Rae La Soul

About a month ago, I was in San Francisco to attend Afrotech Tech Conference. It was a short stay. I mean really short. Short like — only one full day short. Even so, I was able to pack a good bit in. I arrived around 11PM on Friday. And Ubered to my hotel. It was a short ride which I was quite thankful for. The city was lit beautifully and as much as I wanted to get out and explore, I needed to rest. I was extremely jet lagged and I had an early morning ahead of me.

The Grant Hotel is where I would call home for the next 48 hours or so. It was located really close to the venue where Afrotech was being hosted so I assumed it was a win. The lobby was beautiful — nice lighting, modern concept, beautiful staircase — on the first floor.

But my room was on the 3rd floor. The carpet was dirty. The walls — paper thin. I literally heard people’s conversations in other rooms and every time any one walked on the floor above me, I heard it. I was in such awe and disappointment that I couldn’t do anything but laugh. The rooms looked nothing like the pictures online which was hilarious to me. This was my first time ever experiencing something like this — hence the humor I found in the situation. Grant Plaza Hotel – 1; Carla – 0.

I didn’t let me being suckered ruin my trip, especially since I was only there for a short time and the hotel was in such close proximity to my main reason for being in San Fran — Afrotech. But it was also close to a lot of restaurants and the center of what is known as Chinatown. After the conference was over, I met up with Gwanz and we galloped around the town. She truly made exploring San Fran, for the little time I would be there, totally worth it and hilarious.

We took a trip to see the bridge and spent some time talking about life in general. It was cold as hell by the water, but after a while, I began to warm up. Laughter does that as G has a way of damn near bringing me to tears with the way she tells her stories. I wish I could have stayed longer, but work and life and kids needing to go to school.. yea. And flying in late to a city that’s 1.5 hours away from where you live is proving to be a hassle.

I woke up really, really early in the morning to Uber my way back to the Golden Gate bridge to see it in it’s light. And I think I’ll have to agree with G, it’s definitely more beautiful at night. But, I think we can both agree that seeing the painted ladies is better in the daytime. I even had time to visit the house from Full House which brought back all of the nostalgic feels there were to have.

This was the shortest time that I’ve ever spent in a new place. But I’m glad I had the chance to experience it. For more about the things you can do if you’re staying a little longer, head over to G’s blog to read about San Francisco in detail. Tell her I sent you.