I just returned from a won­der­ful and unplanned road trip from my home here in Lake Oswego down to San Onofre, CA. One of my high school friends, Dave Makela (who now works for Min­istry Coach­ing Inter­na­tional) invited me to join his fam­ily on this camp­ing and surf­ing trip. They have held this beach blan­ket bingo type of reunion for the past 5 years, and it is very well attended. Dave also invited a few other surf­ing friends from our youth.

When Dave told me about it a few months ago, I did not think I would be able to make the trip. I have been away so much this year… I am just too busy…There is too much going on right now…It’s too long of a drive… These thoughts kept me from com­mit­ting, until about two weeks ago. Then the bug bit.

I decided to call more of my old friends from decades past to see if I could rally them. My plan was to recre­ate a sum­mer day from the early 80s, but bet­ter, because we would include some of our kids.

This trip was not in my Life Plan. It was not on my annual fold out cal­en­dar. The week wasn’t even clear on my cal­en­dar, and I knew it would require some cre­ativ­ity and had work from my ded­i­cated assistant.

I knew there would be a cost to make it hap­pen. But I also knew I just had to.

More than 20 of us, kids included, had a won­der­ful week filled with surf, food, and fun. We shared sto­ries from the past and from our present. It was a once in a life­time kind of trip.

After a few mem­o­rable days in San Onofre, my two sons and my daughter’s boyfriend packed up the car and we drove up the coast. We camped and surfed at some beau­ti­ful spots. We talked about what they observed as they watched us old guys share our sto­ries, and there were some great lessons learned. Bet­ter still was the oppor­tu­nity to con­nect with these three won­der­ful young men as I shared some of my life’s expe­ri­ences with them.

The pic­ture above is a shot of me with my sons, Dylan and Wes­ley, and our friend Austin. It was taken at a place just out­side of Santa Bar­bara where I caught my first wave some 31 years ago. Moments after the pic­ture was taken, my younger son caught his first real wave in that very spot with his dad, brother and friend hoot­ing and cheer­ing him on.

More con­nec­tion and mem­o­ries made. An expe­ri­ence I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Some­times you just have to. And when you do, you’ll never regret it.

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Tags: Family, Playing, Travel

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