Today, Miles Away turns 20! And, to celebrate our 20th week in your podcast app, we're focusing on one of the most popular destinations in the US: San Francisco.
Sonoma County native and TPG associate editor Brendan Dorsey shares his Bay Area favorites, including a handful of San Francisco hotspots, from a tour of Alcatraz to a taste of the city's ever-expanding food scene.
You can play this episode of Miles Away above, or listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, including:
Acast
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Stitcher
Overcast
TuneIn
For more on planning a trip to San Francisco:
Full Transcript:
Zach Honig: Welcome back to Miles Away. This is your host, Zach Honig. Today, we are talking about San Francisco and the Bay Area in general. We're going to detail the city, the various activities and then your flight and hotel options -- so today, we have Brendan Dorsey, TPG's associate editor, on board with us.
Zach Honig: Welcome, Brendan.
Brendan Dorsey: Thanks for having me, Zach.
Zach Honig: We're talking about a town near your hometown, San Francisco.
Brendan Dorsey: Yes. Yeah, I'm originally from Santa Rosa, so about an hour north of San Francisco, but I spend a good amount of time in San Francisco.
Zach Honig: Santa Rosa, is it in Sonoma County?
Brendan Dorsey: It's in Sonoma County, yeah, wine country, so lots of wineries everywhere. Right next to Napa County, which is a little more famous -- but I think Sonoma has the better wines, so there's a rivalry between the two.
Zach Honig: Oh, man, yeah, it sure sounds like it.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah. Yeah.
Zach Honig: Can you break down San Francisco for me, just the neighborhoods, the places you might want to visit as a tourist?
Brendan Dorsey: Sure. I would say the city is quartered into four quarters. There is the northwest and the northeast. They're probably the two more popular areas. So, the northeast is where you're going to find Nob Hill, Russian Hill, the Marina, the Embarcadero, Financial District. That's like where everything's happening, I would say, a lot of the restaurants, museums, hotels, etc. You probably want to stay in that area. You're going to at least have the most options there.
Brendan Dorsey: The northwest is a little bit more quiet, so it's like the Richmond District, the Sunset District, a little more residential. And then when you go a little more south in the city, that's where you get to also residential areas. There's like Balboa Park, Dolores Heights... The Mission is almost in that area.
Zach Honig: I found myself, I think, going to Fisherman's Wharf area and the Waterfront. The Embarcadero, is that in this-
Brendan Dorsey: Embarcadero is also on the water, yeah.
Zach Honig: Okay, and does that fall within another area?
Brendan Dorsey: I would say those are all in, in general, the northeast area...
Zach Honig: Got it.
Brendan Dorsey: ... all pretty close to each other and definitely popular tourist spots.
Zach Honig: Yeah, that's where I've typically stayed and gone out and really explored, but, I mean, it's a pretty accessible city. Obviously, there's a very famous transportation option, the cable cars, right?
Brendan Dorsey: Yes, there are. Yeah.
Zach Honig: They're not practical necessarily though.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah, they're more of like a tourist fun thing to do, but they have some routes that can actually move you across parts of the city, but it's more like just a must-do, fun kind of thing. You can hang out of the side and let the wind blow in your hair while you're going up the big hill.
Zach Honig: Is it a pretty walkable city? I know there are some really steep hills.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah, it's very hilly in parts of it. Not all of it is hilly, so I think that's a little bit of a misconception, but definitely parts of it are places where you don't really want to be walking long distances. Now, with all the transportation companies, there's Uber, Lyft, so it's easy to get around with them. They also have the scooters there that you can-
Zach Honig: Oh, like the Birds?
Brendan Dorsey: Birds and Limes. There has been some controversy. I know they've eliminated it recently, but you can still access them. Yeah. It's walkable in parts of it, for sure. It's not a huge city.
Zach Honig: I've walked around. I don't think I've taken public transportation except to get to and from the airport, which is pretty easy to do. BART is ... makes it very accessible from the airport.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah. It's not too hard, I mean, at least if you're off one of the BART stations. BART doesn't go throughout the entire city, so you might have to take a cab to a BART station and, at that point, maybe you just go all the way, but if you're near a BART station, then it can definitely work.
Zach Honig: What does BART stand for?
Brendan Dorsey: It's Bay Area Rapid Transit.
Zach Honig: Okay.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah.
Zach Honig: All right, that makes sense. Who would you recommend visit San Francisco?
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah. I mean, I would say really anybody can find something to do there. There's nightlife, amazing food, even like outdoorsy parts within the city. There's a lot of parks right along the water, so (you) have access to that.
Brendan Dorsey: I went up growing up as a kid all the time with my family, and we had tons of fun, so there's a lot of kid-friendly museums -- the Exploratorium, which is really cool. It's even fun for adults, but I think anybody can find something that they want to do there. It's a gorgeous city, so you're going to enjoy that no matter what.
Zach Honig: Yeah. The activities that still stand out to me to this day, and it's been years since I've done them, but Alcatraz, obviously. I mean, I would say definitely plan a trip to Alcatraz.
Brendan Dorsey: Hundred percent.
Zach Honig: Is it half a day, or do you need a full day for that?
Brendan Dorsey: You probably need -- I don't know if a full full day, but it's going to be at least six hours probably because it takes a while to get out there. You have to get to the ferry station, take the ferry out there, spend at least a couple of hours on the island, and then make your way back to the city.
Zach Honig: If you're on Alcatraz, I mean, you can see the city pretty well. Can you see the Golden Gate Bridge from there, too?
Brendan Dorsey: Yes. Yes, you can. Yeah.
Zach Honig: Can you walk across it?
Brendan Dorsey: You can.
Zach Honig: Okay.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah. Yeah.
Zach Honig: You can bike?
Brendan Dorsey: You can bike, walk, scooter. I don't know. You can drive across it even.
Zach Honig: Yeah, and some crazy traffic. Definitely, like on the weekends, you're going to hit traffic going across the bridge.
Brendan Dorsey: Rush hour is pretty bad on the 101. Yeah.
Zach Honig: It's a lot cooler to see the Golden Gate Bridge below it from the Golden Gate Bridge Park. Is that the park right in that area?
Brendan Dorsey: There's The Presidio on the San Francisco side and then, on the Marin County side, it's like the Marin Headlands, so that park is like the mountain that you see jutting out into the water.
Zach Honig: Got it. Yeah.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah. It's a great place to get away from the city and all the craziness there, and it's literally a 15-minute drive from the city, if not less.
Zach Honig: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Brendan Dorsey: It's right over the Golden Gate Bridge, which is really nice.
Zach Honig: Let's go now back over the Golden Gate into San Francisco and talk about some of your favorite places to visit.
Brendan Dorsey: Once we're back in the city, I would probably say start at Golden Gate Park. It's like San Francisco's Central Park, huge, lots of things to do. Walk around. They have a botanic garden that you can go visit. It's a nice place to escape if you want to get out of the craziness.
Brendan Dorsey: There's also Lands End, which is another park that I really like. It's north of the Golden Gate Bridge, and it's hidden -- you have to drive pretty far out, but you can hike there, and it's all on the water, so you can go down to the beach, hike up in the mountains. You hike down to the water. It's a little more remote, so you might not get as many tourists, which is really nice.
Zach Honig: Say you're looking for a really active day, you don't mind walking quite a bit, maybe 10 miles even...
Brendan Dorsey: Oh, wow.
Zach Honig: ... a very, very active day. What would you do on your active (day) in San Francisco?
Brendan Dorsey: An active day? Okay, there's plenty to see and do, so maybe you start out by the water. It's a little bit touristy and gimmicky, but Fisherman's Wharf is a fun place to check out, a lot of good seafood down there, some different museums. It's also next to Ghirardelli Square, which has the Ghirardelli chocolate factory, so you can go there and see that.
Zach Honig: Get an ice cream sundae with fudge.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah.
Zach Honig: Oh, yum.
Brendan Dorsey: It's really tasty. It's a cool little area they've got set up there. They have some other shops and stuff, and it's all right along the water, and then Fisherman's Wharf has the seals that are ever so famous.
Zach Honig: Oh, those seals.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah, you can stare at them all day.
Zach Honig: Then you want to be able to walk around the rest of the day.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah, that's true. It won't be very active.
Zach Honig: No. You got to work off that sundae...
Brendan Dorsey: You do.
Zach Honig: ... so what else are we doing?
Brendan Dorsey: Oh, so, maybe after that, we're going to go walk down the coast towards the Bay Bridge and we'll go to the the Embarcadero and, right there, they have a pretty cool... It's like an old Naval hall. It's a food hall now, and they have different little places to eat or like grocery stores, things like that. It's right along the water, really beautiful. You can go outside, have a couple of drinks, and then, from there, maybe it's the afternoon, San Francisco Giants are playing, you can walk over to Pacific Bell Park and catch a game there. It's one of the best baseball stadiums, or parks I should say, in the country in my opinion because you're right on the water. You've got a view of the bridge, the water, Oakland, Berkeley. Get some good garlic fries.
Zach Honig: Then I want to continue my walk. What other neighborhoods should I check out?
Brendan Dorsey: Neighborhood-wise, you can go up to Nob Hill. It's a favorite of mine. There's plenty of good restaurants there, cafés, coffee shops. You could head out to Twin Peaks, which is in the center of the city. It's this basically big mountain. You might not want to walk up it. You could. It would be a pretty long and arduous walk up to the top, but it's got an amazing view of the bay, of the city. Maybe catch a sunset up there. I think it's probably the highest point in the city, so that's awesome. You can make your way back down. Go to the famous Painted Ladies, which is where they filmed Full House, or at least the intro to it. It's five houses in all bright pastel colors. Get your picture for your Instagram in front of it.
Zach Honig: Here I am, San Francisco.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah. Yeah. I know you love your Instagram, Zach.
Zach Honig: Look for the Painted Ladies one of these days.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah. Okay.
Zach Honig: Keep an eye out.
Brendan Dorsey: I'll make sure to look for that.
Zach Honig: Let's hit the restaurants.
Brendan Dorsey: Okay.
Zach Honig: Let's go, and then let's hit the pubs.
Brendan Dorsey: The pubs, okay. Yeah.
Zach Honig: I know tacos are pretty amazing, right?
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. There's...
Zach Honig: The burritos.
Brendan Dorsey: ... burritos specifically. There's two places that are pretty famous and that I recommend, both. I mean, there's a million taquerias to go to, but the famous ones are La Taqueria, which is one of the best.
Zach Honig: I've been there.
Brendan Dorsey: The best burritos in the world I think, personally. There's also down the street El Farolito, which is almost as famous, but probably just as good.
Zach Honig: I think the first time that I went to a dim sum restaurant may have been in San Francisco as well. There's a big Chinatown there.
Brendan Dorsey: Yes.
Zach Honig: It's a fun Chinatown.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah.
Zach Honig: I grew up in the Philadelphia area, and there's a Chinatown there, but I always prefer the one in San Francisco just because it's more colorful. The signs are pretty colorful and everything, but it's a fun place to hang out, too.
Brendan Dorsey: It's very much kept its roots and has not become a tourist trap as much as maybe the one in New York City. I've never been to the one in Philadelphia, but it's really great, a lot of good food there, a lot of cool shops. You can check out the Chinese markets, get some really cool food, the grocery stores themselves. You see people playing mahjong in the square there.
Zach Honig: Oh, yeah.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah, it's great.
Zach Honig: One spot that you might assume would be a tourist trap, but I actually love going to, is called the Tonga Room. Have you been to the Tonga Room?
Brendan Dorsey: I haven't been there. I know all about it, but it looks incredible.
Zach Honig: It's so much fun. It's the craziest thing. It's in what used to be the pool of the Fairmont Hotel. They have tables all along the sides of the pool, and so the best spots are the ones right up next to the pool, but, in the evenings, they have -- and it's really cool -- they've got a band, and they roll this small barge out into the middle of the pool and the band performs just right in front of everyone, and then they've got this really cool rain effect, not like at the Rainforest Café where it just... Yeah, but it's actually a lot of fun.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah.
Zach Honig: They've got some fun food. It's like a Polynesian type of thing, but, I don't know, it's hard to describe.
Brendan Dorsey: It's been around forever, right?
Zach Honig: It's been around for quite a while because, yeah, that pool hasn't been used for some time.
Brendan Dorsey: It seems like there's a bit of a theme of tea bars in the city.
Zach Honig: Are there?
Brendan Dorsey: There's a couple of other ones that are famous, Smuggler's Cove and Pagan Idol. I don't know if you've heard any of those.
Zach Honig: [inaudible 00:10:30].
Brendan Dorsey: It's a theme in San Francisco, which is fun.
Zach Honig: What are some of your other favorite restaurants in San Francisco?
Brendan Dorsey: Foreign Cinema. It's in the Mission. It's a really fantastic place.
Zach Honig: Is it like a dine-in movie theater?
Brendan Dorsey: It used to be an old movie theater, I'm pretty sure. They have movies playing up on the wall, big projections. It's really cool, and they have microphones that you can speak into. It's all like old-school theme.
Zach Honig: I love that. We can record our podcast there.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah. We should. The food is really incredible.
Zach Honig: Let's say you have a long weekend in San Francisco. Should you focus on the city or would you split it up, split up your time and maybe go to Santa Rosa or Napa, (or) elsewhere, in Sonoma?
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah, I mean, if it's your first time in San Francisco, there's going to be plenty to do for a long weekend, so I would definitely stay there. If you've got maybe a week, maybe that's when you branch out for a day or two into Napa or Sonoma. It's an hour away, so it's really easy to get to. You can even Uber out there if you want. You can do a day trip. I know people will do that and Uber from place to place to place if they don't want to have a designated driver, but it's accessible. It depends on I guess what your priorities are, but I would definitely stick with a-
Zach Honig: I think my priorities are wines.
Brendan Dorsey: Wine. Then definitely go out there. Yeah.
Zach Honig: If you're going just... and staying in the city, just... would you take BART or public transportation from the airport and then not worry about having a car at all, or does it still make sense to rent a car just so you have a little bit more flexibility?
Brendan Dorsey: I think, if you're just staying in the city, I would just take an Uber, take BART. Parking is expensive there now that it's become such a popular city and destination and just like, a tech hub. It's getting ridiculous to park your car there, and you don't really need it. There's Uber and Lyft everywhere. It's relatively decent pricing. Rely on that.
Zach Honig: On my last visit, I did actually end up renting a car because we were splitting time between San Francisco and Napa and then ended up driving up to Yosemite as well...
Brendan Dorsey: Oh, really?
Zach Honig: ... which is a hike. I mean, it's like-
Brendan Dorsey: A couple of hours.
Zach Honig: I think it's like, yeah, three, four hours to get out there, but I guess if you have a longer week, I think a couple, maybe two, three days to explore the wineries in Napa and maybe more time if you also go to Sonoma, a couple of nights in San Francisco, and then if you want to venture out, maybe have two weekends with a full week between...
Brendan Dorsey: Totally.
Zach Honig: ... Yosemite is a pretty cool spot.
Brendan Dorsey: There's quite a few places that are accessible like that from San Francisco that are amazing. There's Yosemite. There's Monterey. There's Tahoe, which is about four hours, and then there's wine country, so those are four beautiful, amazing spots that people from around the world come just to see for that all within a couple of hours drive to San Francisco.
Zach Honig: Even just San Francisco and the Bay Area in general, it's one of my favorite spots.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah. It's definitely one of the most beautiful places in the world. I know I'm biased, but it's... I've been to quite a few places now, and it always comes back to my mind. I would love to move back there at some point.
Zach Honig: As expensive as it is to live there, you can actually find somewhat affordable hotels, so we're going to take a quick break and then, when we come back, we're going to dig into flight and hotel options.
Brendan Dorsey: Sounds good.
Zach Honig: We're back talking about flight and hotel options. SFO, the San Francisco International Airport, is the main gateway to the Bay Area. Is that right?
Brendan Dorsey: That's correct. Yeah.
Zach Honig: There's a few other airports you can fly into. There's Oakland...
Brendan Dorsey: There's Oakland, yep.
Zach Honig: ... and San Jose...
Brendan Dorsey: San Jose, yeah.
Zach Honig: ... which is pretty far south, so, if you're going Silicon Valley, then San Jose might make sense.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah. If you're flying in to check out San Francisco, I definitely recommend Oakland or San Francisco. Avoid San Jose if possible, but if you really need to, you could. It's just a bit a of a hike.
Zach Honig: SFO, I mean, San Francisco is beautiful. The weather is usually pretty good, although you can have weeks of rain even at times, but SFO deals with an issue that you probably won't expect necessarily, and that's the crazy fog, and so that area in particular seems really susceptible to fog, and that can cause really, really long delays and cancellations, but I've heard that Oakland, if you fly into Oakland, that's one way to get around that issue. Oakland doesn't deal with the same fog that SFO does.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah. I don't fly to Oakland too often, but I think that is true. Oakland is a huge Southwest hub, so, if you're a Southwest flyer and lover, you're going to be flying into there. Most of the other airlines are based out of SFO, the big guys.
Zach Honig: Now, with Southwest doing flights to Hawaii, those go out of Oakland.
Brendan Dorsey: Yes, they do.
Zach Honig: You could fly into Oakland from wherever you're coming in from elsewhere in the US, stay over a few days in San Francisco and then continue out to Hawaii on Southwest.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah, that's definitely an option. It's pretty easy to get to Oakland Airport from San Francisco.
Zach Honig: Then can you take the BART? Do they have the BART from the airport, too, or-
Brendan Dorsey: Yes, you can. I think there's a connector, so, yeah.
Zach Honig: Oh, nice. Okay, but pretty easy from SFO to the city with the BART.
Brendan Dorsey: Absolutely.
Zach Honig: Most airlines fly in. It's not really a big hub for many airlines, although United has a Pacific hub, so, if you're flying to Asia, a lot of the United flights, probably most of the United flights to Asia are going to go through SFO.
Brendan Dorsey: That's correct. Yeah, great Polaris Lounge.
Zach Honig: Great Polaris Lounge. It's the biggest Polaris Lounge I think in the system.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah.
Zach Honig: Very large Polaris lounge, and lots of [Starlines 00:15:36] options, lots of connections to Europe, to Asia, to the South Pacific as well, obviously, plenty of flights to Hawaii, and then lots of connections to San Francisco from throughout the US.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah.
Zach Honig: The fares can be pretty decent. Just like other transcon options to Los Angeles, you can pay about $300 on a trip as long as you're not booking during peak periods.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah. Honestly, I would even say less than that. I'm looking all the time to go back home, so, from New York at least, there's so much competition on that route. For a while, I will see inconsistent fares, round-trip nonstop for like $220, $230...
Zach Honig: Oh my God.
Brendan Dorsey: ... on all of the airlines, so United, Alaska, American, whatever you want.
Zach Honig: Just be aware, one thing I'd point out is that some of those fares, especially in United, their basic economy...
Brendan Dorsey: That's true.
Zach Honig: ... and so if you book United's basic economy, you don't get a seat assignment, which is also the case with American, but you also don't get a carry-on bag, and so you're going to end up paying quite a bit more, so just keep an eye out. If you see a basic economy fare on Delta, that's probably the one I would go for. That's the most flexible, but then if you book some of the other airlines, the fares may be the same, but you'll get a non-basic economy or just a regular economy fare.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah. Alaska, unfortunately, they switched over to basic economy. They have these saver fares now, so they're a little bit better than basic economy, but you have to pay extra to choose your seat, but the nice thing about them ... I'm going to plug Alaska right now because I love them all.
Zach Honig: I know you're a big Alaska fan.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah, at least for transcontinental flights, mainly you still are in miles based on the distance flown with them, so...
Zach Honig: Oh, that's nice.
Brendan Dorsey: ... on a transcon flight, that can really add up, and their fares are competitive, so you might get 5-or 6,000 miles off of a transcon. That's without any elite bonuses, and that could really add up over time, and, plus, it's really easy to get elite status with them, so, if you're going back and forth a couple of times a year, I think four round trips on Alaska, Virginia, New York, San Francisco, will get you their lowest level elite status.
Zach Honig: Oh, and you're pulling that easily.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah, easy, easy, easy. Thanksgiving. Christmas.
Zach Honig: You got upgrades, too, if I remember.
Brendan Dorsey: Quite a few times, I got upgrades, and I'm just the lowest level status, so that's why I love it so much, and there's no dollar requirement, so, if I get four cheap round-trip fares, I'm already at status.
Zach Honig: You're a true Alaskan, Brendan.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah. I think they have a good product, too, though.
Zach Honig: Speaking of good products, my favorite still I think is probably JetBlue Mint, and so JetBlue... I mean Mint is available on a whole bunch of different routes now, but one of the first was SFO from both JFK and Boston, and so if you're looking for business class, I've seen fares pretty consistently, as long as you're booking maybe a few weeks or a month out, and they're in like the $599 range or so, so not bad.
Brendan Dorsey: Not bad at all.
Zach Honig: What I will say is that even last minute sometimes you can get decent fares to SFO, so probably not your best pick for redeeming miles for a flight...
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah, I would say so.
Zach Honig: ... unless it is JetBlue points or Southwest where it's fixed based on the cost of the ticket.
Brendan Dorsey: That's correct, yeah, although I have had a couple of times where I've had to fly last-minute back home, and United Miles I found came very much so in handy for that because they seem to open up saver availability for last-minute seats, so maybe the ticket was 3- or 400 bucks and only 12,500 miles one way, so I found that to be useful.
Zach Honig: Where do you stay now when you go to San Francisco? I know we talked about the neighborhoods a little bit, but are there some favorite hotels, or I guess you stay with family a lot.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah, I stay with family or friends usually, but I've stayed at a couple of hotels. The W is really nice. I've stayed there before. The Palace Hotel is what I really love. Me and my girlfriend did like a-
Zach Honig: It's like a luxury collection, right?
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah. Yeah, so you can book it with Marriott points. You can also book it through AmEx's Fine Hotels and Resorts...
Zach Honig: Mm-hmm.
Brendan Dorsey: ... program and get free upgrades, and I think a $100 dining credit is one of the amenities that comes with that, but it's such a beautiful hotel. I really, really loved it. We stayed there for a night just like randomly, like a staycation, and had breakfast there the next morning, and it's like this palatial lobby that they have, and they really have a good brunch that you can get there.
Zach Honig: Very cool.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah.
Zach Honig: What about Hilton or Hyatt options?
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah, there's the Hyatt options. There's the Hyatt Regency, Grand Hyatt, and then there's also I think a Hyatt in Fisherman's Wharf.
Zach Honig: Oh, yeah, I've stayed there before.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah, and it looks like they all cost 20,000 Hyatt points/Category 5.
Zach Honig: Okay.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah, so reasonable.
Zach Honig: I would shop around those. Especially on the weekends, sometimes I've seen pretty decent rates. San Francisco tends to host a lot of conferences, and so... because they've got the Moscone Center. And when there are conferences in town, the rates can go through the roof, but you can still find decent redemption values.
Brendan Dorsey: Totally.
Zach Honig: The value actually goes up quite a bit because you could... It's 20,000 points or $800 a night.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah. We were just looking at The St. Regis before this, and it was under $400 a night, just pretty good for a... and it was last-minute, too, so.
Zach Honig: Very cool.
Brendan Dorsey: Yeah.
Zach Honig: Brendan, if someone wants to follow along on your adventures to the Bay Area and beyond, where will they find you on social media?
Brendan Dorsey: Sure. My Instagram handle is @brendandorsey1, and I think my Twitter handle is @brendan_dorsey.
Zach Honig: Safe travels, Brendan.
Brendan Dorsey: Thanks, Zach.
Zach Honig: That's it for this episode of Miles Away. Thanks again to TPG's associate editor Brendan Dorsey.
