Family Vacation
This past week was fantastic and also a learning experience.
I spent the past week on a nice vacation up in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I go there once a year to visit good friends and my brother.
What I learned was first hand experience on how much you have to pack when you travel with 2 kids!
We had to rent a minivan and it seemed like forever to pack and load the car.
It was a 7 hour journey from Southern California (Los Angeles) but it went by fast.
When I used to live in NYC, anything more than a 90 minute drive would be “long distance.” I remember when I used to drive 4 hours to Ocean City, Maryland and that seemed like a LONG journey but nowadays a 4 hour drive is no problem!
When you live in the northeast where the states are small, a 4 hour drive can take you to 5 different states while in California, you can drive for 12 hours and go over 700 miles and still be in California!
The drive up there was kind of fun. It was the first time our “family” all rode in one car together going somewhere.
And yes, in case you are wondering, Obi did go with us. 🙂
Monterey, California
Our first stop was Monterey Peninsula.
We stayed at our normal place, Mariposa Inn and I highly recommend it.
It’s quaint, simple, convenient and I like it cause it has a nice homely feel to it.
We had a nice duplex so that my younger 8 month old son, Brendan would not wake Ethan or I up.
That was the other thing I learned on this trip.
The extra steps you have to take to make sure the younger baby (who doesn’t like to sleep) doesn’t disturb the others like Ethan and the driver (myself).
So everywhere we went, we had to book 2 rooms or get a duplex so that the baby wouldn’t wake others up at night.
Nature
I love the Monterey Peninsula because I love to jog or walk by the coastline.
The scenery is beautiful and one of the things I’m doing is teaching my kids to appreciate nature and the beauty of God’s creations.
Pacific Grove
This is a small town next to Monterey that I love.
When the kids get older, this is the type of place that I would love to live in.
Pacific Grove is a small town that is still close enough to a major city (2 hours drive to San Francisco) but doesn’t have the hassles like traffic and crime.
We went to “Dennis the Menace Park” and had a nice picnic there and it was the first time that my younger son, Didi (Brendan) rode in a swing.
I guess he loved it!
17 Mile Drive and Pebble Beach
Before we had my kids, I used to come here every year and bike 17 Mile Drive and Pebble Beach.
The scenery is amazing and the mansions are very inspiring.
I love staring at water and nature. It calms the mind and makes me realize how vast the world really is.
Nature makes you grateful for what is free and makes us realize how little our problems really are.
All our problems are just exaggerated when you compare them to everything that happens around us.
Dream Building at 17 Mile Drive
Seeing the multimillion dollar homes motivates me on what is possible.
Most of the owners were just like us but they did something to pursue their goals and achieved it.
Biking and looking at the houses is my form of dream building.
The kids are too young right now so I couldn’t get a break to go biking. So the second best thing we did was drive.
One of the houses I had to see was the “castle” on the hill. It’s been a dream house of mine for years and motivates me.
I first discovered this house on a serendipitous bike ride back in 2007 and ever since then I always love to check it out.
Carmel
Carmel Valley By The Sea is the favorite town of mine.
The streets, shops, restaurants make this place unique. Unfortunately we couldn’t really take all the kids to eat there so we went to a great place in Carmel instead.
If you are ever in Carmel, check out Eric’s Deli at the Barnyard. Great food and great value!
San Jose, San Ramon and Sunnyvale
The rest of the time was spent in San Jose, Sunnyvale and San Ramon. We met up with close friends and my brother and his kids.
My brother also has 2 boys (it runs in the family) and it was quite a ruckus with 4 boys all at once!
It was great catching up with my brother and letting the cousins play with each other.
End of the Class
On an ironic note, the last day of my vacation also turned out to be the last day of my MLM Meetings Mastery Class that I just taught.
MLM Meetings Mastery is an 8 week class that consists of video and audio training, printable weekly action guide and a live weekly 90 minute training call.
I’ve been getting up early every Sunday to do these live webinars for the past 8 weeks and it’s become part of my routine. I enjoyed doing it a lot and the 8 weeks flew by.
I thank everyone of the MLM distributors in that class who participated and made it fun. Each one of them had amazing attitudes and will be successful in the future.
I will miss them.
If you are interested in attending MLM Meetings Mastery, unfortunately the class is over and it is closed.
However, I am considering doing it again next year but there are no guarantees.
Excited to Create a Legacy for My Children
Aside from my class ending, this has been a fantastic week.
Great memories were created and I’m refreshed and ready to get going.
There are tons of new exciting projects I’m working on and new content that is being created.
A lot of special moments were created this past week and I’m grateful that MLM has allowed me to travel, to meet people from different countries, and to have the time to do special things with my kids.
It used to be just about me but now with the kids, everything is about them.
Everything that I am doing is to create a legacy for my children.
I strive for excellence, success, and to help others so that I can set a good example for them to follow.
That’s what gets me going each day.
What about you?
Please comment below and let me know what motivates you.
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