The Eye of Kris

Earlier this month, I flew to San Francisco for the Business Objects Americas User Conference, which I have attended almost every year since 2000. It used to be the International User Conference, but starting this year they have split it into two conferences - one in the US and one in Europe. It was kindof a bummer, because I've built some friendships with a few people from the U.K. that I didn't get to see this year.

Aside from that, though, the trip was a good one. I got a lot of good information out of the conference during the day, and in the evenings we were able to get out and see parts of San Francisco and eat some good food.

The weather was great while we were there, and we did a lot of walking. My hotel was a couple of blocks from the conference center, so fortunately, it didn't rain much at all and the temperatures were in the 70's.

The first night, we went down to Fisherman's Warf, and found a small Italian seafood restaurant. I was already full from the food provided at the conference, but I had some lobster bisque in a bread bowl, and it was tasty. We walked down to Pier 39 where you can see a large gathering of Sea Lions. They smell bad and make lots of noise.

Evening number two, we rode the cable car and stopped at the top of Lombard Street, which is "America's crookedest street". There were a lot of hills in that part of town, so you can get some good views of different parts of the city while giving your calf muscles a good workout. From there we walked down a steep road to Ghirardelli Square for dinner and ice cream.

Evening number three was the conference party, held at the Regency Center, and it was pretty cool. There were three levels of theaters, with tons of food and different entertainment in each. We spent most of our time listening to a jazz band on the top level. There was a bar made out of a solid block of ice, and they were serving ice cream cones out of it - including mango ice cream. Mmmm... mango...

The last day of the conference ended just early enough that we could drive out to the Golden Gate Bridge as the sun was going down. A consultant that we have worked with rented a car just for the occasion. I didn't get any good sunset pictures (just missed it), but there was enough light for us to drive across and up on the bluff overlooking the bridge and the city, and take a few pictures from there before going into Sausalito for some Thai food. Pictured here is Bob, on the right, and one of my co-workers, Kevin, on the left (believe it or not, that photo and the one at the top were taken well after the sun went down). There were two more of my co-workers at the conference, but they elected to leave the conference early and catch flights home instead of staying the last night.

My flight home left from Oakland, and I was fortunate enough to get a window seat on the side of the airplane facing San Francisco as we took off. I got several good photos of the city from the air, and in the closer ones I can find my hotel, the conference center, and many of the places we stopped (the photos don't quite have the same impact when shrunk down to fit on this page).

Even though it was a "business trip", it was nice to get out of town and away from the office for a while. I'd love to go back there sometime when I can actually have some time during the day to see more of the city and visit some of the landmarks. And of course, it would be great to have Mary and the boys there to enjoy it with me.