Sunset at Oceanside and church in Carlsbad

The weather was good to us last week on our three-part mini vacation. It rained all week, but we had a wonderful clear morning to walk last Monday before we drove back home, a great sunny day to visit Quail Botanical Gardens with Susan on Thursday, and when we drove back Saturday night, for our final night there, we arrived just in time for clear weather and a beautiful sunset.

We weren't the only ones enjoying it. There were still surfers in the water and the occasional person or couple standing on the sidewalks, all enjoying the wonder of watching the sun slip below the horizon. Lovely, lovely, lovely. That alone was almost worth the drive from home.

Our big goal for this segment of our mini vacation was to attend Redeemer Lutheran Church in Carlsbad on Sunday. Redeemer is the home church of John and Lois, traveling companions on our Israel trip, and we thought it would be fun to visit their church with the hopes we would run into them.

So we took off Sunday morning in lots and lots of rain and headed toward Carlsbad. The address for Redeemer is 6600 Black Rail, and we thought we must be lost when our Nuvi took us to a complex of apartments and condos. Sure enough, the address seemed to be 6600. Figuring that Redeemer must be close by or we were terribly lost, we drove back to the main road, and a couple blocks away, there it was - another 6600 address on the same street. We still don't quite understand how that could be, but maybe some day we'll figure it out.


We were delighted to see John and Lois come in, and even more delighted that they recognized us. We sat behind them during the service and chatted (yes, at appropriate times). They are such a neat couple.

Redeemer's building is relatively new, and I was struck by the design which created two shadow crosses behind the hanging cross. Very nice.

Today, we're back to our normal routine. When we went to Oceanside last week, during the first segment, we wondered if we'd made a mistake. Although we took mini camping trips last year while I was working 24/7 (at RV parks that had broadband service), this trip was beginning to seem like a silly idea (of mine). We were happy to learn that it was a good thing!