The Visible Woman...July 13, 2003

Our three nights at the Four Seasons are up and now it's a question of how to spend the time before our early Monday flight.

The flight I could get out of SF was early Monday morning. I'd thought maybe we would spend Sunday on a drive to the wine country but that didn't work out with our friends.

We made do, and nicely I might add. First, I'd booked a room at a Holiday Inn Express near the airport. A place with high speed Internet access and a free shuttle. And we had managed an invitation for a free breakfast at Four Seasons from the food and beverage director. So, yeah, we were ready, prepared to occupy ourselves until the Monday flight.

We made use of the sports club for a workout and a cup of coffee. We showered up and I did a packing job where I got things we were going to wear and use to the top of the luggage. I hoped anyway. We had our free breakfast, all leisurely, heard a lot about the hotel and all the furnishings and art and got checked out by the noon checkout time, leaving luggage with the hotel.

We decided that we wanted to see SFMOMA (the modern art museum) anyway and we hadn't gotten around to it so we went there and they were open and we enjoyed the exhibits and the shop. Then we tried to go to another independent bookstore we had spied but it was closed. We got a late lunch at the Armani store just watching people and enjoying ourselves eating tuna tartare and carpaccio and drinking iced tea.

FFP said that he was up to just go to the airport hotel, eating later in Burlingame if we felt like it or whatever. We had books to read and an early start in the morning. There was always HBO and napping.

So, with no apparent embarrassment, we got our bags at The Four Seasons and told them we wanted a cab...to a Holiday Inn Express in Burlingame.

To be honest the room was clean and nice and had a desk and Wayport service (for $9.95) and they cheerfully arranged a wakeup call and shuttle service and all. The room has one of those little complimentary coffee pots, too. Always a plus in my book. And after we had some coffee they gave us another pack of coffee for morning. But, no, it's not the Four Seasons with the huge bathroom with tub and shower and robes and all that. No one will turn down the bed and put a linen square on the carpet to protect your bare toes from the carpet and leave you a bottle of water on the nightstand. (This is a great boon compared to a chocolate in my view!)

So we kick back and read and have early dinner in the not-so-bad Max's Opera Cafe next door. It's a prosaic end to a fabulous high-end experience in SF. And, it's fine really.

Sunday, July 13, 2003

A Journal from Austin, Texas. A Project of LBFFP Stealth Publishing.
food	reading	writing	time	exercise	health and mood

that's our friend's dog's favorite 'expression' with one ear up and one ear down	What to do while waiting to check out Our three nights at the Four Seasons are up and now it's a question of how to spend the time before our early Monday flight. The flight I could get out of SF was early Monday morning. I'd thought maybe we would spend Sunday on a drive to the wine country but that didn't work out with our friends. We made do, and nicely I might add. First, I'd booked a room at a Holiday Inn Express near the airport. A place with high speed Internet access and a free shuttle. And we had managed an invitation for a free breakfast at Four Seasons from the food and beverage director. So, yeah, we were ready, prepared to occupy ourselves until the Monday flight. We made use of the sports club for a workout and a cup of coffee. We showered up and I did a packing job where I got things we were going to wear and use to the top of the luggage. I hoped anyway. We had our free breakfast, all leisurely, heard a lot about the hotel and all the furnishings and art and got checked out by the noon checkout time, leaving luggage with the hotel. We decided that we wanted to see SFMOMA (the modern art museum) anyway and we hadn't gotten around to it so we went there and they were open and we enjoyed the exhibits and the shop. Then we tried to go to another independent bookstore we had spied but it was closed. We got a late lunch at the Armani store just watching people and enjoying ourselves eating tuna tartare and carpaccio and drinking iced tea. FFP said that he was up to just go to the airport hotel, eating later in Burlingame if we felt like it or whatever. We had books to read and an early start in the morning. There was always HBO and napping. So, with no apparent embarrassment, we got our bags at The Four Seasons and told them we wanted a cab...to a Holiday Inn Express in Burlingame. To be honest the room was clean and nice and had a desk and Wayport service (for $9.95) and they cheerfully arranged a wakeup call and shuttle service and all. The room has one of those little complimentary coffee pots, too. Always a plus in my book. And after we had some coffee they gave us another pack of coffee for morning. But, no, it's not the Four Seasons with the huge bathroom with tub and shower and robes and all that. No one will turn down the bed and put a linen square on the carpet to protect your bare toes from the carpet and leave you a bottle of water on the nightstand. (This is a great boon compared to a chocolate in my view!) So we kick back and read and have early dinner in the not-so-bad Max's Opera Cafe next door. It's a prosaic end to a fabulous high-end experience in SF. And, it's fine really.
JUST TYPING You have to have things to compare to. A movie quote. From My Life as a Dog. Four Seasons. Holiday Inn Express. Plastic cups covered with a guaranteed sanitary covering. Instead of glasses. Different but really, not so very.
		Food Diary. Omelet with spinach, goat cheese and green onions. Half of an English Muffin with butter. Large glass grapefruit juice. Part of a tuna tartare and part of a carpaccio appetizer. With some little chips and greens and all that. Some bread sticks and a part of a roll with a bit of olive oil. Caesar salad with some cheese and dressing on it. Chicken with vegies and olives and feta cheese. Some wine. A little more wine.
		Time flies.... Packing, unpacking, arranging, dressing, showering, wandering the museum...fills the time. Reading, dozing, worrying about getting up at 3:30 in the morning.

		Reading. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman is a good book. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to know a little more about the man and who wants to learn to doubt. I've finished it and will start another book on the plane.
		I thought, stuck in the Holiday Inn Express room with the computer out, that I might write more than the journal. I thought wrong.
		Exercise Forty-five minutes biking to nowhere. Ab and lower back exercises.
	.	I was still in the this good mood. The cab driver didn't know where the hotel actually was...which he didn't mention until we were nearly to Burlingame but it didn't bother me. I spotted the sign. I double checked the address when I got out. Nothing really bothered me. Nope. Well, tomorrow I fly. That will ruin my mood!