Under ideal circumstances, I would prefer to schedule our time away from work more evenly through out the year. We were back home from our trip to Italy for barely a week before we set off again to San Francisco. The dates for this trip with imposed upon us for we were attending the American Thoracic Society conference. Medical meeting have a reputation for being more about the location than the content. It is hard to remember when I attended a meeting where I did not spend the majority of my time in a dim and invariably freezing conference room. As you can see we did manage to squeeze in some time to explore the city. While we were unable to make the ferry ride to Alcalatraz, we were able to see many of the various neighborhoods. We did manage to ride on the Golden Gate Bridge and the iconic Cable Cars. We even took a ride in an autonomous driving care. I wonder as I am writing this how long it will take for that experience of be routine? While I wish we had more time to take advantage of what the city had to offer, I am happy we were able to see as much of the city as we did. It was a pretty good conference in a great city!!