Fun in the sun

1. Enjoying the sun, 2. Daddy's girl, 3. Salted caramel soft-serve, 4. Picnic with Rachael!

It was one of those perfect days- we gave in to the lure of the city and took a drive up to San Francisco again yesterday to meet up with our old friend Rachael for a picnic in Dolores Park. The weather was gorgeous-- all sunshine, cool breeze, and blue skies-- and hanging out with Rachael made it even more awesome :) She lives in Oakland, just north of San Francisco, and knew just where to take us to grab some yummy grub for our picnic. Bi Rite Market is just the sort of place I'd move in and stay forever- fresh produce, an amazing array of deli and fresh meats, cheeses, handcrafted sandwiches, thoughtfully prepared foods all crammed into a small homey unit. Armed with a couple of Vietnamese sandwiches, some cherries, potato salad, and a mozzarella and sundried tomato salad, we trooped over to Dolores Park across the street and pretty much sat in the sun for close to two hours. While we caught up with Rachael, Sophie had a field day crawling everywhere, gate-crashing various other picnickers' blankets, smiling openly at complete strangers, and stuffing her little face full of whatever grass she could grab. She was just about the happiest little camper around :)

So much so that she completely passed out in the Ergo carrier when we walked around the Mission District after. Bellies full with lunch and delicious soft-serve ice-cream from the Bi Rite Creamery (salted caramel to be exact), we hopped in and out of a whole host of place you'd only find in a big city- a "pirate shop" (which is really a front for 826 Valencia, Dave Eggers' writing center for teens), a curiosities shop for little kids, and several vintage and used bookstores.

Apart from Singapore being home and us having spent so much time in Chicago, we've lived in few other cities. San Francisco is very different from either of them (and also very different from New York where we've only been a couple of times)- more eclectic, quirkier, and kookier, I want to say. We'll have more opportunities to see more of the city than the Valencia/Guerrero/18th area that we seem to keep going back to, and we're looking forward to that in so many ways :)