why did I not know about this?

Somehow, I'd never heard of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco before today (this is possibly due to the fact that I've never stayed in SF before - visited from Palo Alto, from Sacramento, and from Oakland, yes, but never stayed.  And I find it quite magically seductive, so if anyone has a spare job, let me know).  OK, this is super-kitsch.  It was built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition - the World's Fair that celebrated the city's recovery from the 1906 earthquake and fire, and it was originally made of plaster - now it's reconstructed in concrete, completed in 1967, and then piece-by-piece renovated in 2008.  So really, it's ridiculous: when is a ruin not a ruin?  But it's also wonderful ...

And then, this evening, after the world's noisiest conference reception party imaginable, a walk through Chinatown in the thin rain (must go back in better conditions) to dinner, and past the famous City Lights bookstore.  I'll be back there, too.