So we checked out at noon today and sat in the lobby for about an hour finishing a client's website (free internet baby!) Walked to the nice little cafe we had breakfast at on our second day (I think it was called Tart to Tart?) and had lunch before we headed to the airport. While walking out the door to grab a taxi, the bellboy asked me if we needed a taxi and to where. I told him and was expecting him to grab us a taxi while we waited in the hotel taxi line as usual but instead he had another bellboy come over who asked if we would like to take the house car to the airport instead for $4 more than what we were going to pay for the taxi. It was the BEST choice ever!!! They led us to this really sleek black car with all it's windows tinted (luxury car... think limo but personal car size). It was SO roomy with leather seats and our driver (in this case, chauffeur) had relaxing jazz music coming from the speakers... it was GOLD. And once the doors were closed, you couldn't even hear a single sound of the traffic outside. It was the most comfortable car ride I'd ever taken.
It was fast going through customs and security at the airport so we ended up going to the duty-free shop and still sitting there for about an hour and a half (we got to the airport 3 hours earlier as they suggested). The sky was gloomy and raining while we were waiting but once the plane got there, there was a break in the clouds and a beautiful ray of sunlight was shining through. It was amazing. We flew to Seattle and transferred planes back to Edmonton. Apparently I was sitting on a card at the terminal that said "Flowers by Karen"... what are the odds! The plane was maybe half full on the way back so we got to sit where ever we wanted. It was fast going through Canadian Customs probably cos it was midnight and there was no one else there. We went straight to Denny's after we dropped off our kind "pick-up" person at her car. Bed time at 3am again... I'm totally going to feel it...
Went to the final day of the conference today. We had lunch with a potential client at a pizza place that served HUGE personal pizzas (more like the size of a medium pizza!) Plans were changed a little today... went to SFMOMA finally!!!!! It was AMAZING!! I got to see some of Picasso's works up close and finally... ANDY WARHOL!! Definitely the highlight of my trip! Last time I missed out on the exhibit in Montreal and even though it was only 5 pieces, I still got to see them finally! There were a few really odd pieces though... there was one where it was basically a video of a girl "dancing" around and singing but her voice was distorted and she was sped up, plus the video was mainly black and white with weird effects and other music on top like Simon and Garfunkel. It was very ring-esque and super creepy, but there were people sitting on a bench in that pitch black room just watching the video like they were hypnotized or something.
We had frozen yogurt afterwards (totally reminded me of Red Mango!) and then it was back to the hotel to work on the website. We finished at about 9pm, just in time before our internet minutes ran out. Went to Japantown / Little Osaka for some absolutely amazing Korean food and then to the 노래방 across the street for about 2 hours. Before calling it a night, we watched Derren Brown's The Heist. He's the original mentalist and it was crazy what the power of suggestion can do! Absolutely amazing!
Checking out tomorrow and then it's back to Edmonton!
Today was fairly easy... we left at about 11am and walked down to a nice little cafe that had excellent breakfast. It was like Fresh Start but cheaper! Audrey and I decided to walk on our own and let Tom go to the conference first cos we had to get some good 'ol Dr. Scholl's from Walgreens. Of course being on our own, we decided to do a little "sightseeing" and ended up going to Papyrus where I found my some excellent thin pens for cheap, and to an art supply store (so hard not to buy anything!) The area around the hotel's quite artsy, being the fact that it's right across the street from an art academy and about a block away from the SFMOMA. SFMOMA is having their anniversary show and the plan is to go check it out Friday. Can't wait!
We went to Chinatown for dinner cos we wanted to check out the world's largest Chinatown outside of China. It definitely felt like we were in Asia, that's for sure! I loved the feeling! Too bad it was a little late when we got there so pretty much only restaurants were open and it wasn't as lively as it probably is normally. We walked up and down and decided to settle with a place called Cathay House. BAD idea. The food was TERRIBLE! I've never had such bad Chinese food! And it smelled a little musty inside! I felt like I was in an old Chinese movie! Plus there were pretty much only white people in there (should have known!) The guy at the front (I'm thinking he's the owner) reminded me of an old triad boss and I was expecting some kind of a deal to go on in there or something. Peking duck... my beloved peking duck. The wraps were thick and the duck wasn't cut very well... either it was pure skin or a thick slab of meat. No harmony! I don't mind the wraps being different cos I can understand that being different everywhere but come on! The duck was not done very professionally. The beef was bland and had a weird aftertaste, the broccoli was bitter and the chicken... I don't even know how to describe it! Even the rice was bad! My mom always says that if there's any food that I won't eat, then you surely shouldn't eat it cos I pretty much eat everything. Last night was one of those situations cos after one serving of rice, I had enough.
We called room service for breakfast today and the stuff was HUGE! It wasn't too bad, but it was BIG. Went to the Moscone Centre for the conference and nothing could have prepared us for how BIG the conference was. It was so overwhelming! Ended up pretty much walking 5 hours non-stop, looking at stuff about photonics and grabbing material. Finally left at about 4pm and went to Cheesecake Factory in the Macy's on Geary Street for a "snack" (turned out to be basically a meal!) The weather was quite nice today! It rained a bit this morning but when we left it was sunny and blue skies. Of course by the time we left Cheesecake Factory at about 6:30pm, the sky had gotten dark. It's nice to not be able to see your breath when you're outside! Also kinda interesting to see a bunch of people wearing their winter jackets (especially the Asian tourists) when we're walking around with just a thin jacket. Actually I walked to Walgreen's just now and it was NICE! I was actually quite hot while walking back. Such nice weather to walk around outside ^_^. Well, 2 more days of walking around the conference. Hope my feet don't hurt as much tomorrow as they did today!!
So here I am sitting in my hotel room after day 1 of my first business trip. Not really day 1 actually, considering the entire day was really spent on travelling to our destination more than anything. We're staying at the Palace Hotel, a little ways from the Ritz-Carlton. Hotel's quite nice, although quite expensive. But I've got my own room and a massive king-sized bed. I'm not used to something so big so we'll see how I sleep on it tonight! This is really the first time that I've ever slept in a room away from home on my own. Although my boss is next door, it's still quite lonely... no one to talk to or gossip with before falling asleep. Room is huge too... 14 foot ceiling and a massive flat screen. I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow though... it's not really fun to walk through and it's gonna be tough to look professional when you're soaking wet!
