The kids have been in the US now for 90 days at their respective Colleges, Bradley at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and Rachael at the University of Texas in Austin, so it was time to go visit them.

 

On top of that, I have been working up to 40 hours overtime for the last 2 months so it was time for a break.

After taking my last night shift off, we headed to the airport at 6:30 am with Jenny’s brother acting as the taxi. With a bit of time to spare, it was into the Qantas Club for some breakfast before travelling Business class to Sydney. We tried for an upgrade to the big leg to San Francisco but no luck.

 

We also had no luck getting into the Qantas Club in Sydney International but did get into the little known American Express lounge which I think is better than the Qantas Club and only need an AMEX to get in.

 

The flight to San Francisco was on a Boeing 747 (I prefer the Airbus A380), but we were lucky to have a spare seat next to us so we could spread out.

 

The flight was pretty good and only 13 hours arriving at 9:30 am (7th November) after leaving from Sydney at 3:00 pm (7th November).

 

The advantage of coming through San Francisco was that there was only one other plane so getting through Immigration and Customs was a breeze and we were in the USA.

 

Only another hour travel to go on the BART to Martinez Station where Joanna picked us up. A 3 mile journey and we were sitting on the deck overlooking the Sacramento River towards the northern Bay Area.

 

I didn’t feel too bad after getting a few hours rest on the flight across but I layer down on the bed to rest the back and two hours later I woke up to a spectacular sunset.

 

Joanna had organised a “Thanksgiving” dinner for us which was great and then it was time for a big sleep.