san fransisco. brothers.

After an overnight trainride from eugene, oregon and a very long conversation with a man who told us tales of dredging for gold, we arrived in san fran. we had contacted our wedding photographer, jason, to see if we could stay at his place. little did we know that when he agreed, he was not only offering his place but also his bed! two of the days we were there he was visiting his girlfriend further down the coast, but even when he came back on the last night, he slept on the couch so we could have his bed. i feel as though all my blogs have been about hospitality and so i find myself sitting here trying to pick something else out to share, but we truly have stayed with some of the most hospitable people i have ever met and steven, jason and jason were no different. we woke up the morning after arriving and as we were eating breakfast steven and jason wwalked out of their rooms at different points. as we got talking to them we found out they both work for a church called reality and were about to bike to work for the day. that was until they found out that we were going to rent some bikes and hopefully hit up a bakery and a park nearby. without making a point of it, they both just kind of made themselves available to help us out in whatever way they could. they told us tartine was just two blocks away!! (for those of you who aren't bakery fanatics like me, just know that this is a big deal!) instead of just pointing out where we should go and sending us on our way, which would have been more than we expected anyway, they rerouted (and by rerouted, i mean went in the total opposite direction) their trip to the office and partook in the glorious experience that is a tartine pastry with us. they then took us to their favourite coffee shop (by the way, coffee on the west coast is blowing my mind!) and to the office to borrow some bikes for the day. as we were walking, we talked about life and God. they told us about how the three of them came to be living together and we told them of our love for hamilton. after printing out three maps and giving us all the insider recomendations on san fransisco we were on our way.

that day we explored the waterfront, dave's bike got a flat tire, we searched for a bike fix-it place and got it patched, biked across the golden gate bridge and sung the full house song periodically. at the end of the day we were super tired, so we just picked up some dinner at an amazing little local grocery store and sat on this huge grass mound with a bunch of other san franners and ate. such a delightful day... oh yah, not to mention the roasted banana ice cream we had for dessert!

when we got home (by home i mean they boys' home, but it seems fitting for us to call it home too) we sat around, just talking with jason and steven and eventually other jason when he got home. as i was sitting there, steven giving me a taste test on the difference between rye and bourbon, it occurred to me that these boys really felt like my brothers. yes, they are part of the family in the sense that anyone is who calls God, Father, but they felt more like my family than your average sunday run-in with someone at church. i mean the type of love that siblings show is different than friends. iin most cases with siblings it is just a given that you help them out when they need it. when you are growing up and your mom tells you to help your brother, you just do. and its not like you expect to get anything in return; you just do it because they are your brother and thats what siblings do. as i sat there i thought about that morning and how jason and steven just oriented their day (even at the cost of being late for work) to help us out. they didn't make a big deal of it, or even really ask us if we wanted them to help us out. they just did it. after having breakfast together the next morning and praying for eachother we headed for the coast with avocado in our bellies and gratitude in our hearts! thanks be to God the father for giving us such amazing brothers!

the coast. freedom.

the coast was an adventure.  we had a rental car to do part of the oregon coast and the california coast in the big sur area.  these are places we've always wanted to go and hike.  the sun was shining, the windows were down, and i may or may not have even blasted Something Corporate at one point.  the diversity of views and landscapes we saw was awesome.  we hiked to the tops of some amazing mountains, saw the ocean and waterfalls, walked through rivers and stood at the base of massive redwood trees.  there is something about being the midst of a forest, on a mountain or beside the ocean that puts it all into perspective.  i mean, its really hard to look out at the vastness of the pacific and feel like your own life is the center of the universe.  in that moment you feel so small in relation to the things around you.  you might think that this would leave you feeling insignificant or hopeless, but as we stood in these places we felt a freedom knowing that we aren't in control of the world, and instead knowing that God is God.  there is a release that happens when you realize that its not about you and the meaning of your life isn't determined by what you can achieve or what others think about you.  standing at the base of the redwoods we were reminded again that God has always been making things beautiful in the world and he will keep doing that.  all we have to do is join in.

i cant mention the coast though without talking about the people we stayed with.  one of them was neil of seaside.  leading up to the trip neil was our most helpful connection.  he found us on couchsurfing and invited us to stay at his place in seaside, oregon.  at first it seemed a bit sketchy, i mean you always hear those horror stories about couchsurfing or wooffing where the hosts turn out to be total creeps, but after looking at neil's profile and reading countless reviews on his page we figured that either he is a pretty amazing and inspirational person, or he spends a lot of time creating profiles and making himself look that way.  we decided it was worth the risk and we are so glad we did!  neil was an amazing person.  he has journals full of notes from people he has hosted through couchsurfing and warm showers (couchsurfing for cyclists).  he spent the evening chatting with us about his travels around the world and his heart to share his life with others.  he told us that each year he hosts at least 70 people!  it was so refreshing to stay with someone who really does keep his door open to anyone and who is always looking to learn.  the way he opens himself up to learn from other people and places i think is so rare.  i find it so easy to think i already have the answers and that my life and my ideas are the most right.  i mean, even when i am taking in what others are saying, when i think about it, i only learn from them insofar as i deem what they are saying to be valuable.  neil seemed different than this.  he seemed to genuinely want to grow from every experience, as if he genuinely believed that other people and places had things more valuable to offer than what he already knew.  we are glad that we met neil so early on in the trip, because that is the kind of attitude we need to have if we are to actually to be changed.

the big sur area of the california coast was our biggest gamble going into the trip and as we headed out from san fran to do the coast we still had nowhere to stay.  by the end of the first day we hadn't found anything so we stayed at a motel.  it was fine, but we decided it was too expensive to do again so we made a pact that if we didn't find anything the next night we would stay in our car.  after visiting big sur bakery in the morning (which was unreal!!) we hit up a little library to use the internet.  we basically contacted any couchsurfing host within decent range of big sur asking if anyone would let us crash last minute that night and asking if they could text us because we wouldn't have a computer for the rest of the day.  when we got back from our hike, a guy named nate contacted us saying we could stay at his place.  he said he wouldn't be there, but that he would leave the door unlocked.  seriously, that was a huge answer to prayer especially because couchsurfing has been super hit or miss.  that night we show up to nate's place which is a small apartment in a little surf town on the coast.  sure enough the door was unlocked and he had left helpful sticky notes all over the apartment to help us know how to use the tv, or to watch out because the chair is wobbly.  with surf boards hanging all over the room and surf awards for amputee divisions, we quickly realized that nate is an amputee surfer.  in the morning nate came home with lattes for us!  seriously, we wondered if this guy could really exist.  as we talked to nate, we were totally blown away by his positive outlook on life and his attention to the details of other people's lives (ie. he brought us lattes because he read on our profile that i like coffee).  it even turns out that his sister is moving to hamilton in the next two weeks!!  hopefully nate will swing by hamilton and bunch of you can meet this super rad guy. 

we really could not have imagined the amount of hospitality we would encounter on this trip or the amazing people we would meet.  there is no way we would choose any other way to do the trip. 

portland. grace.

there was a lot of hype for portland to live up to:  blue like jazz, portlandia, and well mostly kev and meg makins.  it totally did live up to it.  it was a dream world for me (jenn).  it felt like every front yard had a beautiful garden and every backyard a couple chickens, if not a goat!  around the corner from where we were staying was a grocery co-op that did an amazing job at sourcing produce locally and supporting other local businesses.  we biked around the city, which was totally doable even though it was pouring the whole time.  the whole city had a querkiness about it.  it reminded me a bit of hamilton in how real it was.  it felt like a mis-matched city where anyone could fit in- and portlanders have totally owned it!  it was so inspirational to be there and think that hamilton could become continue to become a thriving city without losing its identity.  one thing that i think helped that a lot was that instead of getting rid of broken down buildings or homogenizing the design of the city, they just revitalized the old.  we went to this one coffee shop, that beside having amazing coffee, was in an old warehouse...and there are things like that all over the city.

again though, even though we loved the city, the people we stayed with and met while we were there taught us the most.  we stayed in a house just around the corner from alberta street with three lovely women.  right from the start erica, meg and alexa made us feel totally at home by leaving the door open and setting up a room for us in the basement.  ...not to mention the connection erica and i had when i saw the bread bar's cookbook on her shelf!!  who knew portlanders knew about us?  over the couple days we spent there we got to know these girls and a bunch of their community who were all super quick to give us tips on the best stuff to do in the city.  we were really struck by the way that these people all seemed so real and down-to-earth.  they were quick to acknowledge failings and struggles and how God was working in the midst of all that.  one night we went out for drinks with a bunch of them and john told us about a book he is writing about his own story.  we had just met this guy and he was telling us about deep struggles in his life.  its amazing how being around people like that who are just being themselves really helps you to remember the freedom that comes when you are more aware of God's grace and love than anything else.  it was so clear that as john was sitting there, like it was with lots of people we talked to in portland, that his identity was not in what we thought about him, but was in something much more solid. 

the last morning there we went to the farmers market with the girls we stayed with and then went to church at imageo dei community.  we loved this church.  the music was rich and the teaching was deep as rick mckinnley articulated the gospel with a lot of clarity and sincerity. on our ride south that had us talking a for while about how the people we encountered in portland made us more aware of God's grace. it reminded us that we want to be people who can live and demonstarte god's grace to others.

seattle. hospitality.

our visit to seattle in the end wasn't so much about the city as it was about learning hospitality.  and by hospitality i dont mean the kind where you invite your best friends over for dinner on a day of the week when it is convenient for you and you have them bring dessert to save you the hassle. 

we flew to seattle not really knowing much about the city and not having a place to stay until the very last minute.  our friend from church contacted her friend in seattle and said we could crash at his place.  we contacted him and he said he'd meet us once we got there.  we were amazed that he and his parents (he lives with them) were totally down with us complete strangers staying with them but we had no idea how out of their way they would go for us. 

when we got to seattle we walked around for a bit until we met up with dj.  he showed up, introduced himself, insisted on carrying at least one of our bags, then proceeded to spend his entire day chauffering us around to the best and little-known parts of seattle.  if there is anyone who knows their way around seattle, its dj and his family.  if you didn't know they were from seattle by their bumper stickers, buttons, t-shirts or hats, you would know when you talked to them.  they love their city, and not in an exclusive way either.  for the day and a half we spent with them, they helped us experience their city in a way that caused us to see its beauty too. 

all in all, seattle was a great city, but the kind of hospitality dj and his family showed us made much more of an impression on us.  all three of them rearranged their shedules, figured out how to get us rides, made us breakfast and in general, just dropped everything for two strangers they had never met before.  these people get hospitality; real hospitality.  we hope that we can learn from dj and his parents and welcome strangers in our home in a way that goes beyond convenience.

we started a blog

i just finished packing and we leave in a couple hours.  the last couple weeks have been a flurry, and we are excited to start travelling; not just talk about it.  a whole bunch of people asked us if we were going to blog, so here it is.  its not going to be anything grand, just basically a way of keeping anyone up to speed on our adventures who wants to know about them.

our biggest hope with this trip is that we come away shaped into people who live every day with a broader perspective on who we are and our place in God's kingdom coming here on earth.  we are so excited to meet different people, climb big mountains and learn to love eachother and those around us more fully.  i know that most days i am pretty good at convincing myself that i've got it all together and that my ideas are the best ones. in light of this, i just pray that my heart would be humble and open enough to fully experience and learn from other people and places in a way that changes me.