After Mike & Moira’s fabulous wedding, Michael and I stayed for another week to enjoy the place where we first lived as a married couple and our favorite city in America – maybe the world – San Francisco. Michael was able to work out of the local Jones Day offices so it made it easy for us to stay an extra week, and even though he was working, we packed the social calendar as well.

We were thankful for the generosity of our friends, the Wendts, who hosted us in their guest-quarters in the Presidio from Sunday through Wednesday – Culhane especially loved it.

I don’t have pictures of everything we did but here is some of our itinerary. Sunday we went to our old church – City Church – with Michael’s parents and grabbed lunch afterwards with some friends. Sunday evening we went to our old favorite pizza spot, Paxtis, for some serious deep dish with Matty, Jon, and my dear friend Katie who lives in SF. During the week, Michael enjoyed morning runs in the Presidio and on Monday morning he did his old favorite – Lyon St. Steps – with Jon and Chambo.

Monday night the amazing Rector family hosted us for a fabulous dinner, as always. Tuesday I got to meet Katie for lunch at my old favorite taco spot – Tacko.

Tuesday night we met up with a group of old SF friends. None of us had babies when Michael and I lived in SF and now there are 4 babies within 9 months of each other!Wednesday we were so excited to go visit Connor and Tara Lundy and meet their new little Isabelle who is adorable – I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture that evening!

Thursday, we headed south to the charming city of Campbell where Mike & Moira recently moved into a sweet new condo that they bought. It was really fun getting to see their town and their place and just to get to see them a little bit more. We had a fabulous dinner at their favorite Greek spot, Opa! and absolutely cherished our time with them Thursday and Friday. Saturday, Culhane woke us up with the news that his second tooth had broken through! Yay!

That morning, on our way to Napa for the weekend, we stopped in San Francisco at Cafe Des Amis for a brunch with my dear São Paulo friend, Paige, and her friends and family. She was in San Francisco that week celebrating her birthday and we loved getting to see her and Mailey Jane.  We arrived in Napa on Saturday afternoon just in time to go straight to Cliff Lede for a tasting. Cliff Lede is the vineyard associated with the amazing Poetry Inn, where we stayed on our honeymoon, so it is a special spot to us.
Below is a picture of us in the same spot almost 4 years ago!
More at Cliff Lede: That night we decided to try a new restaurant – R+D in Yountville and loved it!

Sunday was full of favorites. We spent almost the entire day at our favorite vineyard, Frog’s Leap. We first visited Frog’s Leap on our honeymoon and have been back at least 5 times. It’s a special place with fantastic wine, and something about it feels a little like home.
That evening we drove around, admiring the beauty that is the Napa Valley region.

Sunday night we dined at our favorite restaurant in the world — Michael Chiarello’s Bottega, and once again, the food and atmosphere totally lived up to our memories. Colt was a little all over the place during dinner – everywhere from sitting in a chair on a bumbo seat to on a blanket with toys under the table, but thankfully everyone was super nice about it.

The next morning we headed back to the airport for our flight home. We flew through Chicago and while the first leg was a little rough, it was only 3 1/2 hours and the overnight flight was much better – Culhane sleeping around 6 hours. Lucky #20 (as in, that was his TWENTIETH flight – bless his heart)!

All in all, the trip was fantastic. It felt so good to be back in a place that is so fun, beautiful and special to us, surrounded by people who we adore. It was also really neat to be able to bring Culhane with us and introduce him to more of our friends and show him the Bay Area! That being said, it was also a little tough. Teething, traveling and a 5 hour time-change are a lot to handle all at once. And, to exacerbate things, we never really sat still – we went out for almost every meal, and I was dragging Culhane around the city running errands all through the weekdays. He’s a champ though and it was totally worth it – absolutely LOVED our time back in the Bay!

Michael and I had been looking forward to Mike & Moira’s wedding for a long time. They are dear friends and Culhane’s godparents, so it was very special to be there for their big day and share in the celebration of their love and joy.

We packed up and headed to the airport Wednesday night (Feb 19) so that we would get in on Thursday in plenty of time to get settled and be ready to participate in all wedding festivities. Culhane had been particularly difficult and fussy in the days leading up to the trip and I was pretty sure that he was teething — the timing was right and all of the symptoms were there (although he never got a fever or anything) — but you never know for sure if that’s what’s happening because most of the pain occurs while the teeth are moving up – before they necessarily break through the gums and you can see them. Anyway, due to all of this I was nervous about the flights, and sure enough our overnight flight was BRUTAL. Colt was never able to sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time and I think that of the 10 hours, he was probably upset or crying for 7 of them. Thankfully the flight was pretty empty so I was never feeling too guilty for the sake of the other passengers (plus I’m pretty over that at this point). We’ve had so many easy flights in the past though that I guess we were due for a bad one — unlucky #17. We flew through DC and Culhane was the only one smiling when we got there. We had a quick stop and then took to our second flight where, thankfully, he slept for the first 3 hours and then was pretty easy the last couple. Also we were able to bring our carseat onto both flights which was huge.

Even though our second flight had been better, when we landed in San Francisco Michael and I both felt (and looked) like we had just been run over. But, as we drove into San Francisco it felt so amazing to be back in our favorite city so we rallied and decided to go directly to our favorite brunch spot near our old apartment — Serpentine.

Colt gave us a break and slept through our brunch and after the amazing food and coffee, we felt refreshed and reenergized. After brunch we drove around our old neighborhood and marveled at all of the new construction in the area. Then we drove down the Embarcadero, past the Ferry Building, and finally up to the Presidio where we checked in at the fabulous Inn at the Presidio. We got settled and then cozied up at the Inn’s patio / fire-pit for some delish wine & cheese with the bride, groom and some friends.

The next morning Colt was excited to make lots of new friends and also see his Nana & Papa Harper who flew in for the weekend to help!

Jon Lennon – an unexpected natural.The guys spent most of Friday on the golf course enjoying the beautiful weather.
The Rehearsal Dinner Friday night was held at Park Tavern and Mike & Mo even had caipirinhas on the menu! After an evening of great food and lovely toasts to the happy couple, we went out for more fun and drinks at Savoy Tivoli.On Saturday — the morning of the big day — we awoke to Culhane’s first tooth popping through! We had been pretty confident that he was teething and started to see white on Friday, but Saturday is the day that it finally came through!

That morning, Michael and his dad took off early to set up the “Best Man Bar at Baker Beach” for the “Baker Beach Bro Bomb with the Bridegroom.” Although the water was, of course, freezing for the plunge, the day was about as beautiful as it could have been and the guys had a great time being idiots.  Saturday evening we all gathered at the Chapel of our Lady for an absolutely beautiful wedding ceremony. I wish I could say that I totally enjoyed it, but I was actually pretty nervous the whole time as Mike & Moira had kindly decided to have Culhane act as the Ring Bearer. Originally this was to be in-writing only and he wasn’t even going to go to the service, but Moira decided that it would be fun to have him come up during the blessing of the rings. I thought that it was an adorable idea but of course I was terrified that he would scream and I would have the baby who ruined the wedding. Thankfully Mike and Moira are pretty laid back and Culhane was pretty good so we all survived. And Colt loved showing off the tuxedo that his godparents had given him!
The beautiful, happy couple!
After the wedding, an awesome bag-piper led the guests from the ceremony to the reception at the Golden Gate Club.
The dinner was delicious and the reception was tons of fun, but Michael (and I) couldn’t fully enjoy it until after dessert when he gave his Best Man toast. He captivated the crowd for a solid 12 1/2 minutes, recounting funny memories and sharing his adoration for Mike & Mo.  Once that was over, we loosened up a little and reeeally started to enjoy the party.  I don’t have any pictures of the after-party at the bowling alley but suffice it to say that the night and the entire weekend was perfect. Thank you for including us!!

Up Next: Part 2 of our trip – SF, Campbell and Napa!