Friday…..our last real day in San Fran L The plans for the day included Napa Valley and Oakland A’s game….but we were really to tired for the latter when it came time. Had a yummy breakfast at Boudin Café. French toast for me, bacon, egg, and cheese on sourdough for Claire. Oh yeah, and they sold these huge pieces of sourdough bread that were baked in the shape of crabs, and all other sorts of animals. And Claire had to have one for her beach family get together, so she dropped $20 to make the fam happy J Because as we started saying on the trip, “Money is like air.” At least that’s how we spent it on this vacation. If we hadn’thad that mindset, we would have stayed depressed. San Francisco is an expensive place…..and how we love to give gifts!! This girl will be on a tight budget when I’m back in B’ham!!
We got to cross over Golden Gate again…..which I never got tired of. Looking back, the greatest thinga bout Napa was definitely the scenery. Again, more beautiful “terrain,“ which was Claire’s word of the day…used in song of course. . Our first stop was called Chimney Rock. It was really pretty, and had a “South African” feel. We basically just took pictures and headed to “Cakebread” Cellars. Honestly, hearing about wine turned out to be really boring, and people’s desire to know about it cracked me up. But it was a good experience, I guess. Last stop in Napa was a place called V.Sattui. It was the only winery in Napa that sold food….and of course we wanted to eat. As Claire says, “Big girl was hungry.” This place had all kinds of stuff. Meats, cheeses, jams……it was a little grocery all in itself. They had great sandwiches and desserts, so that’swhat we went with., and had a little outdoor picnicJ After this stop, we decided we had seen enough of the wine country. It really is beautiful, but not that great if you’re not a wine connoisseur ….and we definitely are not.
When we got back to our hotel, we were pooped. The week had definitely begun to catch up with us. So we decided against driving into Oakland for the game., and decided to try and find the house from Full House…..or the “Full House house.” J It’s amazing what you can do on the internet. We were like “how are we going to find it”…..and with the click of a button Google saves the day! Turns out, it’s 1709 Broderick Street. Just a quiet little street with cookie cutter houses. They’ve definitely either painted or replaced the door, because I know it used to be red.
After that we decided we just had to go see the Haight-Ashbury district. This is the area that got all of the hype during the “Summer of Love.” It may be a little more commercialized, but it’s amazing, how much of that culture has been preserved. It was seriously, like a modern day Woodstock. Everyone looked like a hippie. Lots of tie-dyed things, and all types of illegal looking paraphernalia. I agree with Claire….you could not pay me enough money to live in that place. It would be very hard to be a Christian and live there.
Yes, obviously a great mission field, but I can’t even explain the amount of heaviness and spiritual warfare you feel when you drive into the area. Very powerful. I think the most disturbing thing we saw was a man, probably 60 years old at least, walking quickly down the sidewalk all by himself, just talking unintelligibly and loudly and letting out a scream about every 5 seconds. He really seemed to be having like a permanent hallucination. I just thought about how many people live there that probably arrived during all the movements in the late 60’s and have never left. Crazy. We actually went to a little place called the People’s Café to grab a snack. It was actually a cute little place, but was right in the middle of everything. We had popcorn shrimp and sweet potato fries. Again, I looked around at the young people there. Most had altered their appearance so much that someone who knew them when they were kids probably would not recognize them anymore. I couldn’t help but wonder where they were from, what made them move to a place like Haight-Ashbury, or did they talk to their parents anymore?? As Claire and I prayed over our meal, I wondered if the cashier could count on 2 hands how many people he had seen bless a meal from there.
God….I can’t praise you enough for my family, my upbringing, my roots. Thank you for allowing me to be born into a family that loves you….that reflects you in their actions…that lives for you. Thank you for giving me a firm foundation when I did nothing to deserve it. Redeem these people. Save them from their sin. Remind them that there is another way, the only way, to be truly FREE. Let your light shine through me God.
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