Back-blogging, last day of Official Vacation

Sunday was the last day of vacation and work realities began to set in, all at once. Sunday Lana and Rachel came down from SF so we could go on a super relaxing, totally chill two-hour ride. It was sunny, finally, after on-and-off raining during the morning (which was quite disconcerting since it was high-time for some riding time). The fog was low so it was a good reason not to climb. After the ride we packed it up and squeezed three of us, our bikes and the bike bag in a small car. Don't ask how we did it, but we did and we made our way back to SF. It was time for all of us to go back to our regular lives, sort of.

I checked into the hotel to find out that they didn't have a reservation for me so they generously offered the $400/night room. Thank goodness there was a room! With all of my stuff and bike, etc, it would have been a nightmare trying to find somewhere else to stay in SF. They said they'd honor the rate of the room if I could find proof that I had made the reservation. Fortunately, I did, so I have a super nice room with a chandelier as an over-head light, king-size bed with a poofy white comforter and a non-rectangular very pretty bathroom.

Immediately after checking in, it was time to visit the welcome reception, meet the 10,000 other attendees at this conference (ha, I was not in that much of a social mood). I caught up with my Denver friends and hung out there only until I was invited to a nice dinner at the Franciscan (great seafood, all good food) hosted by a company that Donovan, one of my friends, works for.

After that, he had to have an In-And-Out burger...he started talking about In-And-Out many months ago when we all first scheduled this trip. And when I say started talking about it, he can't stop. So we ventured over to In-And-Out and I took a bite of everything (and more than a sip of the milk shake). Yeah, I ate American cow. The burger was very, very different from a McDonald's burger, it was quite tasty. I guess I see the appeal, but it's not likely to make me take a second bite (more because if I did, then I'd have to miss it sort of how I miss Dark Horse burgers).