San Francisco Day 1

First off, a big thanks to everyone who’s helped out in making this trip a great one. Hat’s off to Nola and Katie for pre-trip tips, and Yat Pundit for airport expertise shared via the Twitter in real-time.

Our office has taken a trip to San Francisco as a reward for meeting its sales goals last year. Wrangling ten gals (account executives, a publisher, office manager and editor) and two guys (art director and writer/editor/photographer (me)) for a 7am departure from MSY was not the easiest thing, but proved to be the least difficult part of getting to San Francisco.

Delays leaving New Orleans caused us to miss our 9am flight from Houston to San Francisco. Three of us (me included) made an 11:15 flight; I was the last one on the plane when the standby magician waved the final wand before departure.

I’ll skip the rest–packed tight for 4 hours, the back of the plane where I was sitting smelling strongly of puke, and the oriental dude (really, he spoke Chinese to his friends) across the aisle trying in vain for an hour to complete one Sudoku puzzle–because once on the ground in Cali-freakin’-fornia, all of that was wiped away in a flood of good vibrations brought on by perfect weather, marvelous scenery and cocktails had in opulent surroundings.

Our hotel is the Stanford Court. Pretty posh, and on the top of Nob Hill. Which means to go anywhere, you have to walk up and down a completely foreign and very steep incline. Tomorrow we buy cable car passes. They traverse the hills nicely, but at $5.00 a pop it makes the $18.00, 3-day pass pretty attractive.

We had time in the evening for a hike down Powell Street towards Market. Powell Street is amazing; Canal and Bourbon rolled into one with inclines and weird and expensive streetcars.

Photos: first, the opulent surroundings where cocktail #2 (a cosmo, yep, I’m man enough to drink a cosmo–wanna fight about it?) was consumed, the lobby bar of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel.

And a little local IPA after the cosmo.

The Drake is right by Union Square. There were some artists displaying there. The central statue is a monument honoring Admiral Dewey taking Manila harbor during the Spanish-American war.

Union Square is home to a slew of high-end stores. Macy’s, Victoria’s Secret, Saks and Williams Sonoma call it home, as does Tiffany’s, which was the setting for this odd scene of valets all lined up like ducks.

Speaking of weird, expensive streetcars, here’s a couple as they go up and down Powell Street.

It’s a good thing they run until midnight–we thought parking was expensive in NOLA.

Tomorrow, wine country and Kokkari.

4 Responses to San Francisco Day 1

  1. stacey on April 19, 2008 at 8:57 am

    I love San Francisco!! So much fun. Last time I was there was right after Katrina….think my hotel was in the Union Square area!! It is so pretty and clean looking there. I can’t wait to see more pics!! Go have some clam chowder in a bread bowl for me. I love that stuff.

  2. Nola on April 19, 2008 at 9:18 am

    I think I’ve been in the Drake Hotel, now that I think of it. And saw Mark Harmon there. Great pics. Sounds like you are having a great vacation! Soooo jealous!!!

    Kokkori!!!!!!!!!

  3. Wendy on April 19, 2008 at 12:14 pm

    I think it is funny that you think Victoria’s Secret is a high end store. HA!HA!

  4. […] was our last day in San Francisco. I posted about getting into town Friday and Sunday’s lunch. Monday morning I set out on my own and took the cable car the couple of […]

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