New York

 Ta da! The destination du jour is New York City! 

There is much hustle and bustle here, and a bit of snow tonight. If it weren't so dang cold and windy I would say it was super picturesque. There is something wonderful about being here during the holidays and seeing the lights up everywhere, the big decorations on the streets and in buildings, the trees everywhere, Christmas markets in the squares, and a general feeling of Christmas in the air. 

Or is that a Christmas carol? 

That's 50th and 7th down there. Otherwise known as the view from my hotel room. (Hey, since you got the views last week in SF it was only fair you got them of NYC, too.) 

One of the joys of a business trip to NYC is getting to see this cutie patootie: 

Wouldn't it be great if we could all get strolled around the city in our very own sleeping bags? That's the life. 

It's way past the witching hour and time for me to hunker down in my own sleeping bag for the night. (Translation: go to sleep in this super comfy hotel bed.) Have a great night, my peeps! You can be sure I will take more pictures tomorrow and share more adventures as soon as I have a viable internet connection.

Sleep tight!

Monday, the 13th

Thank goodness it's not Friday. Today is a Monday with all the traps and trimmings, including another trip! Can you guess where I'm going this time? Hint: it is another business trip. (Expense accounts rock!)

Last week's trip was super smooth and comfortable, with flights running on time, and some gorgeous scenery to keep me entranced on the long ride across the country. While I did not capture images of "smooth and comfortable" (trust me, first class was comfortable!), here are some snaps of the scenery: 

The clouds at 30,000 feet looked like an ocean.

And then the ocean got choppy.

This looked like the Grand Canyon in clouds -- a precipice on the left with different landscapes on either side.

One of my favorite pictures from the trip. Loved the different textures in the clouds.

West of Milwaukee, looking down at the snow on the ground.

Mountains! This was absolutely breathtaking. Based on our location at the time, this could be the northern end of the Grand Canyon. Or not.

Today's trip may not be as photogenic, but hopefully it will be just as smooth. Fingers are crossed (you just can't see them inside the mittens).

Up, up, and away

Hello again from 38,000 feet. :-) This time I'm somewhere over Indiana (I think) and heading east. It was fun being on the other coast for a while, and I would have liked more time to fully explore San FUNcisco -- hee hee -- but I am very content to be heading home.

My body never adjusted to west coast time. I was awake at 4am every bleeping morning. The wee hours were spent handling a lot of business with my office, chatting with friends, checking in with the family, getting spiffy, and then heading down for breakfast at 8am. By the end of the morning's first conference session I was ready for a nap. Always. Made it through the afternoon with my eyes somehow open, changed clothes around 5pm and then headed out for sight seeing, dinner, and fun. In bed by 11pm WEST coast time, and awake again at 4am where the cycle started all over again.

Did I mention I am tired?

Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity for another first class upgrade going home. The wider seats are a boon for my arthritic hips, the extra leg room is joyous, and the beverages are stellar. (She says while sipping on a Mango Peach Fuze and vodka.)

Some general, Fuze-n-vodka thoughts from San Francisco 

I scored big time when, at a shop in Chinatown they pulled back the magic curtain and I was granted access to the mother lode of faux purses. I swear I heard angels singing. While it was super fun to browse through the purses, I left them all there. Turns out the owner dude was not willing to haggle much, so the white and pink leather coachette stayed there. As did the red prada-ette. They might haunt my dreams.

If for no other reason, I am going back to SF to eat at the Stinking Rose restaurant. Their entire menu is based around garlic. Garlic, ya'll! They are probably still cleaning my nose prints off their windows. It smelled utterly divine and I came thisclose to sidling up to the bar and ordering one of all the appetizers. (Is sidling even a word? If not I just made it up. Webster's, take note!) Anyway, I decided the conference peeps would appreciate me staying away from that much garlic. Next time...

A colleague and I walked from Union Square up through Chinatown, turned left through Little Italy, and then all the way down to Fisherman's Warf, up to Ghiardelli Square, and over to Pier 39 in one night. ONE night. With hills. It was a killer walk.

Did I mention the hills? HILLS, peeps.

No wonder I am tired.

Holdthephone. What am I doing? Why am I blogging while drinking? Better yet, why am I blogging when the guy next to me is kinda cute and willing to chat? Silly me.

Toodles!

San FUNcisco

Chinatown

Ghirardelli Square

(before I figured out how to adjust the brightness and flash on the cell phone camera)

Fisherman's Wharf

Union Square

Over the bakery at Bistro Boudin

Our cable car back to the hotel

The one thing I didn't see in daylight and is difficult to see at night is ... drum roll, please ... the Golden Gate Bridge. WHAT?! What's a trip to SF without a picture and sighting of the Golden Gate Bridge?! I obviously need to come back.

See you again, San FranFUNcisco! 

A room with a view

This is the view from the 26th floor of the hotel. More specifically, the view from my room. Sweet! 

If I knew how to do photo stitching you'd have a panoramic view of the city from my little window on the world. Hopefully one day soon I can get that software to work. For now though, you'll have to settle with another picture taken while I was looking to the right: 

And here's the city when the rain cleared and the sun decided to come out and play:

When I got "home" tonight after a whirlwind trip to Chinatown, Little Italy, Ghirardelli Square, Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, dinner at Bistro Boudin, and a cable car ride back up the hills - whew! - well, here is what greeted me at 10pm:

Take the sight seeing list above and add a full day of conference sessions and you have one tired Pinkie. *Yawn!* Come back tomorrow (or another time that's convenient for you) to get more details on the trip, the conference, my impressions on San Francisco, and the usual zaniness. For now ...

Nite! Nite!

30,000 feet plus 8

Hi again. It's flight numero dos for the day. This one is a bit longer at 4 hours. Unfortunately, my layover wasn't long enough to fully recharge the laptop batteries so I'm only going to have power for 1/3 of the flight. Dang it. I also forgot to stop and buy a book or a new magazine. Double dang it. Ninety minutes in to the flight and I've already napped for the first 45 and read the airline's publication from stem to stern. After this blog entry, and with battery life down to 49%, I'm not sure what I'll do. Sigh.

But let's get to the good stuff, shall we? My final destination is ... can you guess? Maryland to Milwaukee and then a 4 hour flight somewhere else. Any guesses? Anyone? Buehler? 

Here's a clue: it starts with an S and ends with rancisco. And why anyone, much less me, would go through Milwaukee to go from east to west is beyond me. Oh wait. I remember. Milwaukee sounded easier than Atlanta, less risky than Denver, much less congested than Chicago, and there was a great chance of an upgrade to first class. Right! That's why I booked this particular flight.

That and in Wisconsin there's always the possibility of cheese. :-) 

From Maryland to San Francisco -- you figured that out, right? -- by way of Milwaukee, in first class all the way -- hooray! ... um ... I just lost my train plane of thought. Oh well. We're only at 41% battery life now so let's just say that the trip to San Fran is for work stuff and am looking forward to being there, seeing the city, and catching up with colleagues. Should be fun. Let me know if you have any suggestions for things to do. (Besides plugging in the laptop!)

Over -n- out from 38,000 feet.

30,000 feet

Hello from somewhere between Maryland and Milwaukee!

Thanks to the marketing minds at AirTran I am blogging from the friendly skies this morning. Let me tell you, I am loving.Loving.LOVING this whole free WiFi thing on the plane. At first I was all pooh-pooh about it. I mean, one of the joys of being on a plane is the relative freedom and disconnectivity from life, right? But when this pink turkey jumps on a plane at 7am with a to do list a mile long, well, the pooh-pooh's can take a hike.

The other thing that took a hike today was the wardrobe. My normal flight attire is something along the lines of slacks, nice shoes, work-appropriate top, and a blazer -- just in case I run across a professional contact, potential date, or otherwise need to look put together. (Remind me to tell you about the contacts I've made on planes before. Or, better yet, have Aimee tell you.) 

Today though, with the prospect of a 7+ hour travel day and nightmares of security lines dancing through my head, I pulled out the yoga pants, t-shirt, tennies, and *gasp!* sweat shirt. Add little/no make-up and barely dry hair and it looks something like this:

It's enough to make Stacy and Clinton scream! (The picture is small because it's sooo embarrassing.)

And, hey, I didn't even get charged an extra baggage fee for those suitcases under my eyes. Bonus!

Anyhoo ... all this noise lately about airport security had me a little edgy this morning as I approached the dreaded security line. Thankfully, the lines were short so it went quickly. Took off the sweatshirt and shoes, put all my crap items in bins, held on to the boarding pass with a vice grip, and waited for the pat down or the scan or whatever they were going to do.

And waited.

Here it comes ...

Nothing.

Nothing. Not even a wand or a gratuitous grope. An "OK" from the TSA guy was all I got. Honestly, I felt a little cheated. But then I realized airport security is the only place where no shoes and no shirt will still get you service. The entire security section from entering to stripping to screening to putting the shoes back on, took all of 10 minutes. I guess that counts as service.

Next stop: Milwaukee. Will catch you from the next plane, my peeps!