remember this about san francisco

if you look for perfection, you'll never be content.

- anna karinina

i don't like doing things halfway or a little less than perfect. in my perfect world, i wouldn't be so, so behind on preserving all these memories in our little family. but alas, i am way behind. i'm going against my inner perfectionist and jumping in with the rest of our mediocre iphone photos so i don't forget this magical summer that we fell in love with beautiful, foggy, expensive san francisco. 

here's what i want my girls to remember...

i want them to remember the beautiful chapel on a hill we went to each sunday

...and the crazy parking situation.

 
 
i want them to remember our relaxed days of nowhere to be, and especially the day we meandered down every secret pathway at the palace of fine arts.

 i want them to remember all the time we spent with aunt madi. she was always down for an adventure.

 i want them to remember that we played with amazon boxes, ikea toys, and puzzles all summer. sage put together every puzzle we had multiple times a day.

i want them to remember that we visited every garden in san francisco. the japanese tea garden, the botanical garden...you name it, we walked in it. 

 i want them to remember our daily walks through south of market to the embarcadero, past dad's office (where he'd come out on the deck and wave to us), then on to the ferry building.

but also remember the times we stopped at dad's office for breakfast, or lunch,
or just to take pictures in the photo booth (did i mention we love google?).

 i want them to remember our rooftop garden where we could see the whole city, if the fog (did you know he has a name?) wasn't around that day.

 i want them to remember that this was the summer of PURSES for sage. without fail, madi would tie a knot in her purse strap and let sage wear it all day. even with a broken leg, sage insisted on carrying a purse on all our outings.

 i want them to remember all the concerts, circus shows, museum events, and movie nights. if anything had "free" in front of it, we were there--and we didn't even do half the free things in this city!

 i want them to remember our day trip to santa cruz. it wasn't a very warm beach day, but we still played in the sand and rode the carousel. sand became nora's favorite food group.

i want them to remember our little trips down to half moon bay. we went to the wrong beach during low tide one time, and by the time we found our friends at the right beach, everyone was crying and muddy. we stopped at in 'n out on the way home to make things better.

 i want them to remember that this summer was when nora and sage really learned to play together--tea parties and box rides, baths together and stories in bed.

 i want them to remember that we lived a few blocks from the flower market. we'd see people walking out of an alley with armfuls of gorgeous bouquets, so one day we peeked into the alley and found this waiting for us.

i want them to remember that sage lived for free balloons from nordstrom, and that the girls took lots and lots of stroller naps.

 i want them to remember the oakland athletics game with the lindes in box seats.

i want them to remember our funky kitchen stools...and that sage fell asleep at dinner multiple times. we wore her out.

i want them to remember all the cool playgrounds that we only got to explore in our last week when sage could walk again.

 i want them to remember our beach days, even though most were windy and foggy!

 i want them to remember our perfect day down on the peninsula. we visited my cousin and her new baby, then went to happy hollow and the los altos farmer's market with the bauman girls. gorgeous weather, the juiciest fresh strawberries, music floating through the market, and fun friends.

 i want them to remember our farewell san francisco dinner at le charm. we had the patio mostly to ourselves, and it's always a good idea to end on french food.

and i want them to remember our funky loft. the decor was a mix between naturalist and buddhist, there were no doors, the flooring was iron mesh, and we were the only unit that had a sun room with roof access. sage slept on an inflatable toddler bed, nora in a pack 'n play, all just inches from our bed. also, remember that i was stressed out the entire summer about keeping those 14 plants alive, but mainly that gigantic ficus tree.

and if my girls remember nothing else, i hope they remember that there was a lot of love that summer in san francisco.