Friday January 25, 2008

It was another drizzly day when we woke up this morning so we packed our umbrellas when we were picked up by Cookie and Ron. We did a tour of the missions today - we visited the four missions and found each one a little different. Cookie discovered that a friend of hers, Brother Jerome, was at San Jose so we got to visit with him. Again we have someone who should have his own comedy act. He told us a bit about the church, his life as a monk, and entertained us with a variety of stories. I know I haven't laughed out loud in church as much as I did today! There was a statue of Saint Francis behind the altar. It used to have a crucifix in one hand, but this was stolen one night so it was replaced with another crucifix which was also stolen. The statue now holds nothing in its upraised hand - but, Brother Jerome said that one feast days they are considering having Saint Francis hold a bingo card! We had to battle some light rain throughout the morning, but didn't get totally wet. We went for a typical Texas lunch at a local restaurant: chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, cornbread, and salad. The pieces of steak were so large that one could feed a family of six! Needless to say, Cookie and Ron have enough leftovers for a few meals. We then went to the SAS shoe factory which was a shoe store as well as a general store. We had a lovely time walking around and checking out the wares. They had 5 cent coke and coffee, but we were too full to partake. There were also quite a number of antique and classic cars which Ron and Dave loved! We had a contest to see who could pack the most loose candy of every sort into a small bag ($2 for the bag) - Dave won - his bag weighed just over a pound and a half. We hope we will be camped next to a family with children as we don't intend to eat all of that candy! We then visited the King William section of town and stopped at the Guenther House which is now a restaurant and museum. Their daughter was married here two years ago. It is a lovely house - we met the chef who was a friend of Cookie's from when she used to work at USAA. We got to go up to the roof garden (covered) which was set up for a bridal party which will take place tomorrow - very fancy! We then went downtown and visited the cathedral and walked by the Spanish Governor's Mansion (which was closed by this time). We got back to the hotel and Justine, Dave and I sat around chatting (I also managed to do 2 loads of laundry) for a while. We then gathered all of our leftovers and granola bars and had a snacky supper as none of us were particularly hungry. It seems hard to believe that the week is almost gone, but we do have one more day here before Justine leaves us. It has been a busy and wonderful week.