Asian Dallas professors) to a ping pong tournament -- best 3 of 5. Usually, the East dominates, without even allowing a win for the West... but the West got close this year bringing it game 5. Of course, this is due to the fact that the guest musician -- who often sounded like he was singing Disney songs by the music, and worship songs by the lyrics -- was a secret weapon.
• Playing my guitar. This is something I haven't done in about a year. It was nice just having the time to pull it out and play a little... but since I haven't played in so long, my fingertips could only take so much.
• Being upgraded (for free) to a deluxe room. Basically, we got moved from a smaller cabin-like room to a hotel room with a porch. An amazing blessing!
  

There was so much more... and I'll probably come back and edit this post as I think of everything, but it was a total blessing. If you ever get the chance to go, you should definitely do it!