San Francisco

San Francisco, a set on Flickr.

Sawyer has always thought that California was some Nirvana where people go when they leave his realm ... kind of like falling off the end of the world or something. Since he was born his brother, his cousins, his aunts and uncles and his godparents have all come and gone from this mysterious California place.

For the first time in living memory, he got to visit California. We spent 10 days in the Bay area, visiting the redwood forest, swimming in the ocean, touring the Exploratorium, riding the trolley and browsing the farmer's markets.

The whole tourist part of the trip was topped off by a visit from our southern California cousins Gracie and Max in addition to the Bay area cousins Kingston and Kieran.

And if that wasn't enough, Santa came for a visit and left us two suitcases worth of stuff to haul back.

Sawyer decided that he loves California and wants to live there someday. As for me, I think I'll skip the crazy traffic, exercise pants and earthquake threats and just stick with the occasional visit.