Ailana’s Journal—2026-08-25 (and Island Kids) (Patreon)

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GOOD MORNING by Ailana Geven Keller

Good morning from San Francisco. It’s our last day here—half-day, actually. Jason and Clay are blitzing several tourist areas this morning, trying to squeeze in as much as possible before we fly out around midday.

I’ve got two more stops of my own, so I’m starting with hotel coffee and one more look toward the Presidio. We were there Sunday, including Quartermaster Reach Marsh, and I’ve been thinking about it again this morning because it says something I really like about conservation.

A lot of people hear the word and imagine saving some dramatic wilderness far away. San Francisco reminds me that conservation can also mean looking underneath a city and asking what used to be there before streets, buildings and pavement covered so much of it.

The Presidio is a good example. Long before this was a famous city, much of this landscape was sand dunes, grassland, wetland and creek habitat. Urban development changed a lot of that, and in some places buried it altogether.

But restoration work has brought back pieces of what used to live here. That matters to me because it says we do not always have to choose between “completely untouched” and “completely lost.”

Quartermaster Reach Marsh and the broader restoration work around the Presidio show what that can look like. Water, native plants and habitat have been given room again.

Tennessee Hollow is another part of that story—an area where buried water and damaged habitat have been restored in ways that reconnect parts of the landscape to the Bay. It is not recreating the past exactly as it was. It is making room for nature to breathe inside a modern city.

I think that’s one of my favorite ideas from this trip. Muir Woods was about preserving something extraordinary that survived. The Presidio is about restoring something ordinary that nearly disappeared—and discovering that “ordinary” ecosystems are worth saving too.

Anyway... that’s one more San Francisco thought over coffee before I get moving. Two more stops, then airport, then home to South Padre Island later today.

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CANDLESTICK POINT by Ailana Geven Keller

We’re officially on the way to the airport now. Jasmine is with me taking the pictures, while Clay, Sasha, and Jason are squeezing in their own last looks at San Francisco. We’ll all meet at the rental-car return before heading into SFO.

We made one last stop at Candlestick Point State Recreation Area, on the southeastern edge of San Francisco in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood, right along San Francisco Bay. It’s a convenient little detour before continuing south toward the airport—but the reason I wanted to stop is the story behind the place.

This shoreline was not always somewhere people came to walk, fish, watch birds, or sit beside the Bay. After nearby Navy activity ended, parts of the area became dumping grounds and were treated like land nobody particularly wanted.

The people who lived nearby disagreed.

Bayview-Hunters Point residents spent years pushing for the shoreline to be reclaimed for public use. Their organizing helped turn neglected land into California’s first urban state recreation area. That makes this more than a pretty place beside the water. It’s also a reminder that conservation can begin with a community deciding that where they live deserves better.

Today there are trails, shoreline habitat, salt marsh, mudflats, places to picnic and fish, and habitat used by birds traveling the Pacific Flyway. Restoration work has continued around places such as Yosemite Slough, trying to repair some of what decades of industrial use damaged.

I like ending San Francisco here because it isn’t the Golden Gate Bridge or another postcard landmark. It’s a place people looked at and said, essentially, “No. This doesn’t have to stay this way.”

Sometimes helping the environment means protecting something beautiful before we lose it. Sometimes it means taking responsibility for a place we already damaged and deciding to make it better.

And now we really do have to go. Next stop: SFO. After that... Texas.

ON TRACK by Josh Ryan

By now, you can guess the adoption process for Kel’s half-sister, Aria, is proceeding at full steam. And things are going well—I’ll share a few details.

Last Thursday, we had a video call for Kel and Aria to meet each other. Over the weekend, we went to Fort Worth for our first in-person meeting and then spent a lot of time with her. The point was to find out how Aria felt about trying things out as part of this family. She wants to try it.

Yesterday and today, Aria’s caseworker and Kel’s caseworker have been interviewing everyone individually. The caseworkers have some reports to file, but we’re on track. The current plan is to go back to Fort Worth on Friday with the intention of bringing Aria home with us on Saturday.

She’s a little quiet and seems to be holding back, but she has repeatedly said she wants a chance to try this. Kel has been instrumental in making her feel like she belongs.

Our plan to move… also on track.

The owner is willing to sell. You know I don’t like flexing money as a solution to problems. My mother, however, has no such qualms. She told Geoni that if our offer was declined, Mom would call him and “make an offer he couldn’t refuse.”

The wrinkle is timing. The current vacation renters check out today. We’re renting it from now until we can close on it. That will proceed at the pace of inspections, title work, paperwork, and all those real estate things I studied in college that bore me.

But the packers and movers come on Thursday. Since they’re moving everything next door… it should be easy.

At this point, I need to mention that the person who seems most excited about Aria’s adoption is Emily. She and Geoni have sat talking about it for literally hours. Emily and Geoni are going to set up Aria’s room with “the basics,” then be ready to help her turn it into her dream room.

Emily had that happen for her. She wants to pass the experience on to Aria.

And so do I.

Kel overcame his shock, by the way. He’s ready to be a brother to an 8-year-old.

Geoni and I are ready to parent them both.

GOOD NIGHT by Ailana Geven Keller

Hey friends—What is today? Tuesday, right?

Jason and Clay are claiming victory over the San Francisco content-acquisition quest. Sasha has reminded them that no such claim can be made until all of the article ideas are logged in the AGI Creative tracking spreadsheet.

Clay replied that he put all the notes in a folder and Josh could take it from there. Sasha reminded him that Josh was busy with the adoption processes for both Kel and now Aria, and she suggested—strongly—that it would be a nice gesture if he and Jason filled in the spreadsheet.

Clay said he’d retract his victory claim until such time.

Meanwhile Naomi…

Jasmine reported that we have a box of hair devices waiting for us when we return—dryers, curling irons, flat irons, brushes, combs, and picks. Naomi said she doesn’t have any new models this week, so that makes it a little easier. A campaign overview and shot list are waiting for me in my email inbox.

Jasmine, however, didn’t ignore it. “We’ve got to find a location to shoot a bathroom. Maybe several locations…”

Since I’m at 30,000 feet or something, I’m sticking with my plan to ignore the email until tomorrow.

I hope the San Francisco trip kind of fulfilled the AGI mission for you… Entertain… Inform… Inspire…

I know I learned a lot! Let me know if trips like this appeal to you. We’ll have to look at the budget to see whether the cost can be covered by article sales, but I think this kind of trip might have a place in the future!

May you grow attentive to the world, its people, and its needs. May you learn ways that you can contribute to making things better, both for the planet and also for the people who call it home.

Good night.

Be your best you!

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