Sharon's half brother Bob and his wife Gloria came to San Francisco in June of 2009. Bob works for Microsoft in charge of the travel department that coordinates the travel arrangements for executives at his company. It was a nice few days for them to travel and visit the city on the Bay. Sharon and I decided to meet the two of them and spend two nights in San Francisco also. Bob had made a nice arrangement for us to stay at the Mark Hopkins across the street from where they were staying: the Fairmont Hotel on top of Nob Hill.

We met them at the Oakland airport and then drove to San Francisco. It had been about a year since we saw Bob and Gloria in Redmond, Washington, and so it was fun to see them again in the Bay Area. After checking in at the hotel, we decided to take the cablecar down California Street to the Ferry Building.

At the end of the line we walked through the Hyatt Hotel atrium and across to the Ferry Building. This famous structure has been remodeled and now has numerous nice shops. The three musketeers had to have a taste of chocolate before we went back to the cable car and up California to our hotels. This time we all rode on the outside of the cablecar.

That evening we had an early 'happy hour' at the Fairmont's 'Tonga Room' (it has been there for eons and it was fun reminiscing about the old days). The buffet was great along with the cocktails and our long conversations about all that has happened in the last decades.

We retrieved our car from the parking garage and drove to Golden Gate Park. One of the first stops was at the Conservatory of Flowers. This is where we saw hundreds of tropical plants, orchids and other exotic flowers. I know I took too many pictures here but I will show some anyway.

From the park we drove through the Presidio to the Golden Gate Bridge, then along the north side of the Bay for a look of the bridge, and onto Sausalito for lunch.