Top Ten Gift Ideas for Gifts $2,000 and Up - Way, Way Up! - for People in the San Francisco Bay Area

When only the very best will do, consider these luxury items for your lucky gift recipient:

1. Throw a holiday party for your lucky gift recipient and up to 500 of his or her closest friends at the Lawrence Hall of Science at the top of the Berkeley hills. For $2,500, your group can have exclusive use of the entire museum all evening after the museum closes to the public at 5:00 pm. Normal cleaning charges and services of an event manager and two visitor services representatives are included in the price, but food, furniture, decorations, and music are extra.

2. Or throw a party for your gift recipient and nine friends at the French Laundry restaurant, which is, astonishingly, the only restaurant in the entire Bay Area to get three stars in the new Michelin Guide to Bay Area restaurants. Located in Yountville in the Napa Valley, this acclaimed restaurant offers a nine-course chef's tasting menu for $210.00 per person. But for the ultimate in luxury, you can eat in your own private dining room for $3,600.00, which includes food and service charges, but not wine, beverages, or tax, for up to ten guests. Reservations must be made 2 months in advance.

3. Attending all those parties can be tiring, so your loved one would appreciate the gift of a couple of nights of pampering at the Ritz-Carlton at Half Moon Bay. For $1,020 per night, you and your gift recipient can enjoy the "Mercedes-Benz Key to Luxury Package," which includes accommodations, the use of a car, and free gas.

4. Or perhaps your gift recipient would rather stay in the city. A night at the Penthouse Suite at the Fairmont Hotel, which takes up the hotel's entire eighth floor and features sold gold fixtures in the bathroom and a secret passageway in the library, is reputed to cost $10,000 per night.

5. Parking is so difficult in San Francisco! Increase your gift recipient's odds of snagging an elusive parking space by giving a Mini Cooper automobile. Not only are these cars adorable, but they are also a mere 143.1 inches long, which your gift recipient is sure to appreciate while circling the block. Manufacturer's suggested retail price for a Mini Cooper Convertible is $22,500.

6. If you have just inherited an oil-producing country, you might want to buy some lucky woman a five -strand grey Tahitian South Sea pearl necklace at Gump's. Designed by Frank Ancona, the pearls are 8mm to 15mm, and the clasp is pink tourmaline and 18 karat yellow gold. It has a not-for-the-tightfisted price tag of $40,000.00!

7. While you are at Gump's, if you have any money left, you can pick up a Tahitian cultured pearl slide necklace. Designed by Lynn Nakamura, and featuring multicolored pearls on an adjustable silk cord, it's a bargain at $9,850.00!

8. Once your gift recipient is all dressed up and ready to go in her new jewelry, she would most likely appreciate a glass of wine. If you want to give her the very best, consider shopping for your gift at the Auction Napa Valley, an annual celebrity-studded charitable event where this year, six bottles of a wine that hadn't yet been made sold for $1.05 million dollars. Yes, million. Tell your gift recipient not to spill any!

9. You don't want your gift recipients to lose track of time while they are sipping their wine! I'm sure they would appreciate a gift of an accurate and attractive watch. Head on down to Tiffany's on Post Street downtown, where you can choose from such classics as the Tiffany Atlas cocktail watch with 29 carats of diamonds for $8,500.00, or the Tiffany Atlas round watch, with an eighteen karat gold face and a black lizard strap for $4,750.00.

10. For the ultimate luxury gift, buy your loved one a house! Browsing through the sfgate.com real estate listings, I found a nice 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom house perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge in the beautiful Sea Cliff neighborhood - for 23.5 million dollars. Sure to impress even the most jaded gift recipient!