.jeri.

Hey gang!

I am back from a conference in San Francisco. I was there from Saturday through Wednesday. It was a special treat that Jon was attending the same conference for his own university and that he happened to book identical flights with us. So Ruth, Megan and I traveled with him into town where we met up with Isaac at our hotel and headed straight out to the town! I'll describe highlights as quickly as possible.

Saturday night we had a magnificent Irish dinner at Johnny Foley's. I plan to make some champ for myself now that I've had a glorious version of it there. We took a crazy cab ride to the Golden Gate Bridge and walked a little over halfway across it, then took a claustrophobic bus ride back to the hotel.

Sunday we checked in at the conference and got a good breakfast at the Moscone Center, which is where we spent many hours in the next week. It's amazing to see thousands of college employees filling a room the size of two football fields. In the afternoon it was pouring, but we were determined to go out, so we took the cable car to the wharf and took a drenched walk down to pier 33 and grabbed the ferry to Alcatraz. We really enjoyed our tour of the prison and loved the gardens, and of course once we were done, the rain let up. When we got back to land we bought new socks on pier 39 and got a warm meal at Boudin before heading back. That evening we went out to dinner at a Greek restaurant that we happened to pass by, and that meal was delicious too. SF was a great place for food.

Monday we had sessions all day long. The highlight was when the power went out at the beginning of my first afternoon session, which turned into a man describing his software without being able to demo it. Boo. That night we got together with all the other employees from our university who attended the conference and had dinner in the Pope room at Buca di Beppo. We weren't all that excited about eating something we could eat at home, but it turned out to be a good time of camaraderie and inter-university networking. Afterward, several of us went to the W hotel to play some games in one of their crazy lobbies, which eventually led to a crazy photo shoot since that place is filled with decorations that just beg for interaction.

Tuesday we had sessions all day again, but managed to go to the Ferry Building for breakfast before the first one. That night my nephew, who goes to school in SF, picked us up to go to North Beach for dinner. We got there early, so we stopped at an Italian cafe for pastries and coffee, then had dinner at the Stinking Rose with my sister and two more nephews. It was good to see the fam! We all went to get gelato as well. After a few of them left, my nephew took us all up to Coit Tower, down Lombard street, and walking around Ghiradelli Square. Unfortunately, that night I started getting sick; it may have been food poisoning. At any rate, I threw up on and off for the next ten hours and missed the rest of the conference.

We headed back home on Wednesday afternoon, and I was so glad to have Jon around, since he took care of my luggage for me going to the BART station and the airport. I ate Tic Tacs for my meals and gradually improved throughout the day. Today I'm still a little wobbly, but definitely on the mend.

It was a good experience to go to the conference and I have a lot of ideas running around in my head right now, but it sure is good to be home. I was blessed to come home to a clean house and the results of Ric's productivity - our office is 100% clean with no more condo-work items left in it!