I went to California!

The Nicest Guy in the World and I went to San Francisco a few weeks ago to visit an old friend of mine from high school (come to think of it, we've known each other since sixth grade!). Neither of us had ever been to California before, and it was so much fun! We walked through Muir Woods, went to some wine-tastings, ate at delicious restaurants, went to more wine-tastings, took a tour of Alcatraz (factoid: the Birdman of Alcatraz never actually kept birds at Alcatraz, only at Leavenworth), and did I mention the wine-tastings? ;) Although we mostly stayed with my friend, on our last night we stayed at this great hotel in the Union Square section of San Francisco called the Hotel Monaco, which we found through Hotwire.com. How great was it, you ask? So great, they lend you a "companion goldfish" for the night, if you know to ask for one -- which, thanks to my Fodor's guidebook, I did. I'm probably biased, but I thought my fish was extremely cute. I called him/her Blinky, after the fish on "The Simpsons" (even though thankfully s/he didn't have three eyes like the 'real' Blinky).