How The Other Half Lives

My Beloved spoils me. Each year, he finds some fun and different thing to do to celebrate my birthday. One year, we went to the Sierras to enjoy the snow and went ice skating on top of a mountain with a view of Lake Tahoe below. Another year, he took me to Pacific Grove to see the monarch butterflies and to go whale watching on the bounding sea. This year, I was treated to the way the Other Half lives, two nights at the graceful and venerable Mark Hopkins hotel on Nob Hill.

Our room, luxuriously appointed with marble in the bathroom, a great, cushy bed and even a terry cloth "cosy" on the bathroom scale lest our little toesies get chilly, faced Grace Cathedral across the lovely little park next to the Flood mansion that is now used as a private club, with a peekaboo view of the Golden Gate bridge, Alcatraz and the Pacific Ocean beyond.

The doorman addressed us by name, the daily selection of newspapers is free and the room included this elegant little breakfast buffet served in hushed peace with light classical music playing in the background. I could get used to life on Nob Hill.