Daily Life

Life in San Francisco is so different from anywhere else that Ben and I have lived. I wanted to share with you some things from daily life here that we are adjusting to!

#1 Life with NO air conditioning is not so bad after all.

Ben and I are originally from Louisiana and spent the last three years in Alabama. We know what hot is and are used to using the air conditioner most of the calendar year. Our apartment here has NO air conditioning. At first, I though it was just our complex but I quickly learned that no apartments here have it! This continues to blow my mind but thankfully we are adjusting quite well with the use of windows and fans. The weather has actually been quite chilly here this week but we do experience warm days. We opened our windows the day we moved in and have never closed them! We live on a busy street so we have learned to let the sounds of cars and people put us to sleep at night. One major plus is how low our electric bill is!

*This fan is our sanity on the warm nights or when I am cooking :)

#2 Walking is the usually the best form of transportation.

Walking everywhere is a really good thing for us but it has taken some getting used to. I used to walk for exercise some but mostly only walked to and from my car. Now I walk to work, the post office, the coffee shop, a friend's house and to go shopping or out to eat! Sometimes I walk five or six miles a day! You have to accommodate more time to do things but I LOVE getting the exercise. I did learn quickly that I would have to trade my flip flops/sandals for shoes with socks!

* Example: I walked this morning to our friend Josh's apartment to watch the World Cup and it is 1.1 miles one way!

#3 We wash and dry across the hall.

I am the queen of waiting until we have no clean clothes left to do laundry or doing a whole load of laundry because I need my favorite shirt or pair of pants. In our complex none of the apartments come with washer/dryer units but there is a laundry room on every floor. This concerned me (and my best friend who is always looking out for me) a great deal because of my known laundry habits. On move-in day I was beyond grateful to discover the laundry room is literally right across the hall from our apartment. What a blessing and answered prayer! It does cost to wash and dry here so I have still had to work on my laundry habits but the convenience is wonderful! We also worked a deal with our friends. When we babysit their kids we get to do laundry there also!

*We do have the luxury of doing many loads at one time!

Everyday life is very different here and Ben and I are continually adjusting but loving every minute of it! We are so thankful for God's faithfulness and provision in our lives. We are grateful that San Francisco is home - some days we walk around and can't believe that we actually get the chance to live here!

I am working on posting a video blog of our apartment and an update on Epic Church!

Five Years

Ben and I recently celebrated our five-year wedding anniversary on May 21. Oh how time has flown by. It has become custom for us to take some sort of getaway trip each year around this time. However, this year the weekend of our anniversary fell on our last weekend in Tuscaloosa. We decided we would much rather be with friends and not out of town. So we officially moved our celebration to sometime around June 21. We planned to go somewhere fun once we were settled in San Francisco and we were able to do that this weekend!

We ended up spending a couple of days in the Sonoma/Napa Valley area north of San Francisco. It amazed me that just 15 minutes out of the city we entered beautiful countryside. We were able to drive through some of the vineyards which was also incredible. Our favorite day was spent at Point Reyes National Seashore.

Note*

When heading to the beaches and cliffs here DO NOT wear shorts-I should have know better! The wind was out of control. I was trying not to fall over or off the edge :)

We were excited about hiking to a lighthouse but this is as close as we could get. The park closed the walkway due the winds being 55+ mph. I honestly didn't mind, at this point I was ready to warm up in the car for a bit! Here are some of the pictures from the cliffs and one from the beach.

We had such a great time and were able to relax and have fun together! Now, what would an anniversary post be without a look back?!

The last five years have been quite an adventure and we are grateful for every moment. We're so thankful for all the people who have helped us along the way and who have walked through life with us.

Our Neighborhood

Ben and I live in the area known as South Beach/Mission Bay. I want to introduce you to our neighborhood as I continue to discover so much about where we live.

What better place to start than AT&T Park - home to the San Francisco Giants! The ballpark is literally three blocks from our apartment, about a 5 minute walk. We became instant fans. As I write this, the Giants are preparing to take on the Oakland A's tonight. This is a huge rivalry series for us.

We were able to score some free tickets on our second night here and watched the Giants play the Colorado Rockies. We sat in the bleachers with a great view of The Bay.

FUN FIND #2

As I walked to the grocery store one day, low and behold I stumbled upon this company office.

Any gamer knows exactly who this company is and what they create. Married to or friends with anyone who plays these games?

Assassin's Creed....Rainbow Six.....Splinter Cell

They were all produced by Ubisoft. Ubisoft is a leading international developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment products. It has the 2nd largest in-house development staff in the world with 24 studios in 17 countries. You can actually get a job here as a video game tester! Ben is applying as we speak.

I am looking forward to sharing so much more with you about where we live!

Our Journey West

A year and a half ago Ben and I took our very first trip to San Francisco, CA. We sensed God leading us to be a part of a team that would be starting a church. We came with two other couples to explore the area and left confident that we would indeed be following God to The Foggy City. Our goal was to move to SF around June 1, 2010. We have spent the past 17 months preparing for this life transition.

Along the way Epic Church was birthed and others have joined our team. We have read books and asked a ton of questions. We have been richly blessed by our former church and have said "see you later" to best friends. We have prayed through it all and God has answered us (not always like we wanted or thought he would). We have experienced God's faithfulness and his love for us. The day for moving has always seemed far off so when the end of May rolled around I couldn't believe how quickly time had passed.

A little over a week ago we left Tuscaloosa, AL and began our journey west. After 8 states and 71 hours traveling we arrived last Monday! Our overwhelming excitement was divided between being in our new home and finally getting out of the Penske Truck. Here are couple of pictures from the road!

We have spent the past couple of days getting settled into our new apartment, exploring the city and becoming residents of California (this includes a difficult written test for a driver's license and a smog test for the Camry). We absolutely love where we live! Here is a sneak peak at the apartment (I'll post more after we hang stuff on the walls) and one of the city!

Thanks for sharing in this journey with us -

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