In San Francisco

View from the W, San Francisco, March 2009
Originally uploaded by suzipaw

I drove down early this morning with a work friend, and am ensconced at the W, a very pleasant, modern hotel (I guess it has to be, since it's right next door to the SF MOMA). I wanted a change of pace, and it is one. It's going to be a long week locked mostly in the bowels of the convention center, but I'm very glad to be getting this show underway. I hope to get a little walk in this evening before turning in early. Maybe a jaunt down towards the Ferry building.

I spent a good portion of this weekend working, but M and I did take a nice Sunday drive (I'm liking this new weekend tradition). We headed over the hill for lunch in Calistoga, then up to scenic Pope Valley and down through the even-more-scenic-if-you-can-believe -it Napa Valley. Not too many other tourists crowding the wine roads. The hills are still so green, the mustard still blooming yellow, the purple lupines and orange poppies integrating their colors into the landscape scheme. We did have a lot of real estate envy--so many beautiful homes with so many incredible views--all very far out of our financial reach. One sight I was sorry I didn't have my camera ready for: up near Lake county, we passed a home that uses hubcaps in quantity I had never before seen, not even in junk yards. They were strung several rows high along *all* of the fencing, along the road and the drive leading up to the home and along the back fences, especially thick by the entrance, and affixed to the walls of the barn. They were quite a sight, glinting in the sun. I wanted to look for matches for the Monster Mobile, but M would have none of it.
Time to head out...