Saturday, March 23, 2013

a relaxing day


San Francisco posts....continued.....Tuesday of our trip, we woke up to rain, rain, and more rain. We had checked into our hotel on Monday in the Financial District- although it was great staying with our friends- we needed some time for our marriage- just the two of us! So we slept in a bit (remember it is two hours difference so sleeping til 8 felt like 10) and got up and ready to go. We walked to Market Street, the shopping area- and got soaked (we even stopped for umbrellas)! We decided to hit the mall, just to dry off for awhile. We explored for a bit in the mall and then we headed to the Youth with a Mission base- this is where I did my Discipleship Training School during college and also led a high school mission trip to for a number of years. It is in the heart of the Tenderloin, which is known as the not great area of San Francisco. Lots of homelessness and drug and alcohol abuse. In a weird sort of way, I love this area. Not because of the pain but because of the redemption that is happening. I was really excited for Mark to finally see the place that has impacted my life so much. We walked to the base and met up with Jen. She gave us an updated tour (it has been since before Jace was born that I was there last.) There are great things happening at YWAM San Francisco. It was encouraging to hear the stories and even see some of what is going on there. Then, we got to take Ben Bonwell out for lunch. He is a college aged guy from Cedar Falls that is doing his DTS right now. It was fun to chat with him and hear how God is at work in his life. We got to go to a small, authentic tacoria which was amazing. The 'mom and pop' authentic restaurants from every where in the world is one of my favorite things about San Francisco. You can eat food from anywhere and everywhere! After lunch with Ben, it was still a little rainy so we decided to head to a movie. We never get to go to movies- it was so fun and relaxing for us. After the movie, we had found massages on Groupon so we headed to those. They were amazing and the perfect way to top off our "relax" day as I like to call it. After stopping in some of the Union Square shopping areas on the way back, we headed to the hotel and showered and got ready for a dinner date out. 


We headed to North Beach to a wonderful little authentic Italian restaurant suggested by Markus and Jen. It was amazing and we were stuffed, as you can see from Mark's face. The walk back to the hotel actually felt great. I love how much walking we did- it was never boring walking- good talks with my hubby and always the city sites to see.


No comments: