San Francisco
We drove into San Francisco on Sunday evening after a wonderful time in Yosemite. It was an uneventful trip until we got closer to Oakland, where we hit some traffic. Eventually, we made our way across the San Francisco Bay Bridge into foggy, chilly 56F downtown. It was a bit of a shock to us, after being at Yosemite where our car thermometer told us it was 102. We didn't have much trouble finding our hotel, the Monticello Inn on Union Square. It was a great hotel, reasonably priced, convenient to the convention center, with a complimentary wine tasting every afternoon in the lobby, and a very friendly, helpful staff. We'd recommend the hotel to anyone going to San Francisco. After returning our rental car and walking around a bit, we settled in for a good night's sleep.
Monday morning we were up early to get started on some pre-show preparations. We went to San Francisco to work at MEPIS' booth at the LinuxWorld Trade Show, which ran Tuesday - Thursday. It was great meeting all kinds of Linux users and some MEPIS fans, and getting some free stuff. Unfortunately, we were both so worn out at the end of each day that we didn't have much energy to explore the city. On Monday night, we went to Gordon Biersch with Matt's cousin Mark and his wife Rachel, who live in San Francisco. The brewpub is in the Embarcadero with a fantastic view of the Bay Bridge. We sampled some great cuisine and beverages, including garlic fries and artichoke.
We were up early Friday morning to get a real breakfast - the first chance we had to have a leisurely breakfast since Sunday - and get packed and ready to meet Elizabeth, our friend from D&E. Elizabeth is living in San Anselmo, which is across the Golden Gate Bridge, while she's in seminary. She came into the city to pick us up, and partake in a little "big city" shopping (Tiffany, anyone?). Elizabeth then took us sight seeing in the city, which included a trip down Lombard Street and up Telegraph Hill. We also went to a park where we could get some good pictures of the Golden Gate just as the fog was rolling in.
Then we headed to San Anselmo, where we would later be joined by another friend from D&E, Kara, and Elizabeth's friend, Sarah. We decided to cook dinner at Elizabeth's apartment, which consisted of grilled kabobs (beef for Sarah and Matt, veggie for Kara, Elizabeth and me), crusty French bread, and, of course, a few bottles of wine!
Later that evening, we headed to our new hotel, an inn in San Rafael called the Panama Hotel. It was a very neat place to stay - we had a bathtub in the middle of our bedroom! Off to bed, for tomorrow is Wine Country!