A Birthday on Potato Chip Rock

For my 37th birthday on Tuesday, Dennis and I planned a “date day” to hike Mount Woodson to the famed “Potato Chip Rock.”  It was a beautiful day for a hike and awesome to do this relatively busy trail on a weekday, so we didn’t have to stand in line to get out on the rock.

After dropping the kids off at school – and listening to Teo’s pleas to “…spend your whole birthday with you, Mommy!” – we ate a delicious breakfast at Nutmeg and then drove to Lake Poway to start the 8 mile roundtrip hike to Potato Chip Rock.

It was so fun to spend most of my birthday hanging out with my sweet husband.  We’d enjoyed an usual stretch of one-on-one time the past few days.  First, a date night on Saturday evening: we watched La La Land (loved it!!) and had dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery.  Next, we dropped the kids off with our good friends at church on Sunday morning so we could attend a baseball/T-Ball clinic for 3 hours!  I’m going to be the Manager and Dennis is going to help coach Teo’s T-Ball team this year.  Doing drills and learning about coaching techniques together was bonding and just ridiculously fun! Now we celebrated my birthday with hiking, talking, and sharing the experience of seeing these spectacular views for the first time.  So much wonderful togetherness!

After ascending for four miles of rocky terrain, I didn’t consider the possibility that the rock itself would be challenging to access, but it was!  There’s one boulder that you have to climb up and then jump this gap over to Potato Chip Rock.  Dennis went first and offered me his hand.  I took his hand and just jumped… a little marriage trust exercise that fortunately worked out.  Getting back off the rock was even more of a challenge, but the nice little community of hikers helped one another.  I felt pretty pleased with myself for being brave and going for it!

This birthday “date day” felt like the perfect way to celebrate during my “Year of Essential”.  We didn’t spend a lot of money, got out and enjoyed God’s creation on a beautiful day, and I got to spend time with the person who is the most essential in my life.