Love is a Treasure, strange but true

Sorry for the 11-day gap between blog posts. I was on vacation.
Only, it was more than a vacation: I returned "home" to the Bay Area with my family in tow.
It was a trip with enormous significance for me. Our two girls get to see where my wife Jill grew up -- the Dubuque, Iowa area -- every day. The last time they saw where I grew up, we were pushing now-7-year-old Annika around in a stroller.
We stayed with my sister in San Francisco and my mom in Reno, Nev. and we lived like locals. We rode buses, shopped in Chinese produce stores, toured Lake Tahoe by boat, took a Muni Metro train to a Giants' game and ate burritos at the beach on Father's Day.
The girls fell in love with San Francisco. They welcomed the diversity. They appreciated the unique beauty.
We only did two "touristy" things: We walked across the Golden Gate Bridge and briefly strolled through Chinatown.
Throughout our travels, Freddie McKay's rocksteady song "Love is a Treasure" played through the speakers of our rental car and in my head as we walked.
McKay's song about love, "strange but true" struck me as appropriate for my relationship with the Bay Area. I have lived away from it since 1989, but it remains the only place that can pull me back like a magnet. Strange but true.