San Francisco Sisters Reunion

It's crazy that my sister's visit already came and went three weeks ago. It's one of those things I was looking forward to all year long, and it seemed so far away, and then all of a sudden it just snuck up on us and flew by so fast. Thankfully we already have another visit set up next year to look forward to.

One of my favorite parts of Bianca's visit was that we were able to meet up with our other sister Anna in San Francisco and have a mini sister reunion (3 out of 5 of us). The weather was perfect, the company was great, and we were in one of my favorite cities. It was a perfect day all around. 

A few highlights:

• Ez's enthusiasm for trolleys and street cars hasn't diminished one bit and he was so excited to show them off to not one, but two aunts. A very special treat.
• So much water everywhere. You can bet that Declan tried to climb or squeeze through every wall separating him from the ocean. Thankfully the walls won that battle. 
• Discovering a new to us part of town on a detour to the Golden Gate Bridge.
• Ez insisted on being carried like a little baby by Auntie Anca until I called him out on it and then he shyly demanded to be put down and played it off like the big boy he is. 4 is such an inbetween age - half big boy, half baby, all bittersweet. 
• Freshly made donuts on the pier. ALWAYS a must.
• After the trip we showed Ez the photo of him in front of the trolley and asked "what's that?" expecting him to say "trolley", instead he said, "that's Mr. Ray!" (Bianca's professor). If you look very closely (5 photos down) you can see that Mr. Ray is indeed inside the trolley. Very perceptive and it also shows what a liking Ez took to Mr. Ray, making sure to share all his mini Thomas trains with him whenever he came over.
• And best of all was the catching up and sister talk. Definitely a day I'll cherish for a loonnnnng time.

Father's Day Weekend: SF Getaway

Summer is definitely here, my friends. We're smack dab in the middle of a week long 105 degree or higher heat wave. Yayyy us... Obviously we decided to get the ef out of here and head to the coast where it was only supposed to be in the low 70s. Key word: supposed to be. It turned out to be about 90 degrees there too, but still almost 20 degrees cooler so definitely worth it. 

One thing I love about San Francisco is that no two trips are ever exactly alike. We can easily spend a whole day exploring Golden Gate Park, paddling a boat around the lake, playing at the playground, and enjoying the gardens. We've had many fun trips to the zoo, walked halfway across the Golden Gate Bridge, and of course we like to eat our way along the wharf - so many good food choices, not nearly enough stomach space. 

For Father's Day weekend we stayed right in the middle of Mission District, so right near all the best shopping. We kicked off our trip with some trolley sighting (highlight of the trip for Ez) and retail therapy, took a brief hotel room break, then wandered over to the city hall, the MLK Jr. memorial (highlight of the trip for Declan), and our home away from home: Target. The next day was all about the wharf before packing up and heading home, with a quick pit stop at Berkeley for old time's sake. We covered a LOT of ground in two days (18.3 miles to be exact) and we pretty much all dropped on the couch in exhaustion when we got home. Definitely a weekend well spent. 

How are you all surviving this heat?? 

12.5 Miles in San Francisco

I know, I know, another San Francisco trip. Old news, right? But this time we got to visit with my sister so it was a brand new experience. The weather was sunny but chilly, very fall like, which made my heart happy. We stuck near the piers, as we tend to do, but we still managed to wind up in a new to us place, and wandered around Fort Mason taking in the foggy views of the Golden Gate Bridge and running around the park for a bit. We also hit up Pier 39 for some souvenirs, and Pier 1 for brunch. Somehow we even managed to time our visit with the Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival, though we didn't take advantage nearly as much as we should have. Other highlights included seeing not one, but two beetle buses. Ez happens to love them as much as I do, and one of them was in the Wax Museum entrance, so you could actually explore inside. Ez climbed right in and was ready to live there. Afterward we drove to the Golden Gate Bridge for some pictures, and then headed to Palo Alto for some well-earned dinner and sweets. We'd walked 12.5 miles by the end of the day. You'd think we'd decide to take a break the next day and laze around, but nope. Spoiler alert: we walked another 7.5 miles around Berkeley on Sunday. Joe is a slave driver ;)