Day 1: San Francisco Bound

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Tuesday 16th August

Up early this morning as we were going on holiday. Flight to San Francisco was leaving Heathrow at 11.30am and our taxi was booked for 7am. All cases packed last night and just a few last minute things to throw in the hand luggage before we left. Three large suitcases, 3 wheelie cases, two rucksacks, 1 hand bag and three zip hoodies – that checklist would proof valuable later on (if we’d remembered it!)

Traffic a little slow from junction 8 onwards but we were pulling into Terminal 5 just after 8am. Needed to drop suitcases off at the desk … and get Jon’s boarding card. Whilst he could print Callum’s and mine off, the system wouldn’t let Jon print his off.

All checked in and headed straight through security … a first for us as none of us set the scanners off and no luggage pulled out for extra checks by security.

Next stop breakfast … Giraffe had queues so headed to the pub for breakfast. Fruit juices for the boys and a pot of tea for me. Bacon and egg roll for Callum, scrambled eggs and smoked salmon for Jon and Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon for me. All very tasty.

Next stop duty free shopping and sat then waiting for our gate to be allocated. It eventually was allocated and we headed off … before completing our checklist.

We arrived at B45 and Jon suddenly asked where our hoodies were … I’d put them on the seat and forgot to pick them up (my excuse was distracted by Callum as he was spinning the cases around and worried he was going to knock into someone).

Jon headed back to retrieve them … flight was an hour away. However, as soon as he left, they started calling the priority boarders forward. Probably the last time we could take advantage of Jon’s Bronze BA card.

He arrived back with our jackets just in time. We went forward to board the flight only to find Jon had been selected for random security search. He had the bag with the camera and other bits and bobs in, and it was a very thorough check.

Finally onto the plane and settled into our seats 32 H, J and K. Just after 11.30am, we pushed back and we in the air by 11.45am. We were on our way!

We were on a 777 and the seats (for economy) were ok. Reasonable amounts of legroom (even for me!) … although I knew the man sat in front of me would push his seat back as soon as the seatbelt lights went out … and he did.

It looked as though we had a bit of a tailwind as the flight was only showing as 10 hours. Bit of a bonus if that works out.

Flight was long but Callum kept himself entertained. Lunch was served just after we took off and was good (big thumbs up from the three of us for the chocolate orange pud). Then we had a snack box half way through and another meal just before we came into land. Soft drinks were doing the rounds regularly so we did not go hungry or thirsty. Hopefully it would be enough to tide Callum over until we go through immigration and get to San Francisco.

We landed at 2pm local time although the plane couldn’t get into the gate until an hour later. Callum had a great view of the planes coming into land … and taking off on the parallel runways! We were eventually allowed off the plane and joined the lengthy queue for immigration! It was queuing down the corridor to the gates!

As we neared the bit before it snaked around to the immigration desks (probably an hour to go!), an officer was on duty saying if anyone had previously been issued an ESTA could go down the US/Canadian citizen channel … and show us the stamps in the passport to proof it. We had … but Callum’s passport had been renewed since our last visit. Lucky, as Jon’s and my passport still had the stamps in, they allowed us to queue jump. Next challenge was to operate the machines – bit of guess work as the instructions on screen were a bit vague! The machine scanned passports, took finger prints and photo, collated your customs declaration information and printed out a piece of paper for each of us.

This we then had to show to the Immigration Officer along with our passports to stamp, date, initial … then walk 10 yards to show to another official to enter the baggage hall. All the suitcases for our flight were piled up next to the conveyor (as everyone was still in the immigration queue!) then join another queue to hand the printed paper into another official and then sort out transportation to our hotel.

The hotel shuttle would cost over $30 each so we opted for a taxi which should work out cheaper (and it did). It took about 45 mins to reach our hotel for the next three nights – Courtyard Fisherman’s Wharf on Beach Street. A little frustrating to find our room wasn’t ready for us to collapse into at 5.45pm but a wait of 10 minutes or so and we were soon heading up.

We’d packed so everything we’d hopefully need for San Francisco was in the one case so the rest of the luggage we put out away out of sight into the huge wardrobe. The room was spacious – large beg, double sofa bed for Callum, desk and air con! Our window was overlooking Beach Street but didn’t really hear the noise from the street, four floors below.

We decided to head to Pier 39 and grab a bite to eat. You could see the fog was starting to roll in – you could no longer see the tops of the tall buildings in city, nor the Golden Gate Bridge! We had a quick drink in Castagnola’s – Anchor Steam (local beer) was good – before walking along Jefferson Street to Pier 39. There were numerous eating places en route … and loads of places serving the clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl – we would need to try that before we left San Francisco.

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We were really surprised to see that the Bush Man was still there, making people jump! It’s a man that hides behind a couple of leafy branches at the side of the sidewalk (pavement) and jumps out on unsuspecting people walking by.

The sea lions had deserted San Francisco for a while … our fingers were crossed we would get a glimpse. They rest on platforms just off the end of Pier 39 and we were pleased to see that there were some still there. Plenty of room for more to join them but at least Callum got to see some! Callum was now starving so we opted to go to Bubba Gumps as it was close by. Great table overlooking a small marina and the Bay towards the Bay Bridge. Coconut Shrimp, Fish platter and chilli shrimp ordered and eaten. As we left Bubba Gumps, the queues were out of the door so glad we ate early. Callum was fading fast so we headed back to the hotel.

It was now 5am in the UK, we’d been up for 24 hours so time for bed. However, slight problem as Callum’s sofa bed hadn’t been converted … and no bed sheets or pillows! We had to manhandle the sofa bed and sheets eventually turned up. Callum was asleep before his head hit pillow, and we weren’t far behind.