San Francisco, Monday & Tuesday

Monday was the final day in the booth! We ended up seeing around 900 doctors & feel we can count this trip successful. I took a few pictures of the gang at breakfast so I'll always remember the beautiful room we ate in every morning. I won't mind recalling the food either...delightful!

The highlight at the end of each show (for Erica & I) is the opportunity to "trade" products with other exhibitors. Lucky for us Brian and John M. don't mind handling the booth for the last two hours while we run around like chickens with our heads cut off! Thankfully it's so slow the two of them can handle it alone.

Erica & I stretching before the trading begins

I've got the goods

the aftermath!

Erica lives to bug Brian!

this is the North side of the exhibit hall from the 2nd floor....there was a South side too....huge!our booth!

After work we decided to go casual and grab an In-N-Out burger by the wharf. Apparently they are a famous chain on the west coast & I agree that they are great. We walked around for a little while, grabbed taffy & souvenirs for Brian's kids & experienced the best cab ride of my life! Our cab driver literally went 40mph down Lombard street....ran a stop sign at the end so we would hit our heads on the roof of the cab & went 7 blocks in 2.5seconds. I LOVED IT! Brian was ok until the running of the stop sign took place! :) I salute him for living up to my expectations of what a cab driver should be. Feel free to listen to this (#2) anytime to get a good understanding of what was going through my mind.

yummy burgers!

going down Lombard!

scared in the cab!

with the man himself

Tuesday was just our travel day home. Erica & I ended up driving back from Minneapolis since we were pretty sure our flight to Rochester would be delayed due to the weather. It ended up being a good choice and we got home two hours earlier than if we would have waited. We traveled from 6:30am until 4pm & were exhausted!

San Francisco, Saturday & Sunday

Saturday was the first long day of work. We worked the booth at the conference until a little after 5pm and saw close to 500 doctors the first day alone. By the end of a day like that you can't hardly swallow because your mouth is so dry from talking non stop & you can't feel your feet from standing in heels all day, BUT it's really beneficial to meet so many doctors in your area.

Nadia is our new hire that starts in July. She will cover the NW, but mainly all of her efforts will go towards visiting CA since it's so huge. She's interned at PSI making calls for the past two years when she's been out of school in the summer etc. She came to the conference for a day to get a taste of what it will be like next year. It was great to have some extra help in the booth.


Saturday night Nadia joined some family from the area for dinner. The rest of us went to a restaurant Erica's friend that is from SF recommended called One Market.

Sunday was another busy day in the booth. We tried a tapas restaurant in town called Thirsty Bear. It was delicious! I should have taken a picture of the lady dancing with a fan under a red light, but take my word for it when I say it was entertaining.

Erica & I in the booth on Sunday

us with one of our favorite dishes from Thirsty Bear

Brian & John excited for food

Walking back to our hotel

San Francisco, Friday

Friday was our day to sight see. This is the first time we've come out early to a show so we can explore the city. We're very grateful that Brian let us do this for San Francisco.

The day started with a trolley ride from Union Square to Fisherman's Wharf. I took pics. of the cute houses that I secretly long to live in! Do any of you think John would go for that!? Our first stop was Ghirardeli Square where we visited the original chocolate shop for some free samples & walked around the cute stores in the area. I loved them!

We then saw the seals at Pier 39 & ate at a great place overlooking the boats and Alcatraz. I had a crab cake & it was wonderful. I pretty much had seafood the whole week! Then, we were off to Alcatraz. We took the audio tour & learned a lot. It was worth the trip!

turning the Trolley around

every street here is cute!

Erica & I with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background

I love them!

See...there are rednecks everywhere....even in San Francisco!

Conrad named this store

Alcatraz in the background

the knives were outlined in the kitchen so guards knew immediately if one was missing!

Looking at the "free world" of SF from the prison
where they escaped, dug with spoons!

so small!

locked up!

inside the "isolation" cell where the worst prisoners were kept

Brian was exhausted...maybe it's because he made us sprint back to the ferry!

Later that night we took the Mayo residents in Rochester out to dinner at Two Hawthorn Lane. It was a long, but great day!

WICKED!!!! San Francisco, Thursday

Thursday night we arrived in San Francisco! We had a great cab ride to our hotel b/c our cab driver secretly wanted to be a tour bus driver & pointed our everything the whole way there...places to eat, where OJ Simpson grew up, the ship yard, etc. We stayed at the Palace Hotel (built in 1875) located in the financial district & it was absolutely beautiful. The coolest part about the hotel was the famous Pied Piper Bar.

That night my boss, Brian & I went to see the Broadway play WICKED!!!! I've been wanting to see this play forever & I learned it moved from Chicago (driving distance) to San Francisco (not driving distance) so this was my only chance to see it soon. Erica didn't join us b/c she had recently seen it. I had high expectations & was not disappointed! I highly recommend this play. The best part was being able to see it at the historical Orpheum theater! The only downer to the night was that we could not find any place to eat that wasn't a 30 minute wait. So....we found this nasty bar with cafeteria tray food. I couldn't complain too much since I was about to see Wicked, but I wasn't pleased. Erica decided to wait and eat dinner at the hotel once we split & I don't blame her.

Brian & I outside the theater

we sat near the door that you see, great seats!

Galinda & Elphaba

Emerald City

Shiz University

Popular

what our stage looked like!