Trading Pina Coladas for Jack-n-Cokes

Five months into our new marriage, the world was sent home in the midst of the pandemic in 2020. The uncertainty terrified me, and the news was always on, magnifying that fear. I was one of those people who wore gloves and disinfected the groceries after our trips to the store. Brady was never shaken like I was, and while at first I thought he was crazy, after a few months of lockdowns, mandatory mask wearing outdoors and the closure of beaches and parks, my fear slowly started to wear off into curiosity.

Over the first few months of the pandemic, we created a little routine for ourselves in this new “unprecedented” world. We enjoyed happy hours on our little balcony, drove to LA to pick up our new puppy Lady, took lots of walks, had movie nights with my parents and Facetimed friends. While it was a strange time, as with everyone, it gave us time to pause, reflect on what was important in life, and contemplate where we saw life taking us. We didn’t realize it yet, but this reflection was setting the stage for a big change in our lives.

During the time when traveling was heavily discouraged, Brady and I decided that we still needed to live our lives and make the very most of the year—our first year of marriage. We made a trip to visit our friends in Las Vegas that May, I visited my family in Buffalo in September, and we were planning a trip to an all-inclusive resort in Cancun to celebrate our first wedding anniversary in October. Every day for a few months after booking, I would tune into that resort live-cam to see the palm trees swaying in the breeze, watch activity at the swim-up bar (picturing myself ordering a pina colada) and hear the waves lightly crash onto shore. We couldn’t WAIT for this vacation!

A week before our trip, there were reports looming about a storm system heading toward the Gulf of Mexico. As our trip got closer, I began checking the weather reports hour by hour. The storm had turned into Hurricane Delta, and for the first time in 15 years, it was headed STRAIGHT for Cancun, the day we were set to arrive. I was still holding out hope, but after thinking it through and receiving encouraging texts from my best friend, we finally decided we had to pivot and cancel the trip. It was just too risky. Plan B was quickly in planning mode less than two days before takeoff. After a quick call to Brady’s brother confirming a place to stay and (literally) four hours of phone calls cancelling and rescheduling flights, we were trading pina coladas by the beach for Jack-n-cokes on Broadway. We were headed to Nashville, Tennessee!

As stressful and disappointing as it could have been to cancel a trip to a tropical destination at an all-inclusive resort, we were just as excited to go to Music City. As a country music super fan, it had always been a dream of mine to travel to Nashville. It was a city I had seen on TV and heard songs about all my life, and a place people were shocked to hear I had never been to because it was “so me.” I had also heard so many stories from Brady about Nashville, about catfish tacos and how Broadway was like “a bunch of Moonshine Flats (my faaaaavorite country bar and place to be in San Diego) all grouped together on one street.” Another reason behind our curiosity and excitement: during all of our reflection at the beginning of COVID, we were starting to seriously contemplate moving out of California. Nashville just happened to be one of the pipedream places we had on a list of cities we were researching.

God’s Plan B Was So Much Bigger Than Our Plan A

Looking back, God’s plans for us were so much bigger than a trip to sip pina coladas and be by the beach for a few days. That is something that will never be lost on me. He knew we needed to take this time in the beginning of our marriage to discover a place that would hold many more opportunities for us as a couple than San Diego could offer at that point in our lives. It was now or never, and He led us to a decision that would be absolutely life changing, we just didn’t know it quite yet. We were ready for a five-day trip to hit the honkytonks, take in the country music, explore the suburbs, eat all the BBQ and see what the South had to offer!

Wheels up, we were off to celebrate and experience Nashville!