Saving the Best for First

Part One of My Annual San Francisco Travelogue

Last week’s trip to San Francisco was wonderful. Of course it was. I was, after all, in my favorite U.S. city. I know the city pretty well, having been there seven or eight times and having read Maupin’s entire Tales of the City series. I discovered new spots and revisited favorite haunts. But I’ll tell you about those adventures later in the week. Let’s get to the good stuff first.

I cocktailed with Write Procrastinator.

Write Procrastinator posted a great retelling of our blogger summit. He’s a writer. He’s good at that. And he didn’t procrastinate over writing his post as I did.

The Grand Gentleman of The City knows me well, or at the very least has read my blog profile. He picked the perfect spot for a noir fan like me — former hangout of Dashiell Hammett, Sam Spade’s joint of choice in The Maltese Falcon. Sadly, said falcon was swiped last February.

John’s Grill

The dirty martinis were good, the appetizers okay, the service surly. Isn’t that what we want in a nearly hundred-year-old haunt?

Let’s dish about WP. That’s why we’re all reading this post, right?

First of all, he’s just damn cute. The only reason WP doesn’t get the full-on hawt rating is he’s a happily married man, and I don’t want Mrs. WP getting the wrong idea. He looks younger than he is (damn him).

WP, we forgot to compare eye freckles! A strong reason for me to book a return trip in 2008.

WP’s mama raised him right. The boy oozes manners and class. He knows how to open a door, how to hold a chair for a lass, how to make meet-up arrangements for hard-to-contact travelers. I was charmed before we even got to the talktalktalk.

And talktalktalk we did. We didn’t start off trying to think of something to say; we dove right in. I was so excited about finally meeting my blog buddy — someone with whom I’ve e-mailed since last summer — I probably jumped on 312 of his sentences. He told me all about growing up and living in The City. We talked books and bloggers, movies and music, lives and loves. It's always fascinating to talk to a writer since he knows how to use words.

The obligatory back o’ the bloggers’ head photo

The only downer: We had just a couple of hours. Had I blown off some work hours pre-vacation and planned my trip, we could have spent more time together. Met families. Seen sites.

Now, if I could only get the WP clan to visit Atlanta ...

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