Day 2 started for us at a local cafe and getting a little bit of breakfast before heading out for the day. I realized that it’s been 2 days and I have yet to try coffee here, despite there being a starbucks literally every block or so (in the block surrounding our hotel I think there are 4); I’m sorry George!

We caught the Bus schedule after Melissa took a crash course in how to read a Seattle bus schedule (it’s really hard, and I’m very proud of her!). We made it out to where we were told yesterday to get off to be by the church. Little did we know, the church was right by where we let off. We looked around, spotted it and made our way in.

Crosspointe is a church in our denomination that has been important in the whole hymn renewal movement. In a nutshell, the goal is to dust off some very elegant, well written poetry and make it relevant musically to the current generation. As a result, you get music that is thoughtful mixed with lyrics that are thoughtful as well. What’s unique about Crosspointe is that they marry this with a high church literagy and the result is something akin to a steak meal. It’s really disjointing in a beautiful way to rock out to ‘Let us love and sing and wonder’ and sing Gloria Patri within the same few minutes.

One of the more fun moments (and there were a number) in the service is the end when the children younger than 5 were invited up to the front for the last song. It was an up-temp version of ‘All the way my savior leads me’ that had all the children jumping up and down and enjoying themselves. It was just really beautiful to watch and worship along with the kids; the glorious imperfection of the moment still makes me cry as I write this.

Speaking of glorious imperfection, we got out of church and called a cab and had an hour before we were supposed to be at Lake Union for our cruise and our cab was late, really late. So late that we missed our boat. A wonderful, kind couple from church took us under their wing and suggested that we try the ferry and offered to drive us down to it rather than taking a cab that finally showed up. We were so thankful for their kindness and it was a great idea that we were really thankful for. We got a chance to get out into Peugeot Sound and saw some fish like things that Melissa and I debated as to what they could be and a couple of Seals hanging out on a buoy.

We got back and went to an asian restaurant for dinner that was just delightful; heck, it was the best meal we’ve had here in my opinion. Melissa and I ordered bulgogi, a korean skirt steak and it was renewing to eat, if that makes sense.

I would be neglect to mention that we did some urban hiking this afternoon as well. To go up from the waterfront you really have to go up. For the first couple of blocks the roads are straight uphill at like a 45 degree angle. It was awesome and I’m beginning to be thankful for the bike riding I’ve been doing. It’s paying off with all the walking we’re doing this week.