When Sister Came To Town

Hi Friend!

If you are not already aware, I want to fill you in on my relationship with my Baby Sister.

She is my best friend, my soul mate, my rock and she is pretty much the reason I am who I am in a lot of ways. We have been through pretty much everything we have collectively been through together - no one knows me the way she does, and no one knows her the way I do.

The other thing you must know is that 2014 is the first time in our 22 year long relationship that we have lived in separate places. Obviously we grew up together in our parents house - then we both moved out at the same time into our apartment in Edmonton. We moved back home for one summer together, then her, Marcus and I all moved out to Vancouver together in 2010. We lived together there for 3 years, then moved to Thailand as a bunch in 2013.

After Thailand Sam went back to Vancouver, while Marcus and I headed off to Montreal. It was cool for Marcus and I to live together on our own, but we both missed Sam so.so.much. We are truly three peas in a pod and without her life just isn't the same.

Being on opposite sides of the country also meant that we were in different time zones and travel to see one another was not very easy or inexpensive. So when Marcus and I found out we were moving to San Fran, we were pretty excited - not only because it meant San Francisco (hello California summer, good bye Canadian winter!) but it also meant we were just a hop skip and a jump away from dear baby sister.

Sammi waited all of about 3 weeks for us to get settled here before she booked her bum a ticket to come see us. Needless to say, I was pretty well counting down the minutes until she got here!

She arrived very late on a Sunday night, so I will spare you the crazy night time photos of that.

On our first day together we took Sam to go see the amazingness that is San Francisco's China Town:

I was only a little bit excited she was there

She could not believe her eyes when she saw all the produce. Her and Marcus got up to their usual silliness:

They were pretending it was our door. It was not.

Sam could not believe her eyes when she saw the durians. You see in Thailand she basically (not basically, just 100% actually) ate durian for at least 2 meals a day for the whole four months we were there. Then she moved back to Vancouver and has not had any durain while living there due to the poor selection and crazy price. The amount of durian here almost put her into a pleasure coma.

She came all the way to California to do that thing we always do in BC

She cold not understand how there was so much durian. She lives in a durian desert.

We then made a stop over at Davids Tea - this is a tradition of ours from our Vancouver Days.

She came all the way to California to do that thing we always do in BC. Classic.

For the rest of the week Marcus was at work so Sammi and I did a lot of walking around the city so she could see everything. She, being the artist that she is, was really impressed with the beautiful architecture of San Francisco and was obsessed with photographing it.

So many pictures of picture taking

So naturally, I, also an artist, decided it would be very artsy of me to take photos of her taking photos. Basically I am the creator of Inception meets some very famous photographer.

I am an artist at work here. Its a picture in a picture in a picture.

We made sure to get her to our local Whole Foods so that she could see the majesty of it, and all of its kombucha glory.

She mostly just came for the walls of kombucha

Marcus became tired of the constant photographing pretty well immediately. I was thinking that he was in for a loooooonnnnggg week of more of the same. This shit needed to be documented yo!

Why you can't take a nice picture for me guy?

Sammi and I were very good sports about all the pictures we were taking.

See, we can take a nice picture. It's easy!

I made sure to take Sammi to our local beach:

Beach babe

As well as to the crazy Ghirardeli Chocolate village. It was crazy. I had never been there before either, and I must say I have never seen so much chocolate in all of my life. Almost NONE of it was vegan. Sam was not all that impressed to be honest with you.

I was excited. She was not so sure

In the middle of the week Sammi and I trekked down town so that we could visit Marcus on his lunch break. Sam was telling me how she noticed a stark lack of wild life here in San Fran when compared to Vancouver. So naturally Marcus set out to prove her wrong! We have nature!

Proving to Sam there is some nature in our city

We then popped a squat and watched al the important business people grab sushi and what not on their important lunch breaks. We took important selfies.

Selfies are never obnoxious, right?

Also important yoga photos.

Token

After Marcus went back to work, Sammi and I continued to explore the ~~massive hills~~ town. Then she reminded me that we had not fed HER lunch yet, so we made a pit stop at Blue Barn so she could get a salad. I was trying to take a picture of her but she kept moving. So I made her laugh long enough for her to hold still so I could snap this gem:

FInally tricked her into laughing for the camera

Due to all of the walking, and lets face it, all of the 99% vertical hills around here, Sammi knew she needed to hydrate. So we pumped her full of green juice and coconut water:

She knew hydration was key

I took Sammi to Fillmore street to see all the cool shops. We had to climb a hill that was so steep the sidewalk had stairs built into it, but I feel it was worth it for the view. And for my awesome photography skills getting put to good use.