A San Francisco Treat

Fisherman's Wharf!!

This past week, I got to visit one of my favorite cities in the US... San Francisco!!! The Bay Area has held a special place in my heart since I spent the summer of 2001 basking in the lack of need of air conditioning.  That was 11 years ago and since then, I've been able to go back to visit twice.  This time, I went for my sorority's national convention. There was a swarm of pink and green flooding the city and clearly they are not used to seeing a lot of women of color.  Who knows how many questions many of us endured about our bags and why we were dressed up, but I know a few of us got our egos stroked.  The men there loved us and I clearly need to move. 

Jacuzzi Family Vineyards

My group of friends and I arrived on Saturday morning and went on a tour of some wineries.  We intended to go to Napa Valley, but our driver (we had a limo y'all) suggested that we go to Sonoma based on the time we had left. I enjoyed them either way. The first one, Jacuzzi Family Vineyards had free tastings and olive oil and soaps for sale. I didn't quite find a wine there that I liked but I enjoyed tasting them. Also, they had chocolate shots, which I didn't try, but my friends enjoyed them. I ended up buying some lip balm and soap. Go figure, that's what I buy at a winery. Ha!

Next we went to a family winery, Nicholson Ranch Winery. Their wines were pretty good and they had this really sweet Chardonnay with a really pretty bottle.  I didn't buy that either, but it sure was good.  The last and my favorite winery was Domaine Carneros. Guess what?!! They had champagne!! I got the sampler and the bubbly was delicious. It was a very hot and toasty day, but I had quite a super day.

Domaine Carneros

Champagne sampler

Isn't the scenery absolutely beautiful?! 
When I visited California a few years ago, I admit it was quite a culture shock since I'm from the South and people are such free spirits there.  This time when I visited, I fell in love all over again.  Surprisingly, the people were nicer in the Bay Area than they are in Georgia.  I'm not sure if it's because there's really no such thing as southern hospitality or if it has decreased because people who aren't from here have changed the culture. I used to each strangers or at least wave, but since moving to "the city" I stopped after the strange looks I received.  It's a hard habit to break, I definitely want to be a "nice southerner." Ha!

Anyways, the main reason I went to San Francisco was a great reason for me to go back and I enjoyed myself and I learned quite a bit.  One thing I learned at the conference is that I definitely need to get more familiar with Robert's Rules of Order.  That book is used in many places and I want to be "in order." Also, it was great to see so many women of color in one place and see the reactions of the people that live in the city... they stared because apparently there aren't a lot of black people there. I got a few questions about why we had bags or why did we have on white. The best two, flattering, and funny encounters that I had were:

Guy: "Excuse me. What are those bags for?" Me: "It's a sorority conference." Guy:"Sorority, what's that?" Me: "It's an organization for women." Guy:"Oh. Is it only for beautiful women, I haven't seen any ugly or old women."

Guy:"I heard _____ women have their act together... where do I need to be tonight? I'm trying to look and book." Us:"Try the Marriott." Guy:"Oh ok... I may need to rearrange some plans."

What can I say? They love us out there.

There was a group of us that went to the Golden Gate bridge for a jog/walk, but I didn't get to go. But I did, get to take advantage of the wonderful public transportation, visit Fisherman's Wharf, visit Gussie's Chicken and Waffles (who knew) and go to Berkeley.  I am an advocate of public transportation and was quite happy to hop on a bus or train... as a matter of fact, I rode the bus a few times from the convention center to our house.

Our house was wonderful and I'd love to live somewhere like that... they have all these neat old duplexes in San Francisco with ornate carvings and paintjobs. The neighborhoods had so much

Fancy houses in the neighborhood

Our house... well for a week anyway

personality. I guess that matches the interesting personalities of the people that live in San Francisco. They're free spirited and people can walk around in the nude; thankfully I didn't see any.  We didn't get to go to see the houses like on Full House, but that's ok. I saw plenty of other sites and got to dress up a little bit while I was out there.



I feel like I'm rambling a bit, so I'll wrap this up for now and maybe add some more later. See some of my pictures.