Greetings from San Francisco!

I'm in beautiful San Francisco this week for my company's annual user conference. I haven't been here in at least 14 years, but it is just as exciting as I remember. We are staying in Union Square and having a really great time.

I left really early on Monday morning and arrived in San Francisco around lunchtime. I met up with a few co-workers for lunch and then my friend K and I walked to Chinatown for a little shopping. I bought some jade earrings to go with the bangle I bought in Beijing and some new silk outfits for EJ and a hat for Sophie.

Later, we met up with my good friends JC and BK. JC and I worked together for several years and he and B moved to San Francisco in the spring for B's new job. J met K and I at the hotel and we took and old streetcar to his neighborhood and walked to their house. We enjoyed dinner at Andalu, which had fabulous food served tapas style. We also REALLY enjoyed the sangria! Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics, but I know that J took some at the restaurant, so I'll have to ask him to send them along!

This morning, we did a Segway tour of the city (as we did last year in DC). This tour didn't seem quite as long, but was still a lot of fun. After that, we had lunch at Scoma's, which was recommended by our tour guide. I had a dungeness crab salad, which was excellent.

After lunch, K and I walked over to Pier 49 to do a little shopping (not too much, honey!). Here I am with the very top of the Golden Gate Bridge behind me...you can barely see the peaks above the thick layer of fog that was rolling in.

Earlier, when we were taking the tour, you could only see the lower half of the bridge!

If you've been to Pier 39, you know about the sea lions. There were a lot more hanging out today than I remember from my last trip.

After a few hours' rest, we had an opening cocktail party this evening and then went to dinner at Cortez, just a block or so from the hotel. I had eaten some appetizers at the cocktail reception, so I really wasn't hungry, but managed to share some small plate items and taste a few others. If you click on the link, you can see that the menu was a bit eclectic...

K gets to have a "fun" week at home with the girls. On Sunday evening, they decided to tackle the annual carving on the pumpkin since it was going to be busy every other night during the week.

EJ showed Sophie how to scoop the good. Sophie preferred running her fingers through the pumpkin seeds instead.

EJ finishes off the jack-o-lantern.

It's off to bed now. It's after midnight and I need to be up early!