Our alternative retreat

Last weekend we were supposed to go on a retreat in the mountains with the Fuller Presbyterians. We were SO excited about this chance to get away, be with friends, and play in the SNOW. I was almost jumping up and down as we packed up the car, I was so excited. It was raining at the time, and we knew it was snowing in the mountains we were headed to. We had chains for the tires. We were prepared. We caravaned with another car, and took a quick pit-stop at the end of the freeway before we started up the mountain road. That quick pit-stop turned into a long conference between a few of the cars as we heard from others about the bad conditions and accidents on the mountain roads. Finally, in the interest of safety, they decided to reschedule the retreat. So...back we head to Pasadena, terribly disappointed. Our consolation that night was going to dinner with other who we were traveling with at a fun hole-in-the-wall noodle shop.

Saturday morning, we decided that since there were several people like us whose plans had been suddenly rearranged, we would invite those people over for a worship night. We had a great time Saturday with those friends, singing and reflecting on how we have seen God at work around us. It was almost like a retreat...in our living room. :) We were still talking to friends at 11pm--when is the last time we've been up till 11pm??

Sunday, we decided we would relax and do a few things to celebrate Valentines day, since we didn't do that on Saturday. After a few hours of fun reading we had planned to do at the retreat, we were up for our big outing. We hopped on our bikes (the first time EVER we've ridden our bikes together!) and went to McDonalds for lunch! We are generally healthy, cook-at-home people, and I don't think we've been to McDonalds in the last year. But we had a couple of gift certificates to use, so we thoroughly enjoyed our greasy fries and juicy Angus burger. Here's a picture of Bob devouring his burger:

Then, in the evening, to cap off our relaxing weekend, we watched Casablanca. I think it was the first time I've seen the movie all the way through, and it is probably the quinessential classic movie, so it was a great experience. The only glitch was that there were 3 minutes in the middle that refused to play...I guess since we got the movie free from the library, we can't complain, but it was frustrating.

So, that was our retreat-weekend at home. I feel like we made the best of a disappointing weekend, and thoroughly relaxed like we haven't done in too long. We are glad that at least we weren't stuck on a mountain road in the snow for the weekend! :)