So a while ago a national resort company reached out to me and asked if my wife and I would like to attend a local seminar on their resort program, the offer on the table was a 3-day, 2-night stay in one of 3 cities around the country: Phoenix, Reno or Anaheim — Meh!

While my wife and I endured the endless sales tactics & pitches, we made it out with a $50 Home Depot card, $40 Red Lobster gift card, and of course the trip. As we thought about it, it donned on us that Anaheim was home the “The Happiest Place On Earth,” Disneyland.

The plan was laid, November would be our “relief” trip. Why “relief” you ask? Relief from life’s headaches, relief from Salt Lake, and so on and so forth.

We arrived bright and early yesterday morning, Tuesday, November 4, 2008, a memorable day — not just because Barack Obama won the election. We left the cold, soon-to-be snow covered streets of Salt Lake City and arrived at the complete opposite, sunny, warm, peaceful California.

After picking up our rental car, we told the GPS to take us to downtown Hollywood, Grauman’s Chinese Theater. (Let me take this moment to plug consumer GPS units, if not for our Garmin Nuvi, we may never have made it to Hollywood — or Anaheim, for that matter.)

While I have no idea of the history of Grauman’s Chinese Theater, I did recognize many of the famous names, Cary Grant, Tom Hanks, Bob Hope, Adam Sandler, Harrison Ford, Frank Sinatra, and many, many more.

From there we headed to the Pacific Coast Highway for a very peaceful, scenic trip down to Huntington Beach and Anaheim. It was really nice to get away, we even took an unexpected detour down to the Long Beach docks to see the mammoth shipping cranes in the Los Angeles Port.

When we finally arrived at Huntington Beach, the sun was close to setting, and as we walked along the beach, it wasn’t hard to look at the horizon and see how people the likes of Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan and others had the incling to discover what was beyond the furthest point on the ocean. It was also very easy to see why some people retire and move to the beach and Southern California to live out their days as beach bums.

All in all, it was a great day. Very friendly people, terrific weather, good company — like I said, it was a very memorable day, not just because Barack Obama won the election.