The San Francisco Treat

Wow! It seems like I have been away from home for a year. On June 15th I headed out to the city by the bay for my first visit. The weather was gorgeous and so were the men. It was a great escape from the triple digit heat of AZ. We (Aaron and I) stayed at The Mosser our first two nights and it was ideal. My first morning I arose and ran down to the pier for some beautiful jogging by the ocean. The plethora of vagrants served as slight challanges as I weaved my way around in the breazy ocean air. I was reminded of my brief stint in NYC where I would run on the Brooklyn Bridge every once and a while. Boy has life changed a lot since those days. I still have a pic of Kevin and me on the bridge. The Twin Towers stand behind us. It is a priceless pic and a memory of traveling with my brother that I will never forget. He recently had the opportunity of visiting NYC for Phoenix Youth At Risk again this year. We spent the week of the 17th on opposite coasts but managed to slip in some sarcasm via text.

The rest of the week we stayed at the Grand Hyatt where my experience was marred by an error on behalf of the maid staff. Once I checked in and headed into the room I decided to take a little nap before heading off to explore with Aaron. Big mistake! I had a 50% chance of not having this experience but no I chose bed #1 in my room rather than bed #2. Being a bit lazy (thank goodness in this case!) I decided to nap with my day clothes on. When I awoke I noticed a rather strong odor of Bengay. I threw back the sheets and smelled my clothes only to realize the maid did not change the bedding!! Uuuggh! My pants smelled like I had been riding in the lap of some 60 year old male fresh out of the gym. Heather and I often endure this awful scent at local 5k's where the older male runners come out in full force along with their essence of Bengay. My pants were ruined along with my faith in the maid staff. I should have known better after watching all of those 20/20 exposes on the perils of hotel rooms.

The BPMInstitute training was very informative and engaging. It was in fact the reason why I traveled to Frisco so I am glad that is met my expecations. You never know how these trainings are going to pan out. I met a really great gal that works at Texas Instruments who runs marathons as well. She has already sent me some great locations to consider next year.


Now for the fun part... Here are some pics from the trip!


Aaron using the ever so obsolete pay phone here in the remodeled booth in The Mosser Lobby











A lobby shot...Can you see me?














Fun at the Farmer's Market down at the pier...














Aaron & his phenom friends cooked me dinner and cracked open a 12 yr. old bottle of Pinot. Do we look mesmerized by the wine? I think that might just be Lar's jetlag stare. What do you expect from a group of international techie sales people/ex-Intel employees. LOL!













Aaron and I hit up a local pub our first night. He is directing your attention to the Tootsie Pop they so lovingly placed underneath his cheese steak. Yummy, grease and candy what a treat!














Okay, I hate this pic but it is the only one I have of beautiful Sausalito and the famous rock man. If you look behind me you will notice the menagerie of rock piles. He spends hours picking the right stones and balancing them on each other at the shoreline . Aaron was supposed to cut him out of the pic so I could take credit. That is my "I did it" pose which was foiled by the guy to the left who is actually stacking them.