VANESSA HUA – Orinda – 2014

Daylight Savings began on March 9, which also coincided with the season opener of Sunday Streets. The festival rotates among various San Francisco neighborhoods, and that day, organizers shut down a 3-mile stretch of Embarcadero for families to stroll and cycle to free music and entertainment. With our toddler twins napping at midday, Daylight Savings pushed back their sleep by an hour, providing what felt like bonus time to frolic (though bedtime that night and for weeks to come was a disaster.)

A year ago, we’d attended that Sunday Streets season opener, in the same neighborhood and also at the start of Daylight Savings, suffusing the event with the same sense of bonus. I reflected on all that had changed. In 2013, we pushed our boys around in a stroller and watched older children cruise by on glide bikes and scooters. In a year, the twins have become whizzes on the scooter, ever more coordinated, ever more grown up. A new playground also opened since then, across the street from the Ferry Building, where the twins teetered on ropes and raced down the slide before we met up with another family for burgers, beers, and sunshine.