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!