This past weekend was amazing!
Travis and I went to Shelter Island in San Diego to attend a marriage retreat put on by the VA. I must admit I was a bit skeptical. You never know about the VA. But we had a wonderful weekend! The island and hotel were beautiful. The VA retreat, which was called From Warrior to Soul mate and based on the PAIRS foundation, was great. The Chaplin in charge did a wonderful job of presenting all the materials. I particularly enjoyed the wide variety of people that attended. The retreat was for veterans and their spouses. Well there were veterans of all kinds! There were couples that had been through many deployments, couples that just finished their first deployment. There was one couple who had just finished their fourteenth deployment!!! Fourteenth!! There was a nice mix of active duty, retired, medically retried, and all sorts of vets.
For anyone in the San Diego area looking for a nice weekend I would definitely recommend it. To be realistic, most military members are on a pretty tight schedule and taking a break to just enjoy time with your spouse is hard. There is always something to be doing for work. This was a wonderful opportunity to leave our house and just get away from all of our responsibilities so we could enjoy each other's company. We learned a few tools during the workshop that will in general make life easier. It was also a wonderful chance to talk to people we wouldn't normally talk to. We got to talk to all sorts of people who had been stationed all over the world, were retired or months away from retiring. You can learn so much from people who have been where you are going.
Here is the link to the VA's site about the retreat. (here).

Palm Islands hotel on Shelter Island

It was duck season! They were so cute!

View of San Diego from Shelter Island

  

Sail Boats