I guess they knew I was coming! Look at the welcome sign they put out for me!

So, for this trip, instead of booking via the travel agency at work, I was told to book via Hotwire and get a good deal on the Intercontinental in the Buckhead area of Atlanta. The rate: $82/night. And let’s just say, it’s a big steal! Napakasosyal!

The room is just sumptuously decorated, with luxurious fabrics, and very clean, refined wood furniture. The bathroom has separate tub and shower. I’m just overwhelmed with lots of small details that you’ll only find at 5-star establishments.

For instance, while I was downstairs having my dinner, the housekeeping staff came in to do turn-down service. They had a small chocolate on my pillow, and the had ice and glasses in the serving area all set for any type of beverage that I wished before going to bed. Now that’s service!

Of course, I’m making the most out of this gig. After 6+ hours of flying and airport time, I took a very nice warm bath in the tub, and just lay there for about half an hour relaxing. For dinner, I went to the downstairs restaurant, and had the most scrumptious meal of grilled scallops on a bed of arugula and mushroom risotto with a balsamic vinegar reduction. Abolutely divine!

Now why can’t all business travel trips be this good? I even jokingly texted Leonel “Heto, babuyin! Kulbam!”

For example, they said the Olympics was such a big joke if you were there. One of the folks who I chatted w/ sad that a famous news commentator remarked “These were good games” as opposed to “These were the best games.” This commentator only said it about Atlanta in all the years that he’s been covering the Olympics. Talk about a diss!
Dee and Leonie even told me their experiences – it wasn’t the best. Think promdi but w/ a US context – redneck hicks, small world thinking.

OK – I think I’m setting the bar lower now. We’ll see when I get back…

It was pleasantly warm in Minneapolis at the onset, but by the time the weekend rolled over, the heat setting turned up a bit!

I had a blast catching up w/ Dee. He never ceases to amaze me w/ his comments, insights and challenges. You can read more about our discussions here.

In the meantime, enjoy some photos! (If you see a pic that’s interesting, click on it!)

With the teeming restaurants of the world class food scene here in San Francisco, we spent a lot of the weekend eating and drinking. On the day that Pipo came over, we had a wonderful lunch at Juban, a Japanese grillery in Menlo Park. Very much like Korean barbecue, but our highlight of that meal was the Kobe Beef sashimi. Yes – raw, Kobe beef that was absolutely sublime!

Later during the day, we headed up to The City (as SF is fondly known to Bay Area residents) and traipsed for a bit along the Embarcadero – catching views of the Bay Bridge – before heading to dinner to my one of my fave restaurants, B44, a Catalan Bistro. I introduced Pipo to the wonderful paellas – especailly my favorite of all – the Paella Negre – a paella blackened by a sauce that uses squid ink as its base, with a dollop of heavenly garlic aoli. Yummmmm!

We spent the entire day in Napa, enjoying a 4-hour ride on the Napa Valley Wine Train. During the 4-hours, as idyllic views of the valley vineyards went past us, we ate a sumptuous 4 course lunch that typified the Napa life of good food and good wine!

In spite of the food and libations (especially the libations) to drown out love’s labours lost in L.A., Pipo couldn’t help but think of his special someone…

As I’ve heard people say…it takes but a second to catch the glint of someone’s eye, a minute to know their name, an hour to get to know them, a day to fall in love with someone, but it takes a whole lifetime to forget them, especially if they’ve made such a huge impact on your life…