San Francisco

Most people who know Joe and I, know that we are really close to his family. We meet them in various locales several times a year and his parents (usually with a sibling or two) come to our house for a visit a few time a year as well. I say this to express the deep sense of loss that Joe has felt not knowing where his older brother Paul was. We have not been able to find him for 9 years. And not for lack of trying either! Well, a couple of months ago we were able to find his phone number (long story). A few weeks ago Joe decided to text him and got no response. Last Tuesday, Joe got a text from Paul's roomate Sean. He told Joe that he thought Paul needed a visit and gave us his address! Well, that afternoon, we booked airline tickets. Thank you airline miles! And thanks to friends who offered to take the kids so that we could go! We had no idea what would happen once we got there, we were just so desperate to see Paul. Thank the Lord, Paul started texting Joe the night before we left, so at least we knew that he knew we were coming and seemed okay with it.

We knew that Paul could not meet us until later so we spent the day shopping and sight seeing.

We met up with a couple from CCC (Tracy and Aaron) who are starting at church in SF. They are super cool and we appreciate the fact that they are there and doing what God has called them to do!


Last year at Joe's work Christmas party we went to a restaraunt called Le Colonial and it was awesome! We had been saying that we really wanted to go back. Well, one of the other two world wide locations was about 4 blocks from our hotel! So we went there for a belated 10 year anniversary dinner. It was just as awesome as we remembered! We were the first to get seated in this beautiful outdoor patio.

We were being really silly trying to get a picture of the two of us. A really nice guy stopped to take our picture but apparently could not figure out Joe's camera. So, we kept trying and came up with this one. :)


We met up with Paul at about 11:30 that night and we went to a diner and talked for a few hours. It was really good to finally see him and talk to him!

Saturday morning we met Paul and Sean for brunch at this very popular restaraunt. We waited for about an hour to get a table. The coffee and food were great!


My dad and Bonnie drove down from Marysville to hang out with us a little on Saturday and Sunday before we flew home. We had a really great time sightseeing. We drove through Golden Gate Park and then we stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge. We walked down a path to a pier which had fantastic views of the bridge, Alcatraz and the city. We then decide to drive up the incredibly steep Lombard Street so that we could go down the other side of the hill which is known as the "crookedest" street in the world. We had so much fun! My step mom laughs (A LOT!!!) when she is nervous and it is very contagious, so we were all laughing the entire time we were waiting to get up the hill. That is us in the little silver car on the left.


Later that night, Paul cooked us dinner at his apartment. He made a really yummy speghetti and sausage dish for dinner and delicious chocolate creme' brule for desert.


It was such a great visit, hopefully we can keep in touch!!