A special birthday, a diamond anniversary and a west coast adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by SuperDave

Doing a bit of catch up over the last 6 days!

Glad you're all caught back up.

Seems like you had a wonderful massage in Heathrow and the lounge looks quite enjoyable! Those were some great photos of the takeoff and especially love the photo of Windor Castle, which I have been to!

I was so pleased with that photo!

Love the seats on your flight as they're so stylish, but as many have said here, they don't look comfortable, but obviously were.

The dinner spread looked very good and so enjoyable, with such a great variety as did the drinks on board as well! A lovely afternoon tea you had too!

More great photos on flight and especially in the Western USA and California, Yosemite and into San Francisco. That long bridge in San Francisco is the Bay Bridge, which is quite famous in not a good way as a large section of it collapsed during the 1989 San Francisco earthquake.

Oh it was that one? I remember hearing about that, but I was never sure which one it was, given there are so many over the bay.

[MayraLR]

The zoom of your camera is outstanding! I mean, look at those amazing shots you got through the window (that wasn't even next to you).

[chezp]

Originally Posted by MayraLR

The zoom of your camera is outstanding! I mean, look at those amazing shots you got through the window (that wasn't even next to you).

Thank you!

[KMB733]

Your meal on the plane looked really delicious! Sorry the bed wasn't that comfortable, but way before then having to sleep sitting up. Great shots as you were flying over the US!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by KMB733

Your meal on the plane looked really delicious! Sorry the bed wasn't that comfortable, but way before then having to sleep sitting up. Great shots as you were flying over the US!

It's definitely better than trying to sleep sitting up.

[chezp]

Saturday 29 August – part nine: how long is that line?

When we got to the rental car centre, we were greeted by a sight that did not inspire any confidence. There were no lines at virtually any of the rental companies, except for Alamo. Now who do you think our car rental had been booked with? If you said Alamo, you’d be spot on. Mark joined the line, while I went to sit with the luggage trolley. I managed to quickly get online and update Facebook. Now I think it took Mark 20 minutes in line, so not bad, nearly as long as the line to clear immigration!



At least once he was done and had the paperwork, our cars were on the same level, whereas everyone else with other companies then had to take elevators to other floors, so that was something. We had a Volvo…



… and quite frankly the trunk space wasn’t what I’d hoped for, shall we say? We got everything in, but thank goodness we were only going a short way.

On the way out of the rental car area, we got a neat view of the activity on the tarmac…



We headed out of the airport, and on to the freeway, seeing some of the surrounding landscape as we went. We couldn’t help but think of the song “Little Boxes” – hopefully that’s what it’s actually called and you know what I mean, when we saw these…



We were soon coming off into a very nice area. I already knew from Google Maps that the hotel was located in what I can only describe as a business area, which was a bit surreal, but the buildings here were all very nice and hi-tech.



We pulled up into the car park, got out of the car, and were unloading the luggage, when a family walked past and asked me where the entrance is. Good grief, what is it today? I cannot believe they just did that! If you see someone at a hotel with luggage coming out of a car, what’s the first thing you think? Well, for me, it would be “they’ve just arrived”, and therefore the train of thought then goes “don’t bother asking them where the entrance is”, but apparently these guys weren’t on the logical train of thought.

Anyway, they found the entrance easily enough in the end, and so did we a moment later…



We headed to reception, and we were given our room keys.



Now I can’t honestly remember if I covered this or not, because as I write this, it has been a very long day, but I don’t think I did. I checked in online last night for our stay, and could pick our hotel room. I don’t think I’ve ever had the chance to do that. I went for floor eight, the top one, on the grounds that then there’s no-one crashing about above us, and it turns out it’s a private floor. The guy on reception told me I’d made a good room choice, and I have to say I agreed when we got there…



The view was pretty neat too!



The first thing I wanted to do was have a shower and wash my hair, as I just felt so hot, sticky and horrible. As soon as I’d done that, I did feel a lot better. I settled down to work on some trip report, with hair drying at regular intervals and then Mark had a shower to freshen up as well.

Around 6:30pm, we headed down to the hotel restaurant for dinner. Karen had told us in an earlier text that it was good, so we figured at least we wouldn’t have to drive anywhere, which worked. On the way down, we headed up to the end of the hotel to get some photos of the bay…



…. However, personally I preferred the view by the elevators…



We headed into Xebec, an unusually named place, and I have to say I liked the feel of it, very laid back.



It was nice as well, because they had a party arrive, and they seated them out on the patio, which helped to maintain the quiet atmosphere inside. Mark couldn’t believe that they turned the patio heaters on, but in fairness, we weren’t outside, and I don’t know how cool it was getting, given the sun was going down.

We had a look at the menu and both decided to go for San Francisco clam chowder, but unfortunately when it turned up, I took one look and had a horrible thought – “has it got bacon in it?” I got Mark to try it and he reckoned it did have, so we checked, and sure enough, it did. Thankfully they had corn chowder as well, so I had that, and that was lovely.



Soup was just what I needed. It not only helped to warm me up, but it started to fill me up. We’d said that we didn’t want anything too filling, as usually on our first night, with the jetlag food doesn’t taste that good, so we figured we’d stay light, and that turned out to be a good move.

I liked the idea of the super kale salad, made up of kale, sunflower seeds, goat’s cheese, dried cranberries, sprouted quinoa, and citrus oil, so lots of good, healthy food in that dish. I really enjoyed the flavour of it, but I found it hard work on the jaw with a lot of crunching, so I didn’t finish it. I was probably a little bit wary about my tooth as well, which didn’t help…



Mark had the sesame tuna, fresh sushi grade ahi, napa cabbage, daikon sprouts, cashews, wasabi crema, and ginger soy vinaigrette, which he really raved about.



Our server was very good, and ensured our water was constantly topped up, and given we were thirsty, we needed a fair bit of topping up! All in all, I really enjoyed our meal here, although the prices were a bit on the high side - $42 for what we’d eaten seemed a bit extravagant for my liking..

Xebec

Appetiser 9 8½
Entrée 8 9
Service 8½ 9
Atmosphere 9 8½
Value for money 7 7

Average score: 8.35

We headed back to the room, and I took some photos of the evening sun over the bay, although sadly I didn’t get the stunning sunset I was hoping for.



Eventually, we headed to back, not having done badly, given it was now about 4:00am at home UK time, and what time had we woken up yesterday UK time (still the same day on San Francisco time ) – you got it, we’d been up for nearly 24 hours!

The weather today was sunny and dry with temperatures in the high 60s when we left the UK and warm and sunny with temperatures in the mid 70s when we got to San Francisco.
The best thing today was our wonderful flight – and it’s not often I say that!
The worst thing today was the lines at immigration and Alamo and not seeing Karen either…
Today we tried flying Upper Class
And the result was it really is the only way to fly!
The most magical moment today was enjoying my massage!

Next: it’s quiet out here…

[Thomhazel]

Your photos of San Francisco are bringing back a lot of memories I think I need to go back sometime.

Looks like you picked a good hotel not only nice but with great views as well.

Oh and your wait in the line for a car was a lot less than I'd expected from what we witnessed.

[lauriep]

Glad it didn't turn out to be too bad at the car rental. The hotel looks very comfortable, and it's fun that you could even see a bit of the Golden Gate Bridge in one photo.

[Disneybine]

Your hotel looks lovely, and I love the interior design in your room

[HollyH]

20 minutes wasn't bad at the car rental desk. I think we were closer to 45 to get to the front, and let me tell you that people were getting very irate in line. That actually worked in our favor as we were given an upgrade and a free tank of gas, we think perhaps because we were still polite and pleasant, at least compared to many of the other people waiting. Your hotel looks very nice. Our long wait in the car rental line was followed by a long wait in traffic getting through the city as we were staying with my cousin in Richmond.

[Colexis Mom]

Gosh you had the royal treatment on the plane! Great pics! And your hotel (and dinner) looks great as well!

[DMA]

Your room is lovely. And on a private floor!
Your pictures of the view are beautiful!

[disney_duke]

Oh phew! Glad the car rental line wasn't terribly long.
Excellent choice on the hotel room indeed! I always request the top floor to avoid trampling feet overhead. Plus the views are better too!
That's a very long day. Nearly 24 hours is just too long. I've done that on some runDisney race days and it's exhausting!

[cubfancolleen]

That was a long day for you! The hotel looks very nice, and dinner was about what I'd expect cost-wise with the combo of it being a hotel restaurant, and being in San Francisco.
It looks like it was a Doubletree, so I hope you got warm chocolate chip cookies when you checked in? I those things!! If I worked there, I would surely be tempted to go into that warming drawer far too often!

[Big Baloo]

I would say you two did extremely well for having been up for nearly 24 hours. Personally, I would have been walking into walls by that point (and probably not even noticing). Nice views you had!