San Francisco, you were on your best behavior for us. Your sky was blue, your taxi cabs prompt, your coffee delicious, your streets colorful but unthreatening, and your residents inspiring. You know what? I've had enough of the Golden Gate bridge and its majesty and grandeur and its gateway to Napa-ness. How about a round of applause for the Bay Bridge instead? Let's dress up like a gang of motorcycle vikings and go to Oakland. C'mon, it'll be fun.

Unfortunately, I forgot to pick up my motorcycle viking outfit from the cleaners, and Alice's helmet wouldn't fit in her suitcase.

This is City Lights Bookstore and no, we didn't do a reading there, I just happened to be passing by as I walked home from our meet-up at The Press Club Wine Bar. At every stop on the BlogHer-sponsored portion of our tour we had meet-ups with whoever wanted to come out and say hello. Some who came out were bloggers, some we knew from Twitter, some were readers, and some were writers. Some drank and some didn't. If you're ever nervous about going to a meet-up where you don't know anybody, you can be pretty sure that everybody else feels the same way, and that will be fine. We'll talk to you no matter what the voices inside your head have been telling you about us. If you're still not sure which way to go, Alice is the funny one and I'm the one who wants to hear your entire life story. (If you need more reassurance than that, may I recommend you read Pema Chödrön's Comfortable with Uncertainty.)

At the readings, our crowds were about 80% women, 10% men, and 10% the result of men and women mixing their reproductive material. Note also the die-hard Fussy fans in the front row! San Francisco represents hard.

Anyone who asks me to sign her forehead automatically gets a piece of my heart. I'm writing up a proposal to arrange the marriage of this small, delightful person and my son. 

The meet-up after the reading at The Green Apple ended up being a full-on mimosa-fueled brunch situation complete with magnetic letters. Magnetic letters tempt young and old alike to misuse the English language. The sign for the restroom magically turned into BREASTROOM and it was way too far off the ground to blame on anyone under the age of twelve. Here you see our two sprites concocting some breathtakingly inappropriate poetry behind Alice's back. 

After the meet-up we took a long, sobering walk over to a friend's house to join her and a fistful of amazing women I was truly honored to meet for yet another mimosa-fueled gathering. This is Bug. He may be one of the most lovingly-photographed dogs on the Internet as we know it, but I couldn't help but want to take my own shot of him. Bug is a Very Good Boy and is loyal, helpful, calm, obedient--basically, he's the smallest Eagle Scout in these United States.

So, thank you, San Francisco, you never disappoint. Burlingame, I didn't take a single photo of you so your post is going to have to wait until I can borrow some of Maggie and Alice's.