Saturday, August 17

Some of us are early risers no matter what time zone we are in. This morning, I was fortunate that Peaches was in a rare early rise mode as well. (Gee, if I could have PREDICTED this, I would have been aboard the boat , but "oh well"!) I got Day One of the trip report posted while she was in the shower and then we decided that we were hungry. Really hungry.

One of the things about FT events is that there is a rare group of folks who actually rise early when there isn't a good reason to do so (like catching an ungodly early flight, going sailing, or drinking beer in an RV). We knew at least one person, however, would be up for a hearty breakfast, so we woke Beckles. Twenty minutes later, he joined us at the W and we got directions for where to go get a "good greasy breakfast".

We headed down to the Market to a lovely bar and grill where we had a lovely window overlooking the flower stands and the fish throwers. Eggs, smoked salmon, biscuits, and home fries later, we had enough energy to do some wandering in the Market. (Actually, first stop was Sneaker World to buy The Peach a pair of shoes without heels! ) Around 10 am, my cell phone started ringing as folks began calling to find out what we were doing for the afternoon. We pow-wowed for a second and then called everyone back to let them know to meet at the W at noon dressed to explore. We continued wandering the Market and Beckles left to go to the Hyatt to see what his new suite looked like.

By noon, we had hiked the hills back to the W where I012..., Beckles, markbach, ClueByFour, and BingoSF were waiting. We piled into two rental cars and headed for the RedHook. We pulled up just in time to see the Fan O Chex heading in for the 1:00 pm tour. We stayed back in the restaurant and had some munchies (and some folks had a nap) while waiting on the 2:00 pm tour. While we were eating, the Missy Van arrived so we had more FTers to play with. We were fortunate that chexy chose to do the 2:00 pm tour as well. He was able to fill in a few gaps for the tour guide and made sure we all got our fair allotment of brew. When we got done, we headed back out to the restaurant to socialize and found that baraboodish and her husband had stopped by to have lunch, so everyone stayed another 45 minutes or so and enjoyed more fine RedHook products.

3:00 meant naptime for some, so we headed back. Beckles, I012..., markbach, and I decided to stay in the W lobby for drinks and a snack and AusTXHiker came down to join us. We girls eventually headed upstairs to get ready for dinner and around 7, everyone headed over to the Desert Fire.

The Desert Fire dinner coordinated by Missy was wonderful. We had a huge balcony at Pacific Place, great food, and lots of margaritas. I won't even try to mention all the names of folks here, but I got to catch up with lots of old friends and meet several new ones. I only regret that I didn't get to talk to more people... I tend to be a "sitter" so I never made it around to a lot of the folks at other tables or standing inside. I did finally get to meet dhammer53 and also got to talk with a fellow Tech-Ex. Freddie Jr. was successfully passed on to Spiff who will be escorting him to Denver before they both rejoin me in ORD for the transpac leg of the September SIN trip. Missy did a wonderful job pulling off a classy evening that was enjoyed by all!

After the Desert Fire folks decided to kick us out, we led a mass procession of folks to Kells. I think we slightly shocked our poor waitress when a clump of about twenty folks walked in and immediately pulled together every table in her section. She managed to get our drink order (and snap a couple of group photos) when the SECOND wave of FTers came flying through the door. It was pretty loud inside, however, so this group said their hellos and most ended up back on the patio.

As I turn into a pumpkin at midnight, Peachy and I started saying our goodbyes just as chexfan arrived. We managed to stick around a few more minutes but made it out to the patio to collect markbach just as a yellow cab magically appeared to whisk us away to sleep!