Union Square

Our final day in San Francisco. And we were spending it staring at David Beckham in his briefs.

We were in Union Square, waiting for our double-decker tour bus to arrive so we could begin sampling the sights (though one might argue we already were). Beckham came courtesy of an Armani ad stretched across several stories of the Macy’s building in front of us.

It must have been the previous late night, and the excitement of the last few days, but as soon as our bus pulled up and we got on, Zoe’s eye lids began drooping. She struggled and struggled - nodding through Haight-Ashbury (probably best since in a more alert state, she surely would have asked: “Mommy, what’s a love-in?), blinking valiantly through the Presidio, head jerking up and down past Golden Gate Park. Finally, as the bus rolled onto that magnificent construction -Golden Gate Bridge - she gave up, lay her head on my lap and fell deeply sleep.

She woke at the end of the tour at Fisherman’s Wharf.

I had to break the news: Time to go home to Minnesota.

No! She yelled, suddenly wide awake. I don’t want to leave!

Ah, I told her, the best trips are the ones where you don’t want to go home.

What was your favorite part? I asked.

Playing with Sophie, she said. And staying with Ben.

Either my daughter is a born diplomat or she’s already figured out the secret of travel. The sights may be interesting, but it’s the people who make it wonderful.

~~~

Credits:

My husband Chris, for staying home in Minnesota with Maya

My mother-in-law Betty, who took them in for the weekend

Pui-Wing and Steve, for feeding and housing us and showing us the sights in San Francisco. Steve, for taking a day off with us just before a huge deadline at work. Check out his new computer game from the people who brought you the Sims: Spore.com

Sophie, for being Zoe’s Instant Friend

Ben, taking on two squirrelly four-year-olds

Unhei, for our lovely breakfast at Sweet Adeline

The cop on Market St, for Zoe’s “SFPD Junior Officer” sticker

Northwest Airlines, for thanking us for flying with them to Minneapolis-St Paul, “international headquarters of Northwest Airlines,” which only served to remind us that this will soon cease to be true.

Happy 4th! Completely unrelatedly, here’s the continuation of our travel tales… 

My cousin Ben works for a biotech company in the Bay Area. Like me, he grew up in Malaysia and like me, he married an American and settled here. Like me….uhm, that’s where the similarities end. For you see, Ben is a non-breeder. (But we love him anyway.)

Zoe and I spent two nights at Pui-Wing and Steve’s home, where art supplies cover the dining table and rubber princesses line the bath tub.

Then we packed our bags and headed to Ben and wife Unhei’s very sharp, very urban-style loft in Oakland.

“You’ll have to tell me what to do with kids,” said Ben, thoughtfully coming to get us in his wife’s sedan instead of his usual two-seater sports car.

We had Sophie along for the day, giving her mom time with the baby. Zoe and Sophie both thought this an excellent arrangement.

Ben and Unhei’s loft, atop a single-family home, was all dark wood and metal. In the middle was a moss-green couch accented with a red satin cushion. There were candles in the shower, candles in glass cylinders in the living room on shelves at shin-level. It was lovely. I of course kept a lookout for what Zoe might knock over.

We hopped on the BART and headed downtown. Sophie held Ben’s hand, Zoe held mine. We emerged on Market Street to crowds and police barricades. It was Gay Pride weekend.

We jumped on the cable car before the parade arrived, probably a lucky thing since I’m not sure I could adequately explain its theme to two curious four-year-olds. As the old, wooden street cars wobbled up the hill, the girls got on their knees, pushed their faces up against the windows, and yelled at the sights: “Pyramid tower! White fire hydrant! With a red top! Sparkly sidewalk! Pyramid tower again!”

First stop was Ghirardelli Square, with its pretty cobblestones and fountain. (more…)

A few days before we got on a plane to San Francisco, a note arrived in the mail for Zoe.

“See you Friday. From Sophie,” it said in childish print, interspersed with a heart and a flower.

Sophie is my friend Pui-Wing’s little girl. Though she and my daughter are both four, they’d never met. Unless you count the time they were in utero. The last photo I have with Pui-Wing shows us standing back to back, swollen bellies jutting out on either side, goofy smiles on our faces. We were both pregnant for the first time. We had no idea then how life was going to change.

We’d met in journalism school in New York and worked at the same paper in Asia before the convoluted paths of love and work moved her to San Francisco and me to Minneapolis.

Last weekend, our daughters finally met face to face.

Pui-Wing, home on maternity leave, was wrapped up in the haze of a new baby, each day an exercise in getting enough sleep. Zoe and I grabbed the chance to visit, our first big mother-daughter trip. I hoped the girls would get along.

I needn’t have worried.

For three days, Zoe and Sophie were stuck together like glue.

I think you’ll agree that this is a story best told in pictures.

The Sophie and Zoe show - curtain up!

Speaking the universal language of princesses.

Chocolate croissant fix in North Beach.

Off to the park….More tomorrow….

This will be the first year Ben will be old enough to appreciate the fireworks this 4th of July. Just wondering where Cribsheeters go to see the big displays with kids.

Any traditions? Parks with fun pre-works activities?

Secret spot? Pre-kid - we took my brother’s kids to see the fireworks in Edina off of Crosstown. Although it was far from the ideal grassy knoll with a blanket and a picnic basket our secret location was the top of the Southdale parking ramp by Dayton’s, Narshall Field’s  Macy’s. Sat on the hood of the mini van and it was an easy departure without traffic or hassle.

Do you have a secret spot to watch the works? Or are you not telling!?

Also - check out the supernifty interactive fireworks map here.

Be sure to wear…some flowers in your hair… Zoe and I have been warbling the only two lines we know of the 1960’s hit since we got home late yesterday.

Needless to say, the mother-daughter trip over the weekend was a big hit. Seeing San Francisco through my four-year-old’s wide eyes was such a treat and completely different from previous trips pre-children. We went straight for the high-impact activities: Cable cars! Aquarium! Double-decker bus tour! I didn’t step foot in a single store or museum and the closest I got to Napa or Sonoma was a glass of chardonnay on Fisherman’s Wharf after the aquarium.

Now we’re back, and despite this story in the paper today about the Strib’s financial woes, I appear to still have a job in the newsroom. (But does it mean there’s no money for me to open a San Francisco bureau??)

Oh, Cribsheeters, it was lovely. I’ll tell you about Zoe’s Bay Area adventures in the next few days, but first I have to get back to my day job. More soon.