Pining for the Fjords

On Part 1 of the blog, Mom, Chris, and I arrived in San Francisco, ready to start our celebration of her upcoming 70th birthday!   Mom and I posing with the lobby decorations at the Marriott Marquis Unsurprisingly, I didn't sleep well our first night on the trip, even though our room at the Marriott Marquis was comfy, and the noise was minimal (our hotel was huge and hosted several events while we were there, including a formal ball on Saturday night - I heard everyone coming back to their rooms around 1am when it closed up shop).  Once Chris was also awake, the two of us headed out to Mazarine Coffee for caffeine options (amazing coffee, just meh chai), then to  Sears Fine Food , close to Union Square, for breakfast.   One of the many painted hearts around the city Sears is a San Francisco institution, having been open since 1938, and the decorations on the walls reflect that: Original FDR campaign and Louis/Schmeling fight posters While I ordered the blueberry pancakes, Chris w

As mentioned in the December entry of the " Happy Holidays " blog post, Chris and I were lucky enough to head to northern California a few weeks ago with my Mom, Gwen.  Many of you probably know that I'm a "birthmas" baby - born on the 23rd - but so is my Mom (on the 17th), and this would be one of those milestone celebrations for her - the big 7-0!  We wanted it to be extra special (for her 60th birthday , all of us, including my brother Jim and sister-in-law Leigh headed south to Puerto Rico , which was incredible), and when we asked her to think about what she'd like to do, she mentioned that she's always wanted to see the famous Napa Wine Country.  Napa it would be! Ta da!  Time for wine! Like many visitors to Napa, we flew in through San Francisco; not only is San Fran just an hour or so away from Napa by car, but it also allowed us to spend time in one of our favorite cities in the world.  Chris and I have visited the City by the Bay during many

Greetings, everyone!  We hope you're having the happiest, loveliest, most merry of holiday seasons!  The effort to save the trees by creating a holiday blog instead of sending out a holiday card seemed decently well received last year , so here we go again! From our household to yours - happy holidays, all! Like last year, we've rounded up a few notable photos and events from each month; many of these are described in more detail in other blog posts, and if so, I've linked to those in each section. January 2023 In what I would imagine is common for many folks, during January, we stayed close to home, recovering from the 2022 holiday season (we hosted Amy's Mom for her birthday, Amy's Dad and his wife Risa for Christmas, and had a wonderful time celebrating with friends and family).  We ate at some great spots , hung out on our back porch and enjoyed the amazing Phoenix weather, and visited some local attractions, including the Japanese Friendship Garden  for their