I procrastinated flying anywhere with my son until he was almost 3. There were so many things needed—a car seat! Stroller! In-flight entertainment! His own luggage! A crib when we landed!—that it felt like too much to coordinate. And who can blame me? It’s just parenting in a new location, after all, rather than a vacation.

Still, a trip we wanted to take finally presented itself. We booked a long weekend in San Francisco and the nearby wine country to see family and friends we haven’t seen since I was pregnant, and to relive a family tradition (though sans my grandmother, since she passed in 2020) for the first time