The Key to the Palace

What have I been doing since Tuesday? Looking up at the sky for a balloon. That's right, a yellow helium balloon with a magical golden key to the Palace Hotel.



Why you may ask?

The Palace Hotel in San Francisco is celebrating its 100 year anniversary, recreating a great moment on Dec. 15, 1909, when the Palace Hotel, the symbol of old San Francisco, reopened after being rebuilt from the devastation of the 1906 fire and earthquake.

On Tuesday they released a dozen balloons, one holding a magical key. The balloons drifted over the city, off toward the bay, and headed nobody knows where...

Whoever finds the balloon and its golden key will get a special prize - a three-day stay in Room 888, the Palace's Presidential Suite, a luxurious accommodation that comes with a tragic history. President Warren G. Harding died in the Presidential Suite in August 1923.

I WANT THIS KEY!

100 years ago, the Palace sent off a golden key in a balloon and it just disappeared. Perhaps it fell in the bay or resides in a winery in the Napa Valley. We'll never know or will we? I'd be happy to find either key.

So... gotta go now... head in the sky... searching for the golden key...

photo credits: Lance Iversen, The San Francisco Chronicle