Canada - Final chapter

One last mega-blog to complete the story…

So at last to San Francisco – named after St Francis of Assisi, and one of the most cosmopolitan cities on earth. Fascinating, weird and wonderful, all at the same time. Our hotel was situated in Japantown – I’d heard about Chinatown, but had no idea that there were so many territorial blocks of ethnic groups there. We were surrounded by Sushi bars, and found a wonderful Italian restaurant... although I managed to keep my blood sugar level down throughout our stay, this could not be said about my weight!!

Anyway, I’ve been asked to comment on the number of “God incidents” that we experienced. Well, we realized first if all that although our hotel was not quite so central to the downtown area as we’d experienced in Canada, God had planned it so that we were very close to Calvary Presbyterian Church, which is home for my friend Robin. Unfortunately, we had hoped to meet up with her during our stay, but vacation dates clashed, and she was out of town. But she did give us info on the church there, and we were able to go to church on Sunday morning – lovely time. After church we went to Union Square, which is the shopping heart of SF, and then walked to Fisherman’s Wharf – most of which is up and down hills! Walked about 5 miles that day, and decided rather quickly that we must figure out the transportation system! Fisherman’s Wharf, and especially Pier 39 (of Alcatraz fame) was heaving with people. We caught a cable car back to Union Square – at that time of day we had to queue for an hour and a half for the experience, but it was well worth it!

By the Tuesday, we had decided that we would like to visit Alcatraz Island, so went to book tickets, only to be told that all places were booked until Sunday – by which time, we would be back in the UK! The only thing available was an Island hop tour, taking in Angel Island as well. We had no idea what Angel Island was, but if that was the price for seeing Alcatraz, so be it. We later felt that this was very much in God’s plans, as Alcatraz is such a creepy, dismal place, even on a sunny day, and Angel Island was this oasis of tranquillity and beauty, that it turned into a magical day of contrasts. Alcatraz was a very interesting place to visit, but not a place to stay, or even linger too long. I think if we’d done Alcatraz without Angel Island, it would have been incredibly disturbing.

So it was that on Tuesday, having thought we would be visiting Alcatraz, we ended up sitting in Union Square, wondering what to do. We felt a little foolish, realising that in fact we had given little, if any, thought as to how best to use our week in SF. Somehow, we should have been madly sightseeing. So we opened up the city map, and just had a look, and realised that there was this place called Grace Cathedral not far away. We started to walk towards it, and then discovered another one of SF’s 47 hills! Photos cannot do justice as to how steep Powell Street really is! Nevertheless, we persevered, and felt like Pilgrims on their final test! The moment we walked in to the incredibly hushed atmosphere, we sensed God’s presence. We walked down the aisle, looking up at the most delicate but enormous gossamer gold, red and yellow ribbons suspended from the roof, a modern “sculpture” depicting Pentecost. It was an inspirational sense of the fire of God in that place. We sat down in the front pew, and just soaked in the presence of God in total silence for about half an hour. Having missed that day’s guided tour, we returned the next day. The lovely lady asked the 4 of us gathered for the tour how long we had available. We had nowhere else to be, but the others said that they could maybe manage 45 minutes! She said that normally tours took an hour, but that 45 mins would be fine. She took us outside to describe the doors to the cathedral – impressive, gilded, and depicting many bible stories. As we moved inside, the other 2 people dropped out, and so John and I had this lady’s undivided attention for the rest of the tour! As we went from place to place, we were adding to her biblical knowledge as she added to our historical knowledge, and before we knew it, she looked at her watch and 2 hours had flown by. She apologised – unnecessary – and we left awed once more by God’s majesty

Next day we took a 3-hour sightseeing trip around SF, to get some landmarks established, and almost got locked in at the Botanical gardens! We re-visited these gardens on our last day, as they were so lovely. However, we had no idea how to return there, but got chatting to a lady at a bus stop, who was able to give us very clear directions – another “transport angel”! On our last evening, we had also re-booked to return to this gorgeous Italian restaurant, and there were a constant stream of customers, as it was so popular. On arrival, we were placed at what John calls “The booby-prize table” right at the back, next to the kitchen, and next to an opened back door with a howling draught. We were surprised that having reserved, that this was all that was available. Anyway, we were about to order, when the manager walked past, did a double-take, and came on over. “Weren’t you two here last Tuesday?” he asked. “Yes” replied John. “We liked it so much that we reserved a table to come back”. “You don’t want to sit here, do you?” he said, and escorted us to the last remaining table, in front of a growing queue of hopeful waiting customers, to a beautiful window-side table, where we again had a fabulous time. We had this mental picture of an angelic maitre’-d pushing this manager over to us and whispering “These are King’s Kids, and I want them to have the best seat in the house…”

On our last day, we had also found this lovely place near Fisherman’s Wharf called the Cannery (original canning factory for Del Monte!) where you could get delicious crepes and coffee. We also discovered the Bear Factory, where I had the huge thrill of making my own teddy bear, who is a silver-grey grandpa bear. Good to be able to act like a 6 year old again!

We learned through it all that we needed a holiday, not a sightseeing vacation; that we needed to rest and re-charge batteries; that we needed time to meet with God and worship His Majesty; that not over-planning was actually a great way to do this; and that if we left the details to Him, then we would be constantly surprised and amazed.

We learned that in all the roles we have in life, that it is important once in a while to be simply husband and wife. 3 weeks of being with each other 24/7 was amazing, wonderful, and is to be highly recommended! What an incredible way to celebrate the joy of being together for 25 years

Our thanks to all who made this possible, and as we are getting photos from folks and family about the Silver wedding party, we’ll start posting some pics of that, too.