Round The World and other travels

Coast to Coast; Spring to Winter

Today dawned as another glorious day in San Francisco, but before the day was out, Mother Nature would have played a nasty April Fool on me. Although there was no particular need to be up and about early, the sun streaming through a gap in the curtains made getting up seem like an attractive prospect. (My mood is so influenced by the weather; why do I live in Scotland? ) As I had been somewhat underwhelmed by yesterday's breakfast experience, I decided to walk round to the adjoining Holiday Inn on Beach Street and use their in-house branch of Denny's instead. After all, a visit to the United States without at least one breakfast in Denny's is unimaginable   I enjoyed my All American immensely and, since I had plenty of time to spare, set out for a farewell stroll around the Wharf.

I saw many tourists setting out for the short sailing to Alcatraz, an island that continues to exert an incredible pull on tourists to San Francisco. (Personally, I prefer the trip to Sausalito.) Almost inevitably, I ended up on Pier 39, observing the cute - but rather smelly - sea lions that make their presence known without sparing the decibels. As I inevitably had to make by way back to the hotel to check out, I realised how sad I felt to be leaving this wonderful city and resolved to return much, MUCH sooner than the seven year gap it had been since my previous visit.

	Alcatraz - still pulling the tourists in.		Sea lions - and the Golden Gate Bridge		When you have an itchy nose ...
	All together now ... Awwww!

Despite my previous thoughts on the subject, I ended up on another shuttle van to the airport. It wasn't too bad, but it did involve a tour of many hotels before we got properly underway and the air conditioning system had fused   Why am I so resistant to taxis?

I had a trouble-free check-in at the airport and had no difficulty in locating the Admiral's Club (i.e. the AA lounge). It was OK, but to be perfectly honest about it, I would rate it alongside the poorer examples of BA's lounges, i.e. well short of BA's Terraces lounges, the Qantas Pubs (er, I mean Clubs) and - obviously - a million miles away from The Wing. I only had a diet coke myself, but I think I'm right in saying that, according to later observations, alcoholic drinks were chargeable   Well, I heard at least one person say "Can I buy you a drink?" ... unless it's an obscure form of American humour

(Link to flight log in side panel)

Boston's Logan Airport was chaotic. It seemed way past its sell-by date, the signage was confusing and every inbound AA flight was yielding up its baggage to Belt B, while the others all stood unused. Why, why, why   On stepping outside, my worst suspicions about the weather were immediately confirmed : everything was soaking wet and it was horribly cold and miserable. Luckily, the hotel's complimentary shuttle turned up very quickly and, together with the crew who had just flown me here, I was soon at the Holiday Inn Logan Airport. The time difference had really thrown me. According to local time, it was very late at night, but it didn't feel that way to me.