this new adventure

My parents moved to San Francisco last weekend. It all happened pretty quickly - the move wasn't even on the radar a few months ago - but now they're here, settling into an apartment near Dolores Park. On Friday, I drove up for a lovely dinner fixed by my mother. Afterwards, we curled up on the couch to watch Manhattan. In the morning, my mother and I woke up early and walked to Tartine for coffee and pastries (we shared a delicious, sugar sprinkled morning bun). It was a gorgeous sunny day so we spent most of it ambling around the neighborhood, checking out a few open houses, walking through Duboce Park, getting scoops of ice cream at Bi-Right, and day-dreaming about all the things we'll be able to do now that we're all in the same place. In the evening, Daniel came over and we all went for dinner at Heirloom. I love that my parents are diving into this new adventure with such gusto.

My weekend visit reminded me of the very best and the very worst parts of living in the city. There's the wonderful food, the Victorian apartments, the people watching, the window shopping and the general liveliness of the city. There's also the nightmare of parking, the sky-high rents, the trash in the streets, and the screaming of sirens at 3am. I'm feeling particularly aware of all of these things because I've given up my lease at Stanford and am about to embark upon an apartment search of my own. March is going to be an interesting month.

I'm headed to Joshua Tree tomorrow for a couple of days. Should be fun and I'm hoping for good weather so I can take a few pictures. Back soon.