Past Deadline

I'm actually a little behind on posting. It gets to be like a bad diary where the events are all out of order and the reader has no idea who did what when or where. I'm pretty linear, so this bugs me to no end.

Doug and the girls came in on Wednesday evening! Although I enjoyed my solo journey, I was tickled to see the three of them waiting for me on the arrivals curb at SFO. Poor Doug seemed squeezed out like a damp rag, Phoebe was clingy and upset, but Emma was a happy camper.

We drove to the Hilton San Francisco, where we would stay a night before heading to the Knight Fellowship Reunion. The hotel was pretty packed with folks bearing conference tags with NAMI on them--the National Association for Mental Illness. Not exactly what I wanted to think about after just arriving with my small children, but hopefully the gathering was geared toward aiding those with mental illness instead of those who are mentally ill gathering in one place.

I was still enamored with Valencia Street, so I convinced Doug to drive down Valencia on our way to Palo Alto for the Knight Fellowship reunion in Palo Alto. We stopped at 826 Valencia, a non-profit center devoted to promoting literacy. Created by hipster author/editor, Dave Eggers and educator Nineve Calegari, there are six other "826" hubs in various cities.

Each station has a fun theme. 826 Valencia is a Pirate Supply! Em and I spent a lot of time in there reading the cool signage and knick-knacks on display. She even got to hunt for a jewel in a sand bin, which she had to "barter" for. She could tell a joke, sing a song or draw a picture. This is the joke she chose to tell: "What's brown and sticky?"

"A stick."

Here are a few pictures from our visit:

I love having a fun place in which to engage kids. Emma's class went to the 826 in Seattle , but unfortunately Emma was sick that day so we weren't able to go. We decided we definitely needed to visit our local shop when we got back.