September US trip - San Fran fun (and work too)

Once again I am behind on the blog....it is almost the end of October and I'm writing about my trip to the US over a month ago. (you will notice I back-date the blog entries...sneaky). I almost skipped this one, as it was mostly a work trip, but I couldn't skip the fun weekend I spend in San Francisco with one of my most loyal blog readers!! This one's for you Noel......

I've actually been focusing most of my work on building business and gaining distributors in the US. Still working on the UK business, but more and more in the US. It's hard to do from 6-8 hours ahead, as most people in this industry like to work on the phone or in person (as opposed to email). Hence my quarterly marathon US trips. This time I visited Texas and California. Exhausting travel, but all in all got some good work done.

I flew on Labor Day from London to Houston (only slightly delayed by the hurricane arriving the next day), where I joined a state-wide tour with my distributor and almost all of their wine & spirits suppliers. They shuttled us from Houston to Austin to Dallas on a bus and they brought potential customers in to one central venue to sample our products. I met some good contacts and it was a fun group of people, but so exhausting. I did mange to squeeze in a dinner with some girlfriends the only free 2 hours I had in Austin! Great to see you Courtney, Erica and Mariam!

From Dallas, I flew to San Francisco and finally had some downtime. I spent a relaxing weekend with my friend (and spin teacher/tri &run training buddy/fashion consultant) Noel and her family just north of San Fran. Dawson & Tanner are just the cutest little boys!. It was a fantastic weekend of weather and Noel tried her hardest to convince me that Kent and I need to move there. I must say it's very tempting...a few hard (and hilly) workouts, great shopping (both clothes and the best farmer's market I have ever seen!), a trip to Sonoma for a fantastic lunch....the list goes on. I even got to swim in the Bay thanks to Noel letting me join in the triathlon training session she coaches. Thank you Noel and Kenton for taking such good care of me!! Here are a few pics from the San Fran weekend:

Noel made me bike straight uphill for at least 45 minutes!

The gorgeous tomatoes at the farmers market - let's just say it would be heaven to shop here every weekend!!

Dawson having a shy moment. I can't believe what a little man he is now - I was there the day he was born!!

I met a few customers on Monday Tuesday in San Fran, and by chance met up with a friend from Oxford, who is working in NYC but was on a business trip to San Francisco. Random....but fun to catch up. We had a few glasses of wine and thought it would be hilarious to take a photo with this giant chair. Looking back...not really that funny. :-)

Next I was off to my big meeting of the week - a potential distributor for California. They are based in Santa Cruz, so I had a bit of driving to do. My meeting was early, so I took the fast, non-scenic route there. Had a great meeting, then decided to take the scenic coastal highway back. It was gorgeous! Driving right along the ocean, farms all around. Pacific Coast Highway. Yes, I took this pic while driving.

From Santa Cruz, I drove straight back to the SFO airport to fly to LA. By this time I was tired of travelling and really missing Kent. But, 2 evenings and 1 full day of work in LA before heading back to London. I have actually never been to LA before, so that was keeping me going! My hotel was just outside of Beverly Hills, and pretty easy to get to from the airport, Garmin-assisted of course. I took it easy Weds night and went for a nice run along the path in Santa Monica and picked up dinner from Trader Joes. How very California of me.

Thursday I visited tons of customers and got ready for a nice evening out. One of Potocki Vodka's best customers is a nice restaurant and martini bar in Beverly Hills - Nic's Lounge. The owner and his son took great care of me (and a guy I was meeting/interviewing as a potential LA salesperson). We had a fantastic dinner with the owner - we didn't even order, they just brought us food and drinks (Potocki Vodka of course). Then it was time for the VODBOX. What is the Vodbox, you ask? A walk-in freezer full of all different brands of vodkas. You don a fur coat and hat and do a vodka tasting! There was a good band in full swing, and it was a late night!

Here's a pic in the Vodbox with the owners, a guy from the local news, and Ms. Gayot (of gayot.com restaurant reviews)

Friday I packed up all of my goodies from Target and was on my way back to London. Unfortunately, American had booked me on a ridiculous 45 minute connection in Boston, which of course I missed because we sat on the runway in LAX for 2 hours.....so I spent the night in Boston and was a day late getting home from this marathon journey.......

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