San Fran was a Whirlwind!

From the second we landed in SFO to the moment we left for LAX was insane. So, this post is going to be the short version of a very long (and fun) week in San Francisco. Our first convention event was the International Welcome Reception at the Palace Hotel. We met Jason and Kona at the reception, both real estate agents in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii...

The education sessions started the next day, Friday. I attended all the International and luxury home sessions. Hilton learned more about technology and Astrida learned about memory power and organizing. I also ran into Angela E. at the International Networking Center...

For Happy Hour on Friday we accidentally crashed the North Carolina Association of Realtors party thinking it was the Resort & Second Home party that started an hour later. Astrida was mad at me because she was talking to everyone about fractional ownership and second homes and trying to figure out why everyone was from North Carolina :o) We ended up going next door with the Senior Editor of Realtor Magazine and his friend from Realtor.org (sorry - I can't remember your name - no card!). Cool guys from Chicago.

Afterwards, we returned to Jillian's for the ACTUAL Resort & Second Home party. I had never attended a function for this organization and I have to say it was super fun...and a great group of people. They are having their symposium on the Big Island in February 2006 and we will definitely make our way over there. I can't remember what we did after that. I think Astrida climbed the fire truck in front of the hotel and I went to bed.

Saturday morning I received my Certified International Property Specialist designation at a CIPS designee breakfast. A few from my Honolulu class were there: Jenny Pakula, Deputy CEO from the Oregon Association of Realtors, Chris & Cornell the Portland Buys and Lisa. Saturday evening was the black-tie affair known as International Night Out. I had taken a dress withme that I wore to a fundraiser in Honolulu. The theme was Carnivale and when I realized that it was so close to Halloween, I decided that it would look like a witch costume so Astrida and I hit Union Square and found the most fabulous red satin strapless gown at BCBG (always my savoir). The event was HUGE - around 1000 attendees. They opened with Flamenco Dancers. We sat next to Brian Berry, President of the Kona Board of Realtors, a new CIPS designee as well.