Last month my youngest sibling, my baby sister with whom I’m closest of all of my siblings, spent a week with us. We had so much fun — riding bikes, scampering from wine-tasting to wine-tasting up and down the Napa Valley, to hiking the Tower at Lagoon Valley, and walking the dogs & catching up.

On Monday my husband’s oldest sister, her husband and their daughter-in-law landed. We toured Old Sacramento ( they’re recreationists and love history), spent time at V. Sattui and St. Helena, explored Muir Woods & the Marin Headlands, spent several hours at the Heirloom Cafe with our son and his SO. Today we scuttled plans to drive to Drake’s Bay and hiked to the tower at Lagoon Valley and had a picnic lunch afterward. So low-key and so much fun.

The visits from family & friends this year have been so fun: we see our everyday scenery through new eyes, and sharing #NorCal with them is always gratifying and fun for us — we love their positive reactions, as well as our renewal of why we live here.

We love having family and friends stay with us — they are unfailingly helpful (we always appreciate the offer of payment or labor, whether or not we need it, and often take them up on their offers), aware of overstaying their welcome (only 1 person has taken advantage of our hospitality and overstayed her leave in our 17 years in #NorCal). And we love to take off work and revisit places we love, as well as exploring new places, with them. They’re agog with their first look at, say Muir Woods, and we’re happy to see those awesome redwood forests again.

This year has been so full — and it’s only June!