Fun in San Diego!

The best part of the RWA National Conference isn't just the beautiful cities we get to visit, although San Diego is pretty cool. The view from my hotel room was spectacular, to say the very least.

Getting there wasn't too horrible, despite being one of the longer days of my life. I caught brief glimpses of the Great Salt Lake from the plane during the approach to our first stop in Salt Lake City.

On Wednesday, we took a trolley tour of the city, which was great fun. I was snapping pictures as fast as I could (about 250 in all). This is one of the better ones. Just wish I could remember what it was.

We had lunch in Little Italy, and since I wasn't the one driving the trolley, I felt justified in having wine with lunch.

After that, I went a bit wild in Old Town and bought a Mexican skirt and a purse and a few other accessories.

I wore the stuff I bought to the Literacy Signing on Wednesday evening. Wish you could see the skirt in this picture. The purse was really cute, too.

During the conference, I sat through hours of great workshops and I came away with more information than I could process in such a short time and caught up with a few old friends and made a few new ones. That's me with Dee Brice, whom I met at one of the first Literacy signings I ever attended, oh so many years ago!

As always, Sourcebooks takes us out to dinner on Friday night. We've been to some pretty ritzy places in the past, and the food is always good, but I don't recall ever having a view like this from my table before!

My roomie, the current IRWA President Mellanie Szereto was a bit of a celebrity, having been nominated for a service award. In her acceptance speech--surely the shortest in the history of RWA--she said, and I quote:  "I'm not a public speaker, so I'll just say thank you."

At the Sourcebooks signing on Saturday afternoon, I gave away a whole case of books and most of my swag. It's always great to sell out, even though you aren't actually selling anything!

Saturday night was the Rita and Golden Heart Awards ceremony. I had practiced putting on my sari beforehand (it had been a while since I last wore one) and got it all tucked and pleated in record time. However, I still had to have fellow IRWA member, Judith Bastin pin the drape over my shoulder. Just can't reach that far and pin the fabric without stabbing myself!

After that, it was up at 4am to catch the plane back to Indiana, this time via San Francisco. Couldn't see the Golden Gate from the airport, and the mountains were a bit foggy. Maybe I'll get back there again someday.

The whole experience was fabulous, but the very best part????

Taking selfies with my readers!

To commemorate the conference, I'm giving away a tote bag, beach towel, notepad, pens, buttons, and books (I'll probably throw in a few more) to one lucky winner! 

All you have to do is post a comment or use the Rafflecopter for your chance to win!

 a Rafflecopter giveaway