Less than 2 weeks!

It's crazy that I make this post with only 11 days left in this summer adventure. It doesn't seem like I've been here anything like 8 weeks...more like 2 or 3. This morning we took Matthew(a guy from St. Louis that I've gotten very close to) to the airport to leave for the summer. He knew coming in that he'd be leaving early...it's for a family vacation to Panama City Beach but it should be alot of fun. He's excited to get home, but it's also sad to leave, especially to be the first to leave. We're all starting to adopt an idea that leaving is going to bittersweet....we're all excited to get home and start back on our campuses but also it's going to be hard to leave the amazing weather, the incredible community, and Shamu, obviously.

The last week or so has been pretty unusual. Helen and Glenn made their San Diego Summer Project debut which was very eventful. We went all over the place the first day they were here, up to Mt. Soledad(a mountain that has a beautiful 360 degree view of the entire San Diego area), La Jolla and the beach that has a bunch of wild seals living on it, lunch a little French Bistro which was delicious, Torrey Pines Golf Resort(the site of the U.S. Open), dinner at a German restaurant, then over to the Sunset Cliffs, although we missed the sunset by a few minutes. The next day we went to SeaWorld and got to see all of the day shows except the Cirque de la Mer, which was alot of fun. It was a pretty hot day so I was glad I was there as a guest and not there sweating like crazy. I got alot of pictures of the fellow vendors which was really fun.

Thursday evening a group of us went to the midnight showing of the new Batman movie with I really liked alot. It was pretty long and made for a late night out, but it was completely worth it to be exhausted at work the next day.

On Friday night was Friday Night Live where I spoke on Romans 8. A couple complications came up that day including the portable sound system running out of battery and not being able to locate the charger, so we were without a system on the beach. Everything still worked out alright though and I really enjoyed having the opportunity to be able to share with the group.

I worked on Saturday, Sunday was pretty normal with church, meetings, and time to plan for the weekly Bible Study, and Monday was also fairly normal, going to campus. Sunday night we had a date auction in order to try to raise money for the support debt that still exists for project, which is much larger than in previous years. My growth group decided that it would be fun to utilize the hotel suite that Mom and Dad had been upgraded to for free, so our date consisted of making the girls group dinner at the Bahia Hotel, then going out on the boat cruise that leaves from the hotel and drives around the bay area. We came back and had some dessert and then just hung out for awhile. The date we purchased was a trip to the local lazer tag, which was an absolute blast. I hadn't been since middle school but I absolutely love it, so it was alot of fun to get back into something like that.

Tuesday the parents were back in town(they left on Friday to go north to visit Mom's cousins). We met up with the Dooley's from WRCOB in Old Town who were here visiting some relatives. We had lunch at a really good Mexican restaurant and explored some of the area of authentic Mexican shops and handmade things. That night we did the date for the girls and everything worked out really well.

Yesterday was our So Cal Fun Day, in which we have planned events and it's just a day to hang out and have a great time. We started out in Coronado where we relaxed on the beach for most of the afternoon. Next we headed to Little Italy for dinner which was incredible. After that we headed to Balboa Park for a catered dessert of different specialty cakes which were delicious as well. Overall it was a great day with lots of fun and just time to enjoy each other's company.

Tomorrow we plan to go to the San Diego Zoo, which is apparently pretty world famous, so I'm really excited about that.

Not much else coming up that I know of, but I'm sure every day will be packed from here on out. I realize this was alot longer than I originally anticipated but it had been awhile since a post. I hope everything is going great with all of you!

11 days to go!