I have to back up a bit more. We arrived in Vermont from Rwanda to several feet of snow and a great couple of days with our son and daughter-in-law that included a few cross country ski adventures as well as some cribbage tournaments.

Going to the San Francisco area always feels a little like coming home to a place I loved. We lived in the East Bay Rockridge neighborhood for three fun years from 1986 to 1989. I just loved the weather, no screens on the windows, a lemon tree in our backyard…

On this visit our wonderful friends, Susan and Alec, offered their house and car while they were in South East Asia. It was a whirlwind of seeing Amy, Ben’s sister, lunch and dinners with Nobles‘ grads and Alec & Susan’s kids, and amazing hiking in the East Bay hills and Mount Tamalpais. We feel so full of love, delicious food, and vistas.

While we were in the city I became a little obsessed with the fog horns I could hear from the Golden Gate Bridge in the early morning hours, so regular and soothing in some way. There is such beauty as the fog fills in the hills. San Francisco wears fog like a scarf, like one of those stylish people who knows just how to knot or sweep a swath of cloudy fabric around her neck. A little like the way my daughter’s loving black lab fits her body along the top of the sofa when my daughter works on her computer and curls her soft face on my daughter’s shoulder. Or the way a mama gorilla gently lifts her nursing infant from breast to neck when she wants to move. That’s how easily and fluidly the fog enters and exists. I love the warning horns, the way we figure out ways to help each other when we can’t see clearly.

So we left San Francisco on Wednesday night and arrived in Auckland on Friday morning. We lost a day, & I didn’t get to do the Thursday Wordle and erased my streak. Oh well, a good lesson in letting go.

We arrived in Queenstown after one missed landing effort. That was an adventure.

We’re about to go off on a hike.

Thanks for reading.

Be safe out there.

Love,

Sarah