48 Hrs in the City by the Bay

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to travel to California for work. The trip was scheduled for about 48 hours and we would be within 30 minutes of San Francisco. As most of you know, I am all about getting the most out of my travels especially if they are free. :-)

Our plane landed on Monday about 5pm and we had about 2.5 hours of daylight to hit all the major landmarks in the city. As our plane was descending into the "city by the bay", I spied with my little eye a very large fog bank. I was still determined to show my K.C. guests what the city had to offer. Once we had our rental car, we were off on our journey.

The fog bank

We hit Twin Peaks which are a couple of hill peaks that over look the entire city. Unfortunately, the earlier mentioned fog bank was resting directly on the peaks. We then headed to a beach located in the vicinity of the Golden Gate Bridge and walked on the beach for a few.

The view from twin peaks

Hemal,Jason,Me,Ted

The beach

The Golden Gate was our next destination... When we arrived, there was nothing there. I had to explain to everyone that there was indeed a big bridge that went across this large body of water. We had to walk about a 1/4 mile onto the bridge before we could see any proof that a very large bridge did exist. I think some of them were still in doubt.

The Golden Gate is behind us. Really

On the bridge.

Since we were all still on Kansas City time, it was really two hours ahead of the local time and dinner was in order. We enjoyed a very messy dinner at Joe's Crab Shack and then made our way to the hotel in Walnut Creek.

The dinner crew

Ted after a satisfying meal

The client visit took up the entire next day and as dinner approached I had a craving for the best burgers in the U.S. According to google, In n Out was a short drive down the road so we loaded up the rental and headed out to get a bite to eat. As we were contemplating our next moves, we heard a pack of police vehicles and a helicopter go screaming by on the freeway. It was a high speed chase! The next day we read about it and the guy they were chasing had done some very bad things. When they caught him, the ended up shooting him and found a body in his car... that is crazy!

Burgers beyond belief

dinner time

We all decided that we needed to give the Golden Gate another chance and headed into San Francisco for a late night viewing. Our "Never Lost" navigation system took us on the scenic route and after about an hour of driving and following in the tracks of the high speed chase, we made it to the bridge. The drive over the bay bridge at night was breath taking! We drove by AT&T park (the Giants were in town and playing), through China Town and up and down all the steep roads that make San Francisco, San Francisco.

I hope your business trips are eventful as mine.

Bill