I left my HEART in San Francisco

My beautiful mother passed away eleven days ago. It was five months earlier than we expected but she held on for my dad's 64th birthday and my parents 38th wedding anniversary. The next morning on June 18th she passed away quick and peacefully. It has been devastating, shocking, sad, and bittersweet but we all knew her time with us was going to be short anyway and whether she lived 1 week, 1 month or 1 year it still would have been too soon. We are mostly thankful that the good Lord took her before she had to really suffer and be incapable of caring for herself. I will miss her everyday for the rest of my life and on days when the clouds are really gorgeous (and they have been a lot lately) I look up at the Heavens and know she has painted them that way for me.

Paul and I had planned a trip to San Francisco several months ago. We weren't sure if we were going to make it because of my mom but since she passed away we decided it would be especially important to get out of town for a few days to decompress and be together, just the two of us, one last time before London graces us with her presence.

I LOVE San Francisco. I always have and always will. And, what I realized this past weekend is that a piece of my heart has been left there just like Tony Bennett sang it way back in 1954. Paul and I took off last Thursday morning and other than stopping for a quick potty break :-) made great time into the city. We made our first stop at the Jewelry Center to have our wedding rings cleaned and checked. I also now have two beautiful new rings. One is a vintage platinum and diamond ring that was my grandmothers and the other is a yellow gold and diamond 20 year anniversary ring that was my mom's. Niether of them had seen a cleaner and polisher in years and my grandmothers ring had actually been cut off her finger so it had a gap in the back. Needless to say, I was looking forward to seeing both of the rings in all their glory again. After we dropped off the rings we headed over to the SF Ferry Building based on a recommendation by a good friend who recently visited. We loved it and had a great time shopping around, soaking up the usual SF quirkiness and having lunch. Then we checked into our hotel... we stayed at the W which was very funky and cool and they gave us a great room with a beautiful view of the city. After a nap we prepped for dinner at XYZ downstairs at our hotel. Following a yummy dinner we headed to the San Francisco Opera to see The Girl from the Golden West which we had won tickets to at a Weimaraner Gala we went to last November. The opera house was absolutley beautiful inside. If the chairs had not been so uncomfortable and I had not been 8+ months pregnant we would have stayed the whole time but after about an hour and a half we left at the first intermission. Which, by the way, there were two intermissions and in total the night would have been 4 hours long. Not really my thing but glad I did it anyway. We ended the the evening with a nightcap and dessert at the hotel bar. It was a great day.

The next morning on Friday I woke up early and cracked the shutters open in our room. I got back in bed and stared out the window at the cityscape. It had been one week since my moms passing. As I looked out the window though I thought about San Francisco and all the great memories I had there with my family over the past 28 years of my life. I remember fieldtrips to the Exploratorium and Natural History Museum when I was in elementary school. My mom always volunteered to be a parent driver for those fun trips and I loved it. I remember visiting Haight and Ashbury with my parents on multiple occassions because their friends daughter owned a funky hair salon there. We would get our hair done, do some people watching and usually go to dinner at this great restaurant in Ghiradelli Square that is no longer in business. It had a beautiful view of the wharf and they were famous for this fry bread rubbed in garlic that was out of this world. I also remember walking the Golden Gate Bridge with our Japanese foreign exchange students who stayed with us three summers while I was in elementary and middle school. I remember sailing on my parents friends sailboat in the bay on the fourth of July and watching the fireworks over the Golden Gate. And, I also remember an overnight girls trip we took a few years back with one of my best friends and her mom. We shopped and ate and shopped and ate and had a really wonderful time just bonding and being women. The last time I visited SF was with Paul and my parents back in October for my birthday. My mom and I have always had this interest in Egypt and the pyramids so when the King Tut exhibit came to the DeYoung Museum we got tickets and made it a birthday trip for me. It was a fabulous time topped off with a delicious dinner at Skates on the Bay in Berkley, a family fave. These are just some of the many wonderful memories I have of San Francisco. And, as I layed in bed reminiscing I couldn't help but smile and think of all the joyful times my mom and I had the opportunity to share. Everytime I vist SF I will think of her and those great memories and for that reason alone I know I have left a piece of my heart in San Francisco...and, she left a piece of hers there too.

Friday began with breakfast at this fabulous restaurant called The Grove right near our hotel. Afterwards, we headed over and picked up our rings at the Jewelry Center. They looked amazing. My mom and grandmothers rings looked especially gorgeous and I look forward to wearing them when the swelling in my hands goes away. From there we made the drive to Berkley and shopped on 4th Avenue and then followed that up with lunch at Skates on the Bay. We had a window seat overlooking the water and it was really wonderful. After lunch we headed back to our room so I could rest my weary feet. We took a nap, rented a movie and ate junk food in bed. It was perfect. For dinner we took the recommendation of our concierge and ate at a small neighborhood restuarant in SOMA. It was called La Bricciola and it was Italian. Good, authentic Italian where everything is made from scratch...even our waiter was Italian and spoke words of it in between his English. Our dinner was divine and the perfect ending to a wonderful weekend away.

On Saturday we woke up and headed out of the city. We had an absolutely fabulous trip. It was a good time to clear our heads, be together, remember my mom, and look forward to the new chapter in our lives that is about to begin.