Well our day in San Francisco started out with an awesome breakfast buffet loaded with everything you can imagine. The best part about the breakfast, it was FREE! Our hotel is very nice, the beds soft, God is allowing us this luxury since the China beds will be like rocks we've heard. : ) As you can see, Carmen enjoyed the touch screen concierge.
We all agreed on a bus tour. Our amazing guide was Bernardo
who was a transplant here from the Phillipines 4 yrs. ago, but probably knows more about the San Francisco area than any native. The tour was an overview of the entire city, with snipits of information just enought to wet your appetite to return. We were allowed four stops along the trail, first was Fisherman's Wharf which had Pier 39, mega shops, and an outdoor atmosphere filled with decadent smells & not so decadent smells : ) We all wore our Visiting Orphans t-shirts which brought several passerbys questioning what the "Pure Religion" James 1:27 passage was about which allowed us to share what we were about to embark upon. One group of 3 men even had a guy from Arnold, MO, small world eh?
Next along the way was the Palace of Fine Arts which was a an indoor/outdoor exhibit built for the 1915 World Fair. It was meant to be a temporary structure but was then concreted for a permanent place in San Francisco. Now there at least 3 weddings a weekend with the picturesque scenery, it was really beautiful.
Next was the infamous Golden Gate Bridge (really painted a rust color to blend in with the scenery we were told). It was pretty dreary out, but the views were amazing. We could see Alcatraz through the haze. We really wanted to walk onto the bridge, but we didn't have time (next time).
Lastly we visited Union Square where all the expensive shops such as Tiffanys were (we only gazed the buildings). By this time all we wanted to do was get something to drink & head back to the hotel, it was about a 5 hour tour altogether.
After Bernardo dropped us off, Shannon went & picked up Elyssa, then it was time for dinner. There were no shuttles to anywhere but the airport, so we opted for "walking distance". We were told by the hotel there was a diner across the street comparable to a Denny's, so we were adenturous. Well, upon sitting upon the ripped benches, we then received the menus that were peeling apart (Tim compared it to a truck stop menu). Then when Shannon started batting at flying insects it was time to leave, trek back to our hotel to eat in the very nice restaurant. Our last American meal for 2 weeks (not counting airport food).
Night Night happened around 11:30 and 3:00 am came around VERY quickly. We loaded all our 40+ bags along w/12 people on 2 airport shuttles. When they dropped us off it was the wrong terminal, so back to lugging all the luggage half-way around the airport to group check-in only to find we were missing a key piece of luggage with medical supplies. Shannon, Makenna & Tim had to go to the Southwest (because that's the airline we flew in on Friday night) to their lost & found. Long story short, Praise the Lord, they found the bag. Now we await our flight going to Vancouver, Canada. It will be a 2 hour flight with a 3+ hour layover, then onto Beijing.
We don't know when we'll be able to post again, so blog to you soon.
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