Forests, the city, and the bay

We woke up this morning with the intention of going on an adventure. After wrangling the kids into the car and giving myself a brief, YouTube-provided crash course on how to use Hannah's camera (I know, sounds simple, but I am terrified of breaking it), and stopping to fill up the tank, we hopped on the Pacific Coast Highway and headed north. Somewhere south of San Jose, we veered off of the PCH, and drove through the mountains and up on into San Francisco.

The mountains are draped in those deep greens that immediately tell you the forest is old, thick, and untamed. Today those forest greens wore light mists and steady, humming rains. I was captivated by those dark, mist-shrouded, mysterious greens.

The city, on the other hand, was an explosion of cheerfully painted row homes adorned with an eclectic mix of details and architectural whims mixed with high rises, consulates, bridges (of course), and embraced by the chill waters of the bay. There is so much to explore up there, and I think Emma will fall in love with the city while she’s here.

We had ice cream sundaes at the original Ghirardelli chocolate factory. We walked around the wharf, and bought San Francisco’s original and famous sourdough bread. We strolled through a Japanese garden, and I took pictures of all of it.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves today. We are making memories and rebuilding ourselves. Those memories are conspicuous in their lack of Hannah, but they are good memories, and ones I know she would want us to be making.

I am starting to once again be excited to be here. There is so much beauty in this state, and I look forward to seeing it and capturing it with Hannah's lens. I look forward to showing what we've learned to Emma, to my parents, and to anyone else that comes to visit while we are here. And I look forward to making more small and beautiful discoveries with our family.

It was a good day.