West Coast Walk For Life

Participating in the West Coast Walk for Life was a great experience. I have never done anything like this before and I am so glad that I did. Next year, I hope that my husband and children will be able to walk as well.

We started the morning bright an early with mass at 6:00am. This was a very emotional mass for me. I cried almost the entire mass; I did get there a few minutes late but I cried almost the entire time that I was there. I felt the Holy Spirit moving me that morning.

On the bus, we prayed and said the rosary. Then we watched Horton Hears A Who, which when you are paying attention, chronicles the Pro Life struggles. A person is a person no matter how small! It was a quick bus ride and we were in San Francisco before I realized it. (A nice little nap helped out.)

It started to rain just as we got into San Francisco. But it did not dampen our enthusiasm.

This was the banner for our church's group. I liked our banner because it was not in your face and it was a positive message for women and for babies.

After unloading from the bus, we walked just a block to the Plaza where the speakers were. It was here that it started raining, and then it started pouring! It was hard to hear all the speakers but what we were able to hear was inspiring. We were there for about an hour before we started the walk. I was so happy that my wonderful sister bought me a rain poncho! It was a life saver in many ways.

After walking for about an hour, there was a little tower by the water that people were going up to take pictures of the crowd. I darted up it so that I could see how big the crowd was. It was amazing seeing the crowd from above.

This was the crowd in front of us! Little did I know that there were even more people over the hill. It was about here that my other brother in law got a phone call that the group he came with was all ready done and at the park waiting for them. The people go as far as you can see and there is a hill at the far right of the picture that they went up.

Here is a close-up of our group: My two nieces are in the red jackets with white lining, my other niece is behind them in the gray poncho with blue collar, her friend is in the red shirt with white jacket, my brother in law is in the navy blue jacket with white stripes directly behind my niece and then my nephew and brother in law are in the denim jacket, orange poncho and dark sunglasses! That orange poncho was our guide and we could see it even if he got ahead of us. Again I was thanking my sister for the ponchos!

The crowd was very peaceful with many people saying the rosary. I never felt worried or nervous being among all those people. It was an amazing experience.

This was the crowd behind us! There were people as far as you could see going both ways. There was a helicopter taking photos from above. I have been trying to find them on the Internet but there has been very little publicity about the entire event.

The crowd was very diverse with priests, brothers, nuns, old people, young people, families and little babies. This one was such a cutie I had to take her picture. This was towards the end of the walk when we were walking up the hill.

At the top of the hill, I took this picture of the Golden Gate Bridge. It looked so pretty peaking out from the trees that were all around.

After coming down the hill on the other side, you can see the crowd gathered at the park in the center of the picture. There were people all through here when I took the picture of the people ahead of us! We had heard that there were suppose to be around 40,000 people there that day. Even with the rain, the people stayed and walked. I would love to find out how many actually walked.

When we made it to the park, we gathered up and then walked to our buses. They were about two blocks away in a school parking lot. The buses were all lined up and we got loaded up and were on our way in no time. I was amazed at how easily the logistics worked. We were on our way back home by 3:30pm, and I was kissing my babies at home by 8:15pm that night.

It was a wonderful day, with lots of emotions. I am so glad that I went and I can't wait to take my entire family next year!