So guys I cannot tell you how happy I am that I took a weekend birthday trip just for me. Alone with my thoughts, alone with quiet time, no one having any influence on my decisions. I took a random trip down to Lake Havasu AZ. Its not a super far drive but the road is easy going and I got on the road by 8 so it was just a nice light traffic drive. I noticed almost immediately when I saw a new town and miles on the road sign that I just felt lighter. There is just something calming about being on a long drive to a destination you want to go to. Im going to tell you about what I did but first here is how I ended up putting the key in the ignition and cruising out of town.
I am 50/50 when it comes to celebrating birthdays. Most of the time I just look at them as another day of the week. The other half of the time I think to myself “there is only one of me and I should be celebrating that”. This year, like I have mentioned before, I turn/turned 35. Most would say it’s a milestone but probably not a game changer. Its not 16, or 21, or 30 or the dreaded midlife 40 years old. But it’s a marker that I am halfway through my thirties, and depending on how you see things and what life has thrown at you, it’s a good thing or a timer till 40.
With everything going on right now, this never-ending pandemic and rising inflation, constant political battles etc., its hard to get together with groups all on the same page. Don’t know about you but I have friends on both sides of everything right now. As much as I love them its hard to mix and I have been spending my time seeing them one at a time. Doesn’t make it easy when all you want to do is get everyone together and have a good time celebrating the year to come. Im also in the stage where half have kids or boyfriends and again happy for them but mixing schedules just doesn’t work. We would be celebrating in January of 2023 at that rate.
For all of those reasons I decided to get away just by myself. I did of course have a few opportunities to hit brunch with some of my girlfriends, have dinner with the fam, get my nails done, do some shopping with my sis. You know the usual stuff. But I wanted dedicated time for me to reflect and enjoy. I originally wanted to catch the hot air balloon festival but realized I was a weekend late. No worries. Away is away. So I booked a cheap hotel room with no other plans than to enjoy the lake.
I started my day down at the Famous London Bridge. If you don’t know the story, the original London Bridge was too small to handle the new traffic/motor cars. So they put it up for sale and one of the founders (don’t quote me) of Lake Havasu bought it for a bit over $2 million, had it transported brick by brick to Lake Havasu. Crazy right? Not how I would spend my cash but I digress. Anyways, the bridge has become a little village with shops and restaurants. It offers water rentals and there are boat docks and beaches nearby.
A little down the road, is a walking biking 3 mile trail. I decided that I would get in my steps and enjoy the breeze. I took some of my things with me. Forgot I broke my sunglasses. Fail. But other than that I took a book and snack and my journal and headed out around the hike. It goes around a small “island” that has some of the tiny lighthouses that Havasu boasts about. I think there is like 27 of them around the lake. I had a few ladies hiking behind me and their cute dog would run up and say hi then dart back. About halfway into the trail I stopped at this dock (Site 6). It was so peaceful just sitting out there. I took my journal out and was writing about what I want to do this year, my goals, my thoughts on where I want to move eventually. Just letting things roll out of my mind. Here is the dock.
I didn’t have much planned for the night I was down there. I really enjoyed my walking trail and the drive( which I listened to self improvement audio most of the way on mindset) by I really just wanted to relax. So I ordered myself some dinner from the Brewery across the bridge, ate and watched a movie. But I did plan a guided hike for the next day. The hike was nicknamed Sara’s Crack. How could I pass that up? It literally had my name on it
I got up on my actual birthday after sleeping in til 8 lol. My daily alarm normally goes off at 4am. I took my time in the morning and wound up finding a literal mom and pop bagel shop. Ivan and his wife had been in business for 25 years. We talked a bit about my hike and the Rodeo that just happened to be at the same park I was headed to. Cant pass up cowboys so I checked it out for a while before heading to meet my hiking group. Bucking Broncs.
I met up with my hiking guide and found out that it would just be the two of us on the hike that day, which ended up being really great. My guide Jackie was basically me in 10 years. We had so much in common and we talked the entire. She said she normally had larger groups and didn’t have many opportunities to take photos of her hikers so we got to do a full on photo shoot. She even took videos of me scaling the rocks and rope climbing. Here are some that I liked.
I have never been a wilderness survivor or one to climb the tree, hop of rocks etc. Just climbing the rope was a stretch for me but I realized that this year I am dedicating it to stretching my limits, trying things that scare me. I want to look back and say I did it. You don’t know what you are capable of until you are pushed and yes it sounds cheesy but it really is true. I am not going to head out tomorrow and climb Everest but I might go on another day trip and do a hike that is a bit more challenging because I am becoming confident in me.
I had a great trip giving myself downtime and enjoying the calm and challenges of nature. As we kept hiking, my footing got better and I felt stronger for just making an effort. I changed the directions of my thoughts to what I want to accomplish not just what things I have to do. I am going to continue to trust my steps and work towards my goals that scare me just a bit. 😊
The Distracted Damsel 