The City by the Bay

Cara and I are in San Francisco, celebrating our second anniversay. We're staying in what used to be the Hotel Juliana, originally built in 1908, on the Nob Hill side of Union Square. This European-style hotel was reportedly a favorite of actress Ingrid Bergman.

SF is a bit different than I'm used to. The pace seems to be less hurried than in Southern California. Traffic is certainly far less crowded; even the streets are not as crowded as I expected.

Speaking of streets, they're just as you've seen in the movies: steep. If I lived here, I'm sure I'd have to switch to an automatic transmission. Whose idea was it to build on these inclines?

And packed together! It's really neat to see the variety of restaurants, shops and dwellings that you can cram into one city block.

Parking's not fun. We're spending ~$30 a day to park near the hotel. I certainly understand why people I know who live in the city don't even own a car. Taxis are ubiquitous and the buses, light rail and cable cars should be able to get you everywhere you need to go.

What is fun, however, is the ability to run my business from wherever I am. All I need is my laptop and an Internet connection to be able to stay on top of things. Of course, I'm spending very little time on that!