Brittany and the Bay

Last weekend was a gift.

 For the first time since Will was born, I travelled out-of-town without my boys.

Clay took care of Will for 3.5 whole days so I could go see my sister before she graduates from Berkeley's Haas School of Business. And boy did we have a good time.

 On Friday, I watched as my sister chaired a HUGE and impressive Global Social Venture Capitalism Competition. I sat in the audience all day long and kept. feeling. inspired.

It was glorious.

 I learned so much about business, about social ventures, about the type of work my sister has been doing and wants to focus on more as her career continues. I learned what a successful "pitch" looks and sounds like, what "scale" means, and that taking business risks are more encouraged than playing it safe. And I learned that I LOVE San Francisco and the entire Bay area. GORGEOUS.

 Brittany and Phil were amazing hosts and took so much time out of their busy weekends to give me the grand tours of Berkeley and the San Francisco area. 

 We walked around the Palace of Fine Arts...

 How cute are they?

 Phil drove us down Lombard St....

 We had dinner and drinks at the INSANE home of one of the Haas professors 

(the picture below was taken on one of her four balconies).

 And then we went for a hike that was super fun

even though it was super foggy and we later got poison oak

 Again, LOVE these two.

 I have decided that if I hit the lottery, I am having surgery to ensure that my right eye stays open in pictures from now on. What is up with my right eye???

 The pout picture

 Pretty sure this is where we picked up the poison oak...

 ...but we also found this awesome tree...

 Totally unprovoked :-), Brittany decided to swim on the tree

I find the following series of pictures to be funny

 And this picture makes me happy:

 We toured Sausalito and Tiburon

And while I was so excited to take the red-eye back on Sunday night to see my boys Monday morning, I have to admit I *might* have shed a tear or two in the SF airport thinking of how much I love being with my sister, how proud of her I am, and how much I hate living so far away from her. It's funny: when we were growing up, we wanted space space space from each other. And now that we have space space space, all I want is to live next door to this cool chica. Yup, she's a good one.