Tuesday, October 4, 2011

San Francisco... What a Wonderful Place!

 The team (excluding Dr. Jim) and some of Thomas'
family, who we're staying with for a few days before
going to our next destination for the War, went to tour
San Francisco on Monday.  I was so excited that 
I finally got to go!  I'd seen pictures 
and heard awesome things about it!
 Golden Gate Bridge
 It's awesome to have Crystal join us for the 
remaining part of this fall tour!

L to R: Rebekah, Thomas' sister, Janna,
Stephanie, and Annaleese.
Rebekah is right around the girl's ages
and they've been having lots of fun together!

 Stephanie pointed out that this could also stand
for "I Love Special Forces"... :-)
 Mom, could you imagine doing this?!
 The brick building that you can see below the
bridge in this picture, used to be a fort where
they'd watch for pirates coming in to the bay!  
I thought that was pretty cool!
 Walking across the bridge...
It was awesome!  Mom, you would've died! ;-)
Actually most didn't walk very far, but DJ, Matt,
Crystal, and I walked/ran almost the whole way :-)
We would've walked the whole way, but we heard 
there was construction at the end, so we couldn't.
 The city of San Francisco
 The city and Alcatraz on the island over to the left.
 The inside of the fort... there was even a cannon inside!
Pretty awesome! :-)
 There was an opening along the walk across
the bridge... it's a long way down!  Definitely
not a walk for someone who is terrified of heights!
 The inside of the fort from the other side


 I thought that this even looked like a pirates ship! :-)
 I thought this sign was SO funny!  Duh!
 We kept looking over the edge into the water
to watch dolphins!  It was so awesome!
There were tons of them!  They looked so small
since we were so far up!  So, since we kept looking
over the side to watch them as we walked, I felt like 
I was gonna hit into these large poles!  Matt, of course,
took the opportunity for a "picture perfect" moment! ;-)
 The hills were crazy steep to drive up and down!
 

 The famous Lombard St.
(Just in case you didn't know about it ;-))

 Crazy that someone would try and park their car here!

 These "little cars" were so cute! ;-)
As Crystal said, the perfect "honeymoon cars"! :-)
 Can you see how crooked it is?!
 Another "must see" if you ever go to San Fran... Pier 39!

 Awesome all the boats in the bay!
 And this Seagull was real :-)
 Janna thought that these bricks looked like dog bones :-)
 Pier 39 is filled with lots of awesome little shops!
Definitely a "tourist trap"... and it worked! :-)
 Visiting an Alcatraz gift shop!
Of course, we had to play around with
all these awesome little trinkets! :-)
 Guess I don't look too sad to be in prison...
actually, the shirt says that I "escaped from Alcatraz"
so I guess that's why I was so happy! ;-)
 Watching a documentary on an escape from Alcatraz
 Of course had to get a pic of this!
She's so famous, they even have a shop for her, I guess! ;-)

 We had a bit of fun in the Krazy Hatz store! :-)
 Have you ever seen fire in the middle of a table like this?!
 Alcatraz
 Sea Lions
 Happy 21st anniversary, Sea Lions!  How.. dumb :-)
 Pretty awesome bushes!  I guess it made up for
not seeing "the bush man" in action! :-)

 There was a store that had tons of magnets...
almost anything you could think of, including food!
Crystal thought these cheeseburgers looked good, I guess! :-)

 I thought these little sayings were so funny! :-D


 A Coca-Cola stool for you, Anna :-)
 Had to get a pic of the Blue & Gold Fleet!
Even San Fran knows what state is the best! ;-)
Crystal had never been to the Rainforest Cafe!
So, we stopped in for her to take a look :-)
 

 Crystal & I "got lost" for a while looking around
shops, so we finally met up with the group
again at the Fisherman's Wharf for a bit to eat...
I even tried some Clam Chowder Soup! :-)

 Mrs. Van got a little gift for Dr. Jim since he wasn't able 
to be there with us.  Jan had fun playing around with it! :-)
 I think this look fits her... don't you think?! ;-)
 Thomas with his sister, Rebekah

 These animals were made out of bread!  So awesome!

 Thomas is so incredibly nice!  Here he is giving
a gospel tract to a "homeless" man after having
bought him two sandwiches from McDonald's!
He's so much kinder than I think I could ever
even hope to be!  I should definitely take lessons! :-)
 We went back to the Rainforest Cafe after we had eaten
so that the others could see it too... it's amazing how
many people had never been there!



 Frog for you, Dave! :-)
 And fountains for you, Jo! :-)

 I love the pink sky with the stars!
Stars definitely make me think of you, Tab! :-)
 Felt right at home when I saw this! :-)
Crystal was feeling right at home with the
Graffiti, traffic, litter, and pollution :-D
(she's from Queens, just minutes from Manhattan)
 The Segways tootling around the city!
I'm not exactly sure what they do, but they looked
like they were enjoying themselves, so that's good! :-)
 The beginning of our day was nice and then it
started to rain.  We still had a lot of fun, 
even if the sky was moody! ;-)
 We ended our tour of San Francisco with a visit to
Ghirardelli's chocolate factory!




 Oh my, Steph!  That's a lot for a little girl!
She didn't eat it all by herself, though... :-)

 Rebekah, Thomas, and Janna split this peanut butter
sundae!  Janna must really like Thomas
that she would share her food with him! ;-)
It's been good for her to have Thomas travel, I think!
 Janna & Crystal
I think these two will end up being quite the match!
 The San Francisco Bridge
 The AT&T Ball Park
These pics were taken on the way to try and find
an outlet store that we'd been looking for...
we found it!  But unfortunately it was already closed!
Guess no wedding dresses for us today... :-)
 Thomas was working with Leesie on her yarning
skills on the way back to the Ciaramitaro's.
Crystal and I ended up getting these San Francisco
hoodies!  They're so comfy and warm!
We had a great time in San Francisco!
I really enjoyed the time getting to know Crystal
better too... we had some really good chats.
I think we'll have a great time traveling together :-)

Antioch, CA

 Ariel & I were waiting in the van for the guys to
help Dr. Jim get the trailer parked.  Matt came back
to the van and handed us these leaves that he'd picked
up...  it was nice of him to think of us, I guess! ;-)
 Our room for the week

 We stayed with two single girls in their apartment.
It was such a nice place!  I loved the decorations!

 This was one of the girls, Lexie, that we stayed with.
 I enjoyed reading on the back porch... so relaxing!
 Katie, the other girl we stayed with, let us use her
nice Toyota Yaris for the week.  It was so sweet of her!



 Leesie was a little bored one day after she'd finished
her school, so she had me close my eyes while
she wrote this on my hand :-)
 This was the "mountain" you could 
see from the behind the church.
The landscape is so pretty in Cali!
 It was a smaller Christian school this week... 
about ten to twelve on each team.
 Here's Mary Faith's "look alike", so Ariel thought :-)
She wasn't identical but there were some similarities.
 Splash Ball
Gotta love that brain freeze! ;-)

 Short Range Bombardment

 We had dinner one night with the pastor and
his family.  These are his five boys!
 The Wednesday night War
Aquila told me that they'd prayed for forty teens
and we had about forty-five that first night!
Praise the Lord that He answers prayers!




 Getting ready to do the skit
 Ariel had been wanting to get Jamba Juice since
we hadn't been able to get it on Sunday, so we
finally got some on Wednesday!  It was yummy indeed! :-)
 Aquila's sister, Martha, came from San Francisco,
where she's going to college for a year, to visit.
It was so nice having her join us for a couple days! :-)

 Katie, the other girl that we stayed with.





 The view out of our bedroom window...
can you see the mountains in the background??
 Scavenger Hunt in Friday chapel
 I help to "coach" some volleyball tournaments on
Friday.  I actually ended up playing four out of
six games... it was a lot of fun!
Recons won four out of six games, so they didn't
really need a championship game; so, instead, the
team captains, a teacher, and I played against the
teen girls... we had a blast! :-D
 Tug of War
 Big Ball Bowling
Poor Seals... the wind was so strong and they
were on the "bad sides" both times!
 On Thursday and Friday night we jumped from 
about forty-five to about sixty-five teens show up!
 Testimonies on Friday night
Stephen (in the picture above) gave a wonderful
"message"!  Maybe a preacher someday?? :-)
 Counseling the teens before they give testimonies
 I invited Mariyah and D'Von from Black Diamond
Middle School.  I was so excited that Mariyah
came on Wednesday night, came with D'Von on
Thursday night, and then those two came with Greg 
on Friday night!  Mariyah got saved on Wednsday
night, D'Von on Thursday night, and then I had
the opportunity to talk with Greg on Friday night
and then the pastor talked with him more and
was able to lead him to the Lord!
It's so exciting to see fruit from your efforts!
L to R: Alexis, Jeanne, and Stephanie
Alexis was saved on Wednesday night
and gave a sweet testimony on Friday night.
 Pow wow and deflating big balls after the final War night.
 Some of Thomas' family came on Friday night.
This is Joanna, his sister, having fun 
with the skit clothes :-)
Dr. Jim took Ariel and Aquila to the airport to fly
back to BCM on Saturday.  Martha also left to go
back to college in San Francisco.  We will miss
Ariel and Aquila as part of our team!
Ariel left this note and little gift for me
on our bathroom counter before she left :-)