Highlights from the San Francisco Part of Bouchercon

I arrived in San Francisco around 1:30 p.m. and took a van into the gorgeous Hyatt Hotel. When I got up the room my roommate, Gay, wasn't there so I called her on the phone and learned she was waiting for me outside. I'd gone in a side door. Because we were both hungry, we headed out for lunch. We ate on the rooftop of a lovely restaurant.

The next morning we took a cable car tour, except not on the real cable cars, but busses they made out of cable cars. It was a three hour tour and I've included some of the photos. We went everywhere.

When we returned to the hotel, next order of business was eating--this time a Thai place.

That evening the Opening Ceremony was held.

I'll report on the Bouchercon events on another blog. On Friday night, Gay and I caught a real cable car which cost $5 to ride (years ago when I went there to a PTA convention, riding the cable car was free) to China Town where we attended a dinner and award ceremony for the Private Eye Writers. The restaurant has been there for years and is a tourist attraction in itself.

The highlight of the dinner for me was seeing Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini, the first mystery writers I'd ever met, long, long ago.

When we left, we thought we'd ride the cable car back to the hotel but after waiting and waiting we decided we should walk back to the hotel. Thankfully it was down hill all the way.

I usually ate breakfast in the hotel and found some people I knew or didn't who invited me to join them. This is one of the big plusses of Bouchercon.

On Sunday, I had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to get ready to meet the van that would take me back to the airport at 5 a.m. I could hardly sleep for fear I wouldn't wake up in time--maybe the wake-up call I put in wouldn't do it. Of course I was aleady up when the phone rang.

The van came a few minutes early and I was ready. Now, that was one hairraising ride. Streets were blocked off because of coming marathon and the drive wove in and out. His next person to pick up was a young woman from Columbia who had been put up in a sleazy hotel in Chinatown by the company she worked for. Then more exciting twisting and turning until we headed into the Candlestick Park area. Our drive stopped on a steep hill, put on the emergency brake and got out to find the address. Eeek!

Forunately he soon got back in and the last passenger was waiting at the bottom of the hill.

I arrived at the airport in plenty of time.

San Francsico is a beautiful city for the most part, but there are a lot of homeless people around.

As you might have guessed, I ate a lot of wonderful meals.

Marilyn
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