Lola and osso have posted some stream-of-consciousness musings of the weekend past in the City by the Bay; let me add to them.
Our arrival Good Friday afternoon was on-time and found us famished, so we walked around the corner and down Geary to John Foley's Irish Bar and had some fish and chips.
The King George had a marvelous little alcove in the back; they use it for a lounge in the evening and serving continental breakfast in the morning; we took it over for our Gathering.
We ate dinner at Piperáde (a French word for stew or porridge, I am told) and it was too loud for those of us plagued with the hearing deficiencies aggravated by background noise. Food was OK but not superlative.
Saturday morning we went by cab to the Embarcadero Farmer's Market and had breakfast at Sinbad's (Lola has related; am still waiting for pictures of the 34B-cup Eggs Benedict, c.i.). Jossobuco has also described our Market Street stroll, gallery walk, tea at Needless Markup, so I'll tell about Neibaum Coppola, where we had a late lunch.
The building itself is a monument to art and architecture. Look:
Francis Ford and Sophia could be seen on the walls with memorabilia from their films (and occasionally in person if you're lucky, which we weren't).
But the company, the conversation, and the wine made up for that small shortfall.
And the pizza. It was
all that. Ms. Did wouldn't let me order the tomato and garlic, but I did have some of c.i.'s. Cloves at repose on a blanket of gravy. Scrumptious.
City Lights was an immersion in the karma of the Sixties, and so was Vesuvio, with pictures of Ginsberg, Kesey, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Gene Hackman, Ron Kovic and others plastering the walls.
Dinner that night at 500 Jackson (you've already seen the pictures) but what hasn't been mentioned was the spectacular tumbling of one of the sorbets by the graceful Lola. (Sorry, dear; I'll expect payback later.)
Several of us ordered the Dungeness crab and got served
the whole crab:
...and poor george got deserted. Sorry that happened,
compadre.
Sunday was the Japanese Tea Garden and the GGB.
Dinner that night was our best setting and perhaps our best eating. Solea set aside their private room (it's just behind the vase of red here...)
... even though our group was down to half-size, and it proved ideal for our waggy tongues. Our waiter spoke in an appropriately lilting French-accented English, and kid-gloved us for about three hours. We had a delicious three course
prix-fixe meal and lots of
vino.
An appropriate ending to an excellent weekend.
And what can I say that hasn't already been said about these wonderful people?
Let me echo the sentiment of others by saying that the online personalities you discern from their words written here are greatly enriched by the meeting of the folks face-to-face.
Gatherings are the bomb. Everyone should get to one if they can, and some should become regular occurrences.
More about the Dids' California vacation later.
My hometown welcomed you all! 
