This place is just a short hop from both Chez Zmayhem and Casa Grabien, close enough to the funk and liveliness of Haight Street to enjoy it without wanting to kill, 3 blocks from the streetcar's 4-minute ride to the Castro and 10-minute ride to the heart of downtown SF, and they serve afternoon tea.

The rooms are pretty too.

Room rates are here. Not cheap, but not bad (and that's without even looking for a group rate); they have suites, and rollaway beds for an extra $20, and the whole place is WiFi'd and handicapped-accessible.

Tom Scola stayed here a couple of years ago and liked it very much, IIRC, but I'll leave it to him to provide actual, like, details and facts.

Matt and beth stayed at the Stanyan Park after my big Halloween do; I seem to recall they loved it.

There are masses, and I do mean masses, of San Francisco hotels. We luckily don't suffer from what I think of as London or NYC Hote Syndrome: the Ritz or the pits, with little in between. The trick is to not look at the Mark Hopkins or the Fairmont and go, ooooh! Let's stay there!

Should I be getting hotel costing now? I'd need to know.

And JZ, BTW, I sent out an email - we're doing a wander in and out, most of the day watch-eat-drink-hang out this Saturday, for the Live 8 show. People will be literally wandering in and out, watching the live feed of the round the globe concerts. Let me know if you guys are coming.

That goes for Lexine, too - must re-ping her. I know Perkins and Sparky are both in Seattle this weekend. But anyway, mini-F2F at our place.

Deb, if you don't need dates, you can certainly start getting estimates. It certainly can't hurt with the decision-making.

Will do - but for now, off to go play. '

(back briefly)

If I hit the lottery, I say Vegas, Seattle, and San Francisco all sound lovely. If I don't hit the lottery, I can't go, unless it's within driving distance from my house.

Cindy, is that a question of money, purely? Because if you've got a guest bed and the frequent flyer miles sent your way, what's the problem?

The problem is that noone has really seen her. She might be pretend.

This place is just a short hop from both Chez Zmayhem and Casa Grabien, close enough to the funk and liveliness of Haight Street to enjoy it without wanting to kill, 3 blocks from the streetcar's 4-minute ride to the Castro and 10-minute ride to the heart of downtown SF, and they serve afternoon tea.

The Carl hotel is nice as well. It's where I stayed the first time I met Deb.

The Carl is adorable, and comfy as hell, and very affordable, but I don't know that it has enough rooms to handle a really large group.

One of the nice things about hotels in SF is that the City's so damned small - seven miles in each direction, and it has decent public transport, and many residents with cars who actually know how to drive here...

Hey Deb - you got parking room for an RV?

t refuses to give up the RV idea

t unless we pick a hotel with a pool

Aimee, you might find it hard to get an RV through our big parking gates. But parking RVs on Fulton Street, alongside the Park and a block from our house, is quite common.

Can someone tell me what dates we're looking at? I can take some time this week from writing and ring up a few concierges.

Also, you with the RV, me with the "oooooh, Sausalito or Mill Valley would rock!" thing.