Nemo Delays Frisco

February 12, 2013

I had a lovely trip planned. I was going to attend a Verinata Board meeting and then sneak in a two-day visit to Phoenix to see my Mother-by-Marriage Pat before returning to San Francisco. The weather gods had other ideas in the form of Superstorm Nemo.  We were snowbound at home for several days in which the airport was closed, a driving ban was in place, and the city of Boston forgot to plow our neighborhood.  My trip got rescheduled by a few days, but I ended up having a pleasant flight and arrived to a sunny and warm San Francisco.

All of the medical meetings are held around the convention center just south of Market Street. I’ve stayed at most of the hotels in the area. The maternal fetal medicine meetings are usually held at the Hilton, which is just on the border of the tenderloin district. When I found out that the conference rate was $300 I said, “No way (sorry, Josh!)” and booked a room at the Hyatt Union Square for half the price. It’s a much better microenvironment as well, flanked by Tiffany’s, Saks, and Union Square, which was decorated with red lanterns for Chinese New Year.

Just outside the hotel entrance was a very interesting bronze fountain I’d never noticed before. It was created by the San Francisco artist Ruth Asawa. It consists of 41 individual bronze plaques that feature San Francisco landmarks (some real, some imagined). Over 100 children participated in the creation of the fountain using bread dough to form their contributions. My room was on an upper level, which provided an intriguing view of the lighted Star that is the symbol of the Starlight Lounge at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel.

ADDENDUM: Ruth Asawa died August 6, 2013 at the age of 87. As a Japanese-American child during World War II she lived in detention camps. Remarkably, there she was taught to draw by animators from the Disney Studios. Some of Ms. Asawa’s wire sculptures are in the Guggenheim and Whitney Museums in New York. However, she is most famous for her fountains such as the one in the picture.