Are We There Yet?

Monday 1 October 2012

We have just had two first of Octobers….and what a long day it has been!

The first October the first started in Adelaide South Australia leaving for an internal Australian flight to Sydney. 

In Adelaide - the start of all the waiting

Arriving in Sydney we thought we had plenty of time (four hours)… but by the time we collected our luggage, took the airport train to the international terminal (which took us up-stairs, down-stairs and up-again…. It was starting to feel like a scene out of Faulty Towers… and it was turn out to be a day of “hurrying’ to get somewhere so that we could stand in another line. We were exhausted and we hadn’t even left Australia!!

Finally everyone was loaded on the plane in Sydney which was new to the Hawaiian Airline fleet and eventually we were on our way and heading towards Hawaii and the long haul through the night following the sun.

Another airport - Sydney this time

On arrival to Hawaii it was more queues and US customs, emigration and the fun of trying to find the terminal to catch our connecting flight to San Francisco. After getting a different set of instructions from everyone we asked we finally made to Gate 19 ready to catch our flight on to San Fran… another five hours of sitting on a plane which felt like for ever!

In the USA

Teddy doing a bit of planking

More walking in Honolulu

We finally get to San Francisco

The sun was set and just past 10pm local San Francisco time when we finally set foot on mainland USA. Arriving at Hotel Mark Twain we were dropped off and checked in after 11pm, a quick night cap at a corner bar and then it was off to bed where sleep would mean we could at last sleep in a horizontal position.

Arriving at our hotel was a bit scary, the road to the hotel road was blocked off for some kind of conference and we had to walk the last 40 yards to the hotel, we were dropped off amongst a mass of people sleeping on the street, there was a policeman on guard there and he advised against walking in that street. That was ok by us. When you are tired and it is late at night being confronted by such a situation was a bit daunting, still daylight will bring a different picture I’m sure.