I left my harp in Sam Franks disco

One of the highlights of our trip was seeing Aunt Chi Chi.  She is, hands down, the greatest tour guide.  She showed up SF in style.  She helped us drink in all the things she loves about the city, which, happen to be all the things I’d love too.  We’re kindred souls.  She wrote up our time with her on her blog way better than I have time to do right now, so check it out here.  But, just for the scrap book part of this blog sake, here are some pictures and my quick write up.  We spent an afternoon with Emmeline and Peter driving through and hiking pt Reyes while Jeff and the big kids went fishing with Grandpa Shumway.  We marveled together and the rustic, wild beauty of that place just miles from that big city.  It was breath taking. 

I wish I’d have taken a picture in front of Charity’s awesome house.  It is such a cool house, I wanted to clear all her room mates out of there and move right in.  It’s in a picture perfect neighborhood in south San Francisco. And this beach is just down the road.  We drove through Golden Gate park to the Dalia gardens.  We marveled in the unique popping beauty of each one.  I think I have to join Charity in the Dalia fan club.  My new favorite flower.  We got some spectacular sandwiches at some place somewhere cool, maybe the mission, maybe not?  That’s the beauty of having such a competent tour guide, I didn’t have to think or remember or worry about anything, I just enjoyed.  It was pretty heavenly.   We ate these yummy sandwiches at this park overlooking the city.  It was quite a strenuous walk up the hill, but well worth it.  We walked through union square and into china town.  Charity told us all the reasons why SF china town tops all other china towns….and I think I was convinced.  It was awesome.  Even had a fortune cookie factory to visit.  Peter ate his real first solid food there, a fortune cookie scrap. And then she took us to her secret roof top parking lot with this amazing view.  It was windy up there and we all felt alive, surrounded by that busy city.  I love the energy of cities.We ended the day at the beach overlooking the Golden Gate bridge with some more yummy charity recommended food.  It was brisk and invigorating and beautiful.

Charity and Hazel have interconnected souls.  They are so similar.  They are both dripping with passion for life.  And they love each other dearly.  Char invited Hazel to spend the night at her place after our day in SF and boy did they ever have an adventure…..a bon fire on the beach with a bunch of Charity’s single friends and some long heart to hearts about boys and friends and life.  Hazel feel so secure and confident when Charity’s around.  I think she feels pretty awesome that we all tell her how alike she and Chich are because she can see so clearly how cool Chich is…..so it follows that she must be pretty cool herself.  A strong dose of Charity is what Hazel needs regularly.  Wish she lived closer. I love this sister-friend of mine.  Being around her reminds me of a part of me that I forget about being all bottled up in motherhood.  She reminds me that I have some serious spontaneity and love for life embedded in my soul.  It makes me more committed to unearthing that part of me so that I can spread it onto my kids and weave it through my days. The next morning Peter and I went to pick up Hazel after her big sleep over and we dropped Charity off in the mission, saw some awesome street art and said big hugged teary good byes. 

Go check out Charity’s write up.  It’s awesome, as is her whole blog, and her whole life and her whole soul.