Hi Ho folks and world. One 13.5 hour flight later and so little real sleep it wasn't funny. We would probably have breezed through such a flight in our 20s or 30s but this time we felt the effects. Still I (Den) got to watch 3 good movies on the Qantas plane (which was roomier on the side in cattle class that other jets we've been on in our time). I can recommend The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (with subtitles - which is actually good on a plane), Morning Glory (funny, with an aging Hans Solo) and Secretariat (which is about a fast horse and a determined woman).
We landed on schedule at SF at 9:30am local time and, after relying on LM intuition about direction and asking for one, we got on the shared van shuttle which dropped us off at the door of the Holiday Inn at around 11am. Well, at the door yes, but our actual room was in the building next door so off we chuffed, into the next building across the street, passed the 24 hour Denny's and up to Lvl 4 where we duly unpacked.
I went for a short walk to buy some ponchos because we landed in the wet and the temp was 12 degrees! Quite a change from the 29 the day before we flew out of Syd-eney (thanks Mr Samaranch). Lucky we were ready for Alaska! Out came the Kath coats and we were toasty warm. After I got the ponchos, walking back from the two blocks I'd been I came over a bit seedy, so knew it was time to snooze. Snooze? LM and I woke up at 8pm!
Like I said '2 days of extremes' and this was the first one done - flying, vanning and sleeping. Oh, plus a PS, we got some good tips for getting up and down "the strip" in LV from a young couple from Mackay in Qld who have been travelling since before the cyclone hit up there (it missed Mackay - this time). Our sleep day was capped off by a dinner out in Fisherman's Wharf where a lady in the street saw us looking at a menu and said "you should go to Scoma's just down a bit. It's the BEST place to go. I used to live here and I still come back to it. Just go down Al Scoma Lane and you can't miss it ..." She seemed pretty genuine and pleased to tell us, so we did. It was a packed restaurant on the waterfront - actually on a jetty out over the water. We has to wait 10 minutes for a seat while we had a drink and listened, amused, to the bartender-ess tell the enquiring couple next to us, AND the SF waterfront population for several miles around, her life spent 27 years serving at Scomas. PS. Laurel had the plate of salmon & salad and I had 3 lamb T-bones (ie. lamb chops) with spinach (!) and some unearthly form of potato mash. Then it was more sleep so that we could spring up at the crack of 7:45 (slept through the 7am alarm or else didn't set it right - my money is on the latter) for an 8:45 trip to see some giant sequoira trees and then some. But Day 2 - which was delightful - and so at the other extreme, is over to LM to tell after we come back from dins. See yawl later, Dennis Mar-hone- knee.
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