This is a pretty good photo to sum up the weekend: wine and technology.

So I land in San Francisco and breeze off the plane and into my brand new on-loan-for-the-weekend 2011 Honda Insight hybrid. Oh, hello, pretty car with new car smell. Off I go to pick up Liz at her house.

“Are you one of those people who lands in San Francisco and immediately wants to go to In-N-Out?” she asked.

“I am, actually!” I said, “but I was too shy to say so.”

She laughed. “Oh no! We have to go now!”

I will love her forever for that.

After our diet busting meal we arrived at Boon hotel + spa and immediately started in with the cocktails, hugging, and mingling. Then the sun went down and there were the s’mores on a campfire and cozy blankets.

photo by Zan

Photo of Liz and Danielle by Zan.

Karen tried her first and declared it her last.

“You’ve never had a s’more before?” We were all incredulous.

“We don’t do this in Trinidad!” she exclaimed, shaking her curls.

We had no idea who our roommates (and bedmates!) were going to be until we got there, but I had my fingers crossed for a few people. One of them was Meg, and I did a happy dance when I found out we were together, since we’d been chatting on Twitter for a while and I really dig her.

Maggie said she paired us up because we have “the same enthusiasm for life”. Meg’s wedding blog bypasses the typical favors-dresses-napkins talk, and focuses on the emotions and stories of getting married and being a wife. It is so, so good, especially for me in my married-and-not-a-mom state.

The next morning we had non-pretentious wine education with sommelier Erin Sullivan, and now I can say things like “nose” and “boquet” without blinking.  Here she is breaking it down for us.

Isn’t she lovely?

Here are Danielle and Kelly giggling at our wine education.  I keep seeing photos of these two and thinking they are me.

Next we had tours of Arista Vineyards and Moshin Vineyards, where we had lunch.

Uh oh, Meg!  Almost out!

MORE PLEASE!  photo by Zan

Cheers, Leah!

Ellen Gerstein, the marketing director for Wiley Publishing, read everyone’s Life List and selected two “For Dummies” books for everyone based on them. I got Digital Portrait Photography and a set of CDs to learn Spanish. This was the first of several times I got teary-eyed over the weekend. So, so thoughtful and well done. Bravo, Ellen, and thank you.

Here’s something you don’t know: I have a sentimental spot for the “For Dummies” line. I have bought one at every single major turn in my life, ever since my family bought 1995′s “Macintosh Performa 630 For Dummies”. It was cool to have a brand I’ve grown up with show us some love.

Babies on tour!

{That’s Nicole Balch from Making it Lovely and Andrea Scher from Superhero Journal}

The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging around and then we had a fiesta dinner, complete with taco truck, where we discovered that Maggie’s husband Bryan makes a mean margarita. The favors were gigantic head flowers in various colors, and we quickly turned into looking like exotic plants having dinner together.

{Cecily, Meg, Liz, Maggie, Laura and Heather}

I picked a red one.

Hey, listen, when you’re taking a self-portrait with a real camera, it’s hard to get the focus right, ok?  Enjoy gazing at the crisply in-focus cinnamon colored freckles on my nose.

Part two tomorrow!