In addition to the conference proper, I got to enjoy seeing San Francisco a bit. I took a 6:40 AM flight from Orange County to San Francisco so I could have some time to see the city. After eating in the airport a little, I took the BART to the Powell St. station, which is where I always get off when I visit SF. It’s also where I always take a picture of the same building.

Then I headed to the InterContinental San Francisco Hotel, stopping to take a picture of the hotel, to drop off my bag.

Then I headed back to the shops near the Powell St. station. After getting bored of that, I checked out some little parks and then looked on Google Maps for interesting sites. I realized that it wasn’t far to reach the water, so I started walking that way. There were plenty of interesting things along the way, including a restaurant called Crepe & Curry in the Financial District. I had a quick snack and then checked out Justin Herman Plaza, which had a really awesome fountain.

Then I walked along edge of the bay, heading north toward what Google Maps told me was a submarine. I did stop to take some photos too of course, like this cool snack shop.

I eventually reached an arcade that featured very old attractions. I wouldn’t even call most of them games. Put in a coin to see the figure dance – that kind of thing. But outside was the cool part. The submarine, the USS Pampanito, was out back!

I took a bunch of pictures of it.

I also paid to walk through it!

After I was done, I stopped to take a quick picture of a seagull before continuing on my way.

I headed toward Fisherman’s Wharf and wandered around for a bit, getting a delicious crab sandwich. When it was time to head back to the hotel, I took the cable car back to the Powell St. station, which I guess acts as a landmark for me!

At the hotel I went up to my room and took a photo before heading to registration. I discovered that the payment for my registration didn’t go through. There was some confusion and phone calls to Julie back at the office, but things were fine of course. Then there was a fun reception full of delicious foods (mmm pork buns) and beer.
Thursday was packed full of fun and went fast. Before I knew it, it was evening and we were piled into buses to go to Bimbo’s 365 Club for dinner, drinks, and music.

There was an 80s band playing called Tainted Love (who, by the way, never did play Tainted Love). They were really good. But then again, I was drinking a lot of Heinekens. There was a pair on the dance floor who were more entertaining than the band. She was really into the music and getting flipped all over. Half the dance floor must have belonged to those two!
Friday didn’t go quite so smoothly. There was an announcement of a security breach of some sort at SFO. As it turned out, it was at my terminal. “Expect delays,” they said. Well, my flight was scheduled to leave at 3:59, so I figured I’d leave the session at 11:45 to pick up my bag from the bellman. That way, I could probably catch the 12:15 BART train, get to the airport by 1:00, and still have time to get through security with the delays. If I got through quickly, great, because I hadn’t eaten anything that day and would appreciate the time for lunch.
Well, it wasn’t that easy. There were malfunctions on the tracks apparently, and they made us all get off at some random station between the hotel and the airport. We were told we’d get further instructions, but I could also see a lot of people with bags waiting at that station. We must not have been the first train to unload there. Soon after we were told to get on a train that would take us to the end of the line, just past SFO. Then a shuttle would take us to the airport. When we got to that station, we were told that now the shuttle was going to go to the station just on the OTHER side SFO. We had to take a train back there. Guess what? After getting there, they changed their minds again, and we were headed back to the other station again.
There was also the bit where they told everyone to get on the train no matter where they were headed and then said “whoops, if you were heading to the airport…” Anyways, then a train took us from that station to the airport. Having to manually flip the switches probably didn’t help. (Nor did the trains travelling at 20 MPH so that the track could be watched by eye.) My 40 minute train ride became over two hours. Regardless, my flight was delayed about a half hour, and I got through security in decent time, so I had more than enough time to eat and read my novel. And then I got to finish my novel on the plane!
I just wish I knew who got my sick on that plane!
All in all, it was very fun trip. I enjoyed the conference itself, and I enjoyed getting to see a bit of the city. I’d certainly love to spend some more time there. Hopefully, I’ll get to visit with gem next time! And as you might have seen, I spent some time after getting home uploading some photos to Instagram!