Opportunities Await You

Image by disneymike found on flickr.com

Romping around Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, we saw it all during the two days we were there. We enjoyed the Indiana Jones ride, bought Mickey Mouse souvenirs, and even took a picture with Minnie Mouse in her pale blue dress accented with small checkers that even adored her matching bow. Never mind that I was one of the only "big kid" in line fighting for attention. So what if I was 34 years old? I wanted my picture with her!

Tired as a hamster after its 100th lap on it's exercise wheel, Nick and I decided to take a break on a park bench while eating a Mickey Mouse shaped pretzel and discussing what else we would do this week. Did we want to go to San Francisco or San Diego? If went to San Diego we could check out Tijuana, Mexico, since it was only 20 minutes further.

As a watched a bouncing toddler go by wearing Mickey Mouse ears, I realized how much fun I was having and marvelled at how well this trip was turning out considering it was hardly the trip we planned. Only one week prior we had quite a different agenda.

"I don't think you should go on this trip," said my father-in-law as he sat at our kitchen table the Friday night before wringing his hands.

"I think he might be right," I told my husband Nick. "The weather report is getting worse and worse."

We planned our trip to Riviera Maya, Mexico, for months and we were ready to go. It was Friday night at 9pm and we were set to fly out the next morning at 6am. My two Burgundy suitcases were stuffed to the brim with floral bikinis, flowing sundresses, and colorful flip flops. I was all set for a relaxing week of lounging on the beach that is until we heard the weather report.

Hurricane Dean's temper was raging and he was about to take his revenge out on Riviera Maya and the Cancun area. With a little bit of investigation, we discovered that the resort we had booked with was closing up shop. Sure we could come if we wanted to but they didn't recommend it because we'd spend our days in a shelter.

Since I am not into community sleeping arrangements, I told Nick it would be best if we went somewhere else. And since there was a weather advisory, the airlines agreed that we wouldn't lose our money as long as we traveled somewhere else within the next seven days.

Seven days? How would we pull that together? We are planoholics. At that point I had a choice. I could stew for days and have a pity party about the trip that could of been. I could have gotten all worked up that I was being pushed to stretch beyond my comfort level to pull something together in only seven days.

Instead, I decided to look at it as a new opportunity. I would get to see a new and different destination despite the fact that it wasn't where I originally planned and I embraced the idea of living in the moment and taking a spur-of-the-moment trip.

California seemed like a natural replacement trip. We always wanted to go there and we knew there would be tons of exciting things to see and do. Plus it wasn't exactly a deserted island so going without hotel reservations and finding places to stay along the way didn't seem like much of an issue.

I am glad we decided to go even though our plans were altered. We enjoyed Disney, San Diego, Tijuana and Los Angeles. And since we loved it so much in California, we booked a second trip two years later to see San Francisco and the surrounding area.

How much would we have missed had we just given up when our plans had changed? I am thankful that we recognized the shift in plans as a new opportunity to go on a different, but wonderful trip.

Wishing you "Blessings from Above,"

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