stairwells and hallways

got up at the crack of dawn to drive down to half moon bay for a work conference. the drive was shorter than expected and i arrived to meet my coworkers just in time for breakfast. i checked in at the desk and started to take in the 'legendary' ritz carlton of half moon bay. the decor was kind of unimpressive and it somewhat reminded me of a wealthy aunt's superficially decorated connecticut house. the view from my room was impressive but for some reason all of the bedding was off the bed and in a chair leaving me with a bare mattress. i sat down my bags and and headed downstairs. along the way i made note the the front desk clerk about teh bedding and casually said that they should just send someone up to take care of it to which he responded 'that's not how we do things here at the ritz carlton.' and immediately moved me to another room throwing in a fireplace for my trouble. nice. overall the hotel was decent and the staff was great but i did feel a bit out of my element, as far as higher end hotels go i had much better experiences with my stays at the husdon in new york, the w here in san francisco, the miyako hotel in osaka and the riverbank park place in london.

after a day of seminars and such our hosts bussed us all over to sam's chowder house for a dinner on them and an open bar. my coworker and i hit the food line and enjoyed the mussels, clams and even some whole lobsters that were steamed for us. a nice touch was the small cards that read 's'mores on the beach after dinner' and with that we were all outside enjoying the late evening view and the fire pits. it was such a good experience i actually felt like i wasn't in the bay area anymore and was much closer to somewhere like carlsbad or encinitas. after being bussed back to our hotel i had one more cocktail at the bar and went upstairs to pass out from my long day of meetings, it's crazy how much just sitting and listening to some one talk and schmoozing the day away can take out of you.