Memo to AA Marketing: We're Falling For It

Dear American Airlines Marketing Dept.:

I just wanted to let you know that your almost daily emails and notifications of sales, bonuses, and special offers really do work. Thanks to one of your recent promotions, for example, we flew to San Francisco on short notice even though we had just visited there less than three months ago.

Please keep the emails coming.

Sincerely,

Last Saturday, May 7, we flew to San Francisco and came back Wednesday, May 11. We stayed at the Kimpton Harbor Court Hotel right on Embarcadero, a block from the Ferry Building. The only annoyance of the entire trip was faulty Internet service at the hotel -- despite the best efforts of their IT support staff, their ISP did not play well with our older MacBook. We're back in Fort Worth now, so instead of receiving live, as-it-happens reports from the scene you will have to settle for an after-the-fact blog post and snapshots from the past.

A highlight of our trip to San Francisco back in February was reconnecting with friends we haven't seen in years, even decades. Because of an AA special offer (see above), we were able to surprise these same long-lost friends with "Hey! Guess what? We're back!"

We ate well this trip. In particular, we had a great Italian dinner at Firenze By Night with Val and Ron, and an equally great Peruvian dinner at La Mar with Jim. Terri and I also had our first ever In 'N Out Burger, at Fisherman's Wharf. In 'N Out is good -- we went back the next day, and are looking forward to their new location in Fort Worth -- but it will never replace Whataburger in my affections. California burgers tend to have a 'special' sauce that is really runny Thousand Island dressing, which to me is not very special at all.

The weather was gorgeous the entire time. By 'gorgeous' I do not mean 'pleasant' but really gorgeous: bright sunshine, an occasional puffy cloud, crisp winds, and temperatures in the 50s and 60s. Just standing around and breathing in this climate gives one a sense of inner well-being and contentment.

We bought transit passes. When we buy transit passes, we make sure to get our money's worth: we rode both running cable car lines end to end (the California line is down for repairs), streetcar F from end to end (Fisherman's Wharf to Castro), and buses here and there. One of the greatest pleasures of traveling, for me, is riding public transportation in cities with good systems. I don't care much where we go so long as I get to hop on a bus, streetcar, or subway. (Note, however, that San Francisco Muni bus route #18 really sucks.)

Thanks to Val and Ron, we got a tour of some scenic highlights: the Golden Gate Bridge and Fort Point; Lincoln Park, Cliff House and the Pacific Coast; lunch at Beach Chalet and a meander through Golden Gate Park; a drive up Twin Peaks with an overlook of the Bay; and Alamo Square and the Painted Ladies. Gorgeous, all of it.

We also did some exploring on our own. The City Hall is so gaudy it's suitable for burying Napoleon. Westfield San Francisco Centre (a pretentious way of saying 'shopping mall') is so huge we never found the food court. The de Young Museum is so cool you won't mind getting lost inside.

And now it's time for snapshots. Some of the snapshots refer to places and events discussed in the blogpost. Some of the snapshots are not referenced in the blogpost at all. Not everything in the blogpost has a corresponding snapshot.

With those caveats in mind, here's my Flickr photos from this trip to San Francisco. Or, if you prefer a quasi-filmic experience, the slideshow version.