Welcoming and Embracing the Diversity of All People - Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

After we confirmed our move to another hotel, we checked out and had the front desk stored our luggage.

Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

We always enjoy visiting other churches and attending a Sunday service in the local church of the city where we are visiting.









As it was Sunday, we took a taxi and made it in time for the

 11 am Sunday service at the Grace Cathedral.











An Episcopal Church, Grace Cathedral is located at the intersection of Jones and California Street in San Francisco.


















The Grace Cathedral is a magnificent church decorated with wall murals depicting the past and recent development of the church.

Beautiful murals illustrate the past and recent development of the church inside the Grace Cathedral 

It was a joy to be in the house of the Lord during the fifth Sunday in Lent.

Grace Chapel 1849

The message was shared by Rev. Mary Greene. The reverend preached about Lazarus' death and his burial in the tomb for three days.

Grace Chapel - 1906

She talked about the period of silence and a temporary separation from God such as what had happened to Lazarus.  From time to time, we mighty experience such period in our lives.

Her message helped me to reflect on the times when I felt as if God was silent in my life.

Grace Cathedral 1963

We got to talk to a friendly volunteer who gave us some good information regarding the church.

The building of the church did not happen all at once. It took a number of years due to lack of funds.

Founding of United Nations 1945

Many residents of San Francisco helped to fund raise for the building of the church.

With the involvement of so many people contributing to its fundraising and building, the volunteer stressed to us that Grace Cathedral determined and continued to be a welcoming church for all people.





We saw the Interfaith AIDS Memorial Chapel in the church and asked about it.

The AIdS Interfaith Memorial Chapel

The volunteer explained that
in the 1980's, during the height of the AIDS epidemic, Grace Cathedral was conducting 2-3 funeral services a week for the victims of AIDS.

The Interfaith Chapel includes symbols of other faith

Due to the fear and stigma attached to the disease, the AIDS victims were refused funeral services elsewhere in San Francisco, this church was the default church to hold services for many victims.

A section set aside for families with children

We also saw the section set aside for parents and children.

Jacob's Dream - A Luminous Path

Another interesting thing we saw was an art installation currently being exhibited at the church -  Jacob's Dream: A Luminous Path inspired by the story in the book of Genesis chapter 28.














With the AIDS Interfaith Memorial Chapel, the special seating for families and the various programs being offered to the community, it is evident that the congregation of the Grace Cathedral has been working hard and are serious about embracing the diversity and meeting the needs of the city's inhabitants.









We were glad that we had the opportunity visiting Grace Cathedral and attending a Sunday Service on this trip.


R.T.
Grace Cathedral
San Francisco
USA

Enjoying a Spectacular Sunset View at Ocean Beach and Lands End, San Fransisco

San Francisco is a beautiful city surrounded by the ocean.
















In order to help us to see and experience more of this beautiful ocean front city, S. rented a Zip car for the afternoon. The Zip Car is a popular new self served car rental company providing easy access to vehicles placed in numerous locations throughout a city and renting the vehicles by the hour.

Ocean Beach, San Francisco - a beautiful spot to visit 

He came and picked us up at around 6pm from the hotel on Market Street.

He drove us to visit Ocean Beach, the beach area in San Francisco fronting the Pacific Ocean.


















There were a lot of people at the Ocean Beach,  a beautiful place to watch the sunset.

The sunset view at Ocean Beach was spectacular!

                                                 

Cliff House - a popular restaurant overlooking the cliffs

S. wanted to take us for dinner at the Cliff House to enjoy the sunset by the cliff.

A popular place, the restaurant gave out a machine with a beeping sound to inform each waiting customer who carried this device with them during the wait.

However, the wait was about 45 minutes to an hour.

S. standing on the top of one of the ocean rocks by the Pacific Ocean

Instead of waiting for almost an hour, we decided to go to another restaurant close by instead so that we could have more time to explore the area.

S. climbed up to one of the big rocks on the ocean front.

Hiking on the Coastal Trail

We hiked on the trail along the ocean front  and went down to the tunnel.

We ventured into the tunnel and were careful not to step into any holes.

It was a short walk into the tunnel before we reached the end of the tunnel.

The tunnel opened up to an open view of the Pacific Ocean.

A different view at the end of the tunnel at Ocean Beach, San Francisco

Lands End Lookout, San Francisco

Walking through the dark tunnel, we saw a building on top of the cliff; we continued our hike to the top.

After climbing up the stairs,  we reached a lookout point called Lands End and learned more about this beautiful place from the information posted at the Lookout point.

" Lands End is the wildest, rockiest corner of San Francisco - a corner strewn with shipwrecks and a history of landslides.

At the tip of Lands Ends is Point Lobos, named by the Spanish for its many lobos marinos ( sea wolves), otherwise known as sea lions, whose barks drifted up from the rocks below.  The sea lions have since relocated to the calmer waters of San Francisco Bay.

Trails of Lands End offers a cliff top walk through dark cypress and open grass and offer 30 mile view up and down the California coast."  Taken from Golden Gate National Recreation Area.




For more on the Sea Lions, please see my blog about them at:
http://rtam1206.blogspot.ca/2013/04/pier-39-free-family-attraction-for.html

We saw some brave souls walking along the trail hugging the Pacific Ocean.

Sutro Baths ruins, Lands End, San Francisco

Some were so close to the waves that we were afraid they might be swept away to the ocean by some unexpected huge waves.

Murals on the ground floor of the Beach Chalet

After the walk along the Coastal Trail, we were ready for a good meal.

We drove to the Beach Chalet, a stone throw away from Lands End for dinner,















The Beach Chalet was also filled with patrons waiting to get a table.

We waited and I wandered downstairs to admire the murals adorning the walls of the ground floor of the building.














We didn't get the window seats. But it was getting dark and we would not be able to see much anyway.

We ordered soup, S. and I had sole while S. ordered salmon. The food was very good but the place was too busy therefore the service was disappointing. Our waiter mixed up our drinks, gave S. the wrong main course, therefore he had to wait another 20 minutes and we did not even get any bread with our meal.







S dropped us off and went to visit his friend in Silicon valley with a bottle of wine. We had some good conversation and learned more  about his work.










We called the travel agency to cancel the rest of our stay for the hotel.
It was a really fun day with my loved ones!

R.T.
Ocean Beach and Lands End
San Francisco, USA

Enjoying Our Visit in Sunny California

We continued our vacation in sunny California!

After saying good bye to our friend in Nevada after lunch,  we returned our rental car to the rental company in Las Vegas.

 We thought we might have time to visit another attraction but returning our car took much longer than we had anticipated.

We abandoned the idea and boarded our scheduled flight to San Francisco to continue our trip in California.

the famous Cable Car in San Francisco

Our flight took off at around 8p.m.

It was around 11pm when we landed in San Francisco.

By the time we took a taxi and checked into the hotel, it was well past 12am the next day.  We were exhausted and went to sleep.

A nice stroll to the Union Square

S. came to see us at the hotel the next day but he did not like where we were staying.

 However, we did not mind it as we liked being close to everything.

It was lovely to see bright colourful flowers blooming this time of the year!

We walked by the B. clothing store. S. was looking for a coat so we went in and he tried one. The prices of these brand name clothing was quite outrageous.
                                 

Union Square, San Francisco

S. took us to the Union Square, a park in the middle of downtown San Francisco.

The Apple Store in SF  has a gigantic open balcony facing the street.

Since S had to get something in the Apple Store, he took us there.

The Apple Store in San Francisco is  located right in the Union Square, with modern architecture and furnishing.

The store has a gigantic open balcony facing the street.

The Apple Store in SF is a store with modern architecture & furniture

A bright and sunny spot, the store had a lot of seats in the shape of cubes placed throughout the place.

There were quite a few people and S. was so excited when he was in the store as if he were  home.

We had a good view of the streets from the open balcony of the Apple Store

Standing in front of the open balcony, we had an excellent view of the streets below us.

A two story tour bus full of passengers was passing by with the passengers on the upper deck waving at us n the store.

A lovely seating area at the back of the store

It was fun waving back to them for a little while.

China Town entrance, San Francisco

Since we were close to Chinatown S. suggested we to go for a dim sum lunch there.

Cute money sculptures in China Town, SF

 I ordered the food but missed his favorites.

China Town, SF, One of the Oldest in North America

I need to remember his favorite dim sum including shrimp dumplings and other items with no bones or shells.

After lunch we took a walk and strolled in the park in China town.

There was a beehive of activities in the park.

         Wall mural in Chin Town, SF

There was a beehive of activities in the park.

Playing their traditional Chinese musical instruments.

A few seniors congregated in the park; some were singing while others were playing their traditional Chinese musical instruments.
.

Chess game - a spectators' sport in China Town, SF

 A few groups were playing chess surrounded by spectators offering their unsolicited next moves in their chess games.

A statue commemorating the democracy movement in China

We thought it was interesting that there was a statue called the Goddess of Democracy commemorating the democracy movement at the Tian Men Square in China.

A bubble tea shop in SF's China Town

Since S. lives in San Francisco, he knows where the good and bad areas are. It really bothered him that we unknowingly chose a hotel in a questionable area.

So we went for bubble tea and checked out some of the hotels in a better area. We did find some with comparable prices and decided that we would change hotel.

A street performer in SF

We walked back to our hotel to make arrangement to move out to another hotel.
while S. went home to make arrangement for a zip car rental.


We enjoyed out walk back to the hotel as we stopped and watched some street buskers performing their shows.

We also came across a street musician during our stroll

We saw a dancing show, listened to a street musician, and a preacher at the corner of the street.

Enjoying our visit to Union Square, SF

The downtown streets of San Francisco are definitely more lively and colourful than the streets of Toronto.

We are glad we are here; we are looking forward to visiting and spending a few days with our love one in the U.S.

R.T.
San Francisco
USA