...although I didn't see as much as I'd intended, thanks to the specialness and so-much-to-do conference and a hotel that didn't drive me out the door in search of air and space and solitude as often happens. In fact I didn't even scout the shops around Union Square or the big Westfield Mall in the next block to the hotel or Macys or Bloomingdales or Borders (shocking, I know!)
The great thing: thinking about this on the trip home and now as I'm writing this post, I have no regrets. I did what I felt like doing, went to the workshops I felt like attending, kicked back with a coffee or a drink and a chat with friends when I wanted, and didn't succumb to the pressure of being here, there and everywhere that has exhausted me at previous conferences.
This all sounds as though I didn't make it out of the hotel which is so not the case. Day 1 we found Mel's Diner for breakfast and returned again for a post-literacy signing hamburger and root-beer float (the addiction, I tell you, had to have). Then there were the daily Walgreen visits for the staples: bottled water and bandaids and breakfast snacks. How does anyone make it to the conference breakfast, I ask, when I'm lucky to stagger into an 8.30 workshop with coffee in hand and eyes barely open? A lunch at Annabelle's, the PASIC reception at Neiman Marcus, the Harlequin party at the Four Seasons, were all further excuses for a short, manageable even in heels, walk.
On Saturday afternoon we had a couple of hours, a window of opportunity that beckoned, and of course we found ourselves drawn to the bay. Along with every tourist west of the Rockies. We'd thought about doing one of the short cruises that take you under the bridge and around Alcatraz, mainly because getting out on the bay gives another perspective. Due to the crowds, we didn't and so glad.
We stood on the now-uncrowded pier and watched the packed ferry rock by and decided that being by the water was enough, that leaning on the rail and looking back at the hillsides was enough, that the whip of the breeze and the bark of the sea lions and the stretch of choppy blue-grey water at our backs was enough.
My favourite cities are all built on harbours or bays or by the ocean. It's not as though I was born near water or feel compelled to live by water. I'm not a water sign. I don't have a pool. But by the water I feel a drawing power and an elemental response that is both calming and stimulating. Paradoxical, I know, but that's how it is.
Down by the bay with fellow Aussie authors Fiona McArthur (Hq Medicals) and Barbara Hannay (Hq Romance.)Labels: Conference, RWAmerica, San Francisco
