Heading out to San Francisco … not the right song and it wasn’t for the Labor Day weekend, but Passover with our son. Upon arrival to his apartment, he treated us to an amazing lunch at Hobee’s Restaurant known for their huge portions of coffee cake. I had an amazing treat pre-Passover of a Walnut Peach Coffeecake the size of Texas!
Our first full day in San Jose was preparation for the Passover. As I was only making a simple lamb stew with store-bought macaroons and a bottle of sweet wine we bought in Israel called “Moshe’s Kiddush Wine,” my husband and I decided on a hike. We were not prepared, however, for seven miles, and though it was a beautiful hike along the Guadaloupe River to the south San Francisco Bay, the concrete path really tore our feet apart. We were thankful, once again, for the chiropractic adjustments from our son that brought us some relief from the aching bones and muscles.
Pesach was quiet and simple with just my husband, son and I (and Marrowlyn Monroe watching on). I was reminded that my son has celebrated Passover since he was born, making this is 22nd year. Instead of using our Haggadah to explain everything we were doing because we already knew, we decided to only read the Scriptures. They made for interesting discussion, especially when it came to the ‘chametz’ or ‘soured dough.’ My son said that to remove ‘soured dough’ would have been a very difficult thing for the Israelites because every meal included bread of some sort; it was the staple of life. Without the ‘bread of life,’ they had to completely trust God for their provision. As a symbol of sin, they, as well as us, are reminded of how permeating sin is in our lives and how difficult it is to live without bread. Knowing that Yeshua is the unleavened, sinless bread of life, made the concept even more powerful as he lived his whole life without ‘soured dough’.
On the first day of Unleavened Bread, my husband and I took the lightrail into downtown San Jose. We found a sweet place to eat called Cafe Eden. The best part was the schwarma, a wrap that my husband loved when we were in Israel, and was served with unleavened bread! For dessert we went to the San Pedro Public Market and bought a ‘death by chocolate’ cake and enjoyed the outdoors of the market. Upon returning to where my son lives, I had a clinic appointment at Palmer Chiropractic with a sweet young woman and intern named Anne Marie. That evening, after a wonderful dinner that my son made, we headed into San Francisco for ice cream at a favorite childhood place of none other than that intern! I had the best chocolate chunk peanut butter ice cream – wasn’t sure about the mango.
Guadaloupe Trail 
South Bay, San Jose 
Passover Table 
Footwashing 
Horseradish? 
Palmer Chiropractic 
Schwarma 
San Pedro Public Market 
Priceless Moments
And Monterey
Our final full-day, my son skipped a class and took us to Monterey. Of course, the whole world is aware that Monterey has an aquarium, but that wasn’t on our ‘to see’ list. Instead, we got to walk down Cannery Row. For those who may never have seen the movie with Nick Nolte and Debra Winger, you should. It’s one of our favorites. As we walked down the street of restaurants and souvenir shops, we encountered a little side trail and walked out to the ocean. The little side trail had descriptions that talked about Ed Ricketts, the first true marine biologist who studied ocean life in the the nearby tide pools in the early 1900s. When we returned to the street, we saw the front of the building with an old wooden staircase leading up to the door. Since there was no chain, I walked up the steps to have my picture taken. The door opened. A man says, “Hi”. I responded that I thought it was okay to climb the stairs and he said, “Of course it is. Would you like to come in? There’s an older gentleman here who was good friends with ‘Doc’ Ricketts.” Amazing! We went in and met Frank Wright, the 97-year-old friend of Ed Ricketts, who married his wife in the back of the building where we had just walked. He had never met John Steinbeck who had collaborated with Ricketts on several projects, including the combining of several novels for the movie Cannery Row, but was responsible for keeping and selling the old lab to the city of Monterey for posterity. (I’m going to be reading a lot of Steinbeck in the next few months!) We wandered around the historic areas of Monterey and ate, none other than fish n’ chips on the pier. We returned ‘home’ just in time for my son to play his first softball game and watch him hit two home runs! Yay!
Monterey Bay 
Doc Rickett’s House 
Tidepool Area 
Cannery Row
Saying ‘goodbye’ is difficult as we never know when we will see him again. He has another 1 1/2 years before graduating from Palmer Chiropractic as a D.C. and then has plans to continue onto chiropractic radiology with an internship at Stanford Medical Center.
The ‘bad news’ … our truck needs a completely new engine. We will be ‘stuck’ in Auburn for hopefully not more than another week. A part that is needed cannot be found in the contiguous United States which is ridiculous for a truck made in the USofA. We had plans to meet a friend from Brasil in Seattle; hopefully, we will still have the opportunity before he leaves for Japan. For praying friends, please pray for us and this situation. Our relatives are very generous to allow us to stay here, but we also don’t want to outwear our welcome. Sitting when we should be traveling to make our deadline in Alaska is highly stressful. We know that God has a plan and a better one than the original so we continue eating unleavened bread (Carmel Matzah Crunch), wishing our truck was fixed, collecting eggs, and waiting for the day we receive the ‘it’s finished’ phone call. In the meantime, our trailer is parked in a beautiful place and the warranty we bought will pay for everything from being displaced to meals. God is truly our Provider!
Tomorrow is the Feast of Firstfruits and with it comes the hope of the resurrection of the dead and the soon return of our Messiah to straighten up the mess we have created of ourselves and this world. Without Yeshua, we would all be lost and dying, but because of his sacrifice on Passover, his life of ‘unleavened bread’, we can have life to the fullest now and in the coming Kingdom be resurrected into glory! Halleluyah!
©2017 Tentstake Ministries Publishing