A couple of Maile’s classmates were having a birthday party up in Point Reyes on Saturday. Its about an hour and half drive from the city, so I found a little cottage on Airbnb and we decided to make a weekend out of it. We drove up on Friday and came back Sunday AM. In between we had a fun visit to a part of the Bay Area that I’d never been to before.

The girls have been on a big Totoro kick lately so they were thrilled when we arrived at the cottage and it resembled the house in the story set way back in the woods as it was...