It was the beginning of a week of travel to various points and (little did I know it) a bit of tracing through my past lives. It began with a flight to Portland where I was served orange juice
then fruit
and a croissant
and a vegetarian main course
before I went to stay at the Hotel Lucia where the room was quite elegant in many views
with a nice bathroom
and a second nice bathroom (I wondered if that was to share with the neighbors)
but a limited view of the city
which, I suppose, could be best seen from this book because of the rain.
They were nice enough to come welcome me with a note, water and chocolate
and they offered great flexibility in pillows
reading material
and music.
Nonetheless, the next day I got up and headed to the airport where I had this bagel
and coffee
while looking back at the security people who had confiscated my wonderful Portland snow globe even before I could remember to take a picture of it.
My next stop was a more standard hotel room in San Francisco with only one bathroom
and otherwise pleasant facilities
plus a nice view down tot he street.
I went out for a walk and to find some lunch and saw the standard San Francisco street scene
before ordering a bowl of vegetarian chili
from this menu
and then finishing with this dessert
and taking a picture of the restaurant before getting ready for the evening event.
I was so surprised at the attendees at the evening event that I forgot to flash
but then recovered and captured this picture of Ron Stoltz from college years and Marc Dinkin from high school (and earlier) years who surprised me by attending the talk.
I also posed with Ron and Marc to remember times long past.
The next day, I took one last look at the wine bottle they had given me after the talk (because it would not make it through airplane security)
and then headed out tot he Golden Gate bridge (San Fracisco's other icon)
with Jacobo
who took these pictures of me against that backdrop
before we looked out at Alcatraz
and back at the city
at the islands of Marin County
and views of the bridge
before we noticed that under this splash
was a bird (the blue parrot)
and after a final good bye to the bridge, we were off to the airport.
Once on my flight, I had this wine and nuts
and salad
and roll
before pausing to take close photos of the labels
and individual salt and pepper shakers
and then having water
a vegetarian main course
and dessert before heading home
where steaks were cooking
because Janet (who took a few photos to focus)
and Larry had arrived
and so there was cheese
salad
and vegetables
to amuse Suzanne
Ben
and me
before dessert came.
But it wasn't long before I was back on a plane to have some more juice
and see Mackenzie in Atlanta
as she went for the phone
and returned to sit with Jason and me
and then to pose with Michelle
as I had this southern meal of grits, sweet potato fries, fried green tomatoes and corn pudding
and Michelle had this sandwich while we waited for Jason's meal to come.
Michelle left me at my hotel where this was my room
and the view
and out of the darkness
emerged the bathroom
As we got through our work, food from the Varsity arrived which had us excited
and so Randy Bryant, Bob Constable, dpd and Hector Garcia-Molina posed in our Varsity hats
and later I saluted Dick Lipton and Rich DeMillo
and Dawn Williamson, our hosts.