For Christmas last year, our present to my parents (from Michael, Sarah, Matthews, and Xandria) was airfare to California for all of us to celebrate their 70th birthdays in 2026. In the middle of the month, we finally got to make that trip a reality. We spent 10 days in the Bay Area eating great food, having plenty of wine, and enjoying some beautiful weather.

Our NJ crew flew out and spent four days in San Francisco; then Matthews and X joined us, and we took our traveling circus up to Sonoma to enjoy wine country.

In San Francisco we stayed at the great Argonaut Hotel. We were fairly limited in how far we could walk (thanks to my recovering Achilles and our two little ones), but we were good tourists and saw the nearby landmarks: Ghirardelli Square, Fisherman’s Wharf, and the Cable Car Museum, which was very cool. We had lunch in Berkeley while watching the Valkyries start the WNBA Finals with a win. We spent a beautiful afternoon in the Presidio, where we all took turns wrangling Harvey. I think the highlights were our tour of Oracle Park and taking the ferry for an afternoon in Sausalito.

The drive from San Francisco to Sonoma, and the change of scenery, was beautiful. We stayed in a great house in the hills, minutes from Sonoma Plaza. In our week there, we went to three vineyards (two in Napa, one in Sonoma), went to see the redwoods, and explored the area. We had some great wine, ate a lot of good food, and enjoyed relaxing as a family in a way we haven’t in a very long time.

Outside of the actual travel, it felt like we spent the first part of the month getting ready for the trip and the last week recovering from it, but we did fit some other things in:

• Halloween was fun, and we did our first real trick-or-treating with Harvey. Our theme was The Very Hungry Caterpillar: Florence was the caterpillar, Harvey was the butterfly, and Sarah and I were some of the foods the caterpillar ate through the week (if you’re familiar with the story).
• We took family photos, which readers of this blog will be receiving in the mail later this year.
• We tried a new pancake place in town with friends.
• Sarah’s first boss at Ansell, who has become a friend, visited with his wife and met Florence for the first time.
• Speaking of Ansell, Sarah is getting ready for the end of her maternity leave. She went into the office to see some out-of-town guests.
• Harvey got a haircut.
• Physical therapy and Achilles recovery continue…

There are way too many photos to add here, but here’s a selection of our favorites: