Ho Chi Minh Trail - San Diego

We were in San Diego for a family vacation and I cannot not talk about Ho Chi Minh Trail!

While we were there it would be my sister Katelyn's birthday. After searching around looking for ways to make my her birthday as special as possible - I found a post on Pinterest of this awesome looking trail/hike to the beach. This trail is apparently a shortcut for surfers headed to the beach but we did not know what we were getting ourselves into!

None of us are really "hikers" per say and I'm not sure if a lot of people would classify this as a hike... but my rule of thumb is usually if I feel like I need to be wearing sneakers, its probably a hike.



There were lots of twists and turns and little slips here and there. It also was not all tiny passageways - there were some general walking paths through it. The views the entire time were so worth it!

I will warn you there is totally a rope at the end that we did not see coming. 2/4 of us fell and I hit my head really hard. Did I mention I'm not much of a hiker?

 
Once you get to the bottom, the beach is pretty secluded with a few people and mostly day-surfers. I can't speak to the weekend though to travel at your own risk. There were quite a few people going through the path as well - and I was very glad there wasn't any more or things could've gotten tricky.


What do you think? Is this view worth it? We thought so - although we chose to take the road back up to the car instead of following the path. Not sure if it was the right choice as it zig-zagged up the hill and took us forever in the hot sun. I'm glad we took on this adventure though!

Getting Engaged!

This is of course my long overdue post about getting engaged in San Diego!!

As I write this post, I am 19 days away from saying "I Do." I feel so overwhelmingly blessed by all of the love and support surrounding me over the past few months and I can not wait to marry my dreamboat.

Before our trip in San Diego I had no idea we would get engaged. I thought Tom was broke and it would at least be another 6 months until he asked the question. But something in me had to ask. I remember sitting on my bed two days before we were leaving and asking Tom, 'are you going to propose in San Diego?' He said no and kept folding clothes. I accepted it and literally didn't think about it again.

There were some hard times to the trip. My sister and I were not used to being with each other 24/7 and an entire week was getting to us. Don't get me wrong I love my sister - it just wasn't our week.

That's when I got an inkling of what was to come.

We were trying to take family photos and it wasn't working out with timing and everything so I told Tom I didn't want to take them anymore and he insisted. Tom never wants to take photos so I thought this was very weird. Then everyone started being really nice to me which was suspicious as well.

But, nevertheless I didn't ask too many questions I just went with it. We got to this beautiful lookout at Sunset Cliffs in San Diego and Tom gave his camera to my brother-in-law and my camera to my sister and was super enthusiastic about getting a photo at this one location. We posed for a few photos and boom. We're engaged!

So that's the story. Definitely beyond my wildest dreams, just like my Thomas.