Brought me to tears

Now I'm in Monterey on my vacation.  Yesterday we left Morro Bay and headed up the 1 going north.  For about 100 miles, the ocean was on the left and the mountains were on the right.  As we were driving through Big Sur, I had to make sure I was paying attention to the road ... it was incredibly gorgeous.  I felt so moved by the majesty of God as we drove.

This morning, instead of going to the gym at the hotel, I encouraged my friend to go with me on a hike near the hotel.  The hike was in the mountains overlooking the ocean.  How could we not do that?  It was an incredibly moving experience for both of us.  Here I am, climbing up a million stairs, scaling down rocks and feeling the wind blowing my hair as I overlooked the vast ocean and felt the mist in my face.  I was 417 pounds and I was scaling down freakin rocks!!  My friend didn't go all the way down with me because she was starting to feel some pain, so I told her to hang out at the top but that I wanted to go to the bottom where the waves were hitting the rocks and seals were just hanging out.  We both were absolutely overwhelmed with emotions, but in a very good way.  God is supremely blessing me and I know it.  I feel it. 

I have been handling being in restaurants just fine.  We have been in some pretty amazing ones with all the seafood around here, but I have not even thought about the food. I would bring in my chicken soup, shake and stick to a tea.  It wasn't a struggle at all.  How?  Lord help me, but I just don't know.  It has shown me that I am much stronger than I ever give myself credit for.  Below are some pics of my hike so you can see what I was talking about.  Tomorrow we're leaving Monterey (boo!!) and heading down to the Santa Barbara area and then concluding our lovely vacation back in San Diego on Sunday.