Go North

We made it. We moved. We're here in the "San Francisco Bay Area," otherwise known as "the Bay." And presumably, some specific place within it will come to be known to us as "home."

A memorable holiday: we vacated our 1200-sf cottage in Pasadena on Tuesday, Dec. 23, and drove to San Luis Obispo to sleep, then pressed on to arrive midday Christmas Eve at our destination: Sunnyvale. Our beloved little SoCal home of 8 years-plus is to be put up for sale in a week or two. Here, we are in a corporate apartment amid office buildings and strip malls as we wait for our belongings to arrive at our rented 2100-sf Los Altos ranch. What we lose in charm we gain in square feet.

After dinner with friends in Los Gatos we slept in on Christmas and spent a late morning at the house tearing through our Christmas presents in the wide-open space, pre-decorated by my husband with a huge tree and lights. We ate chocolates and treats from our stockings. Then we got in the car and drove up to San Francisco, scavenging, and found a busy, most importantly, open, Vietnamese restaurant. Christmas pho should be an annual tradition for sure. The kids wore their new headlamps as we walked along the waterfront to Ghirardhelli Square, beautiful and bustling with a million tourists. Then a ride through North Beach to Union Square before heading back to Sunnyvale.

Day 1 as regular residents: explore. We headed to Menlo Park for a breakfast stroll. We found Stacks -- possibly the most kid-friendly restaurant in the area. Stroke of luck! Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse pancakes? Chocolate chip oatmeal? Score! The kids loved it; we strolled the cute main street -- Santa Cruz Ave -- and played on the carved fallen tree in Fremont Park amid the beautiful Cedars. Spotted more than a few classic convertible cars, which makes the boys happy.

Fortunately, we like exploring. I mean, headlamps! When you move, it turns out, you get to do quite a lot of it. We'll find our people, our places, our pancakes and pho, accessible routes to the City. If we can ALSO figure out how to send our kids to school, we'll be just fine.