Monday was our day in San Francisco. Left relatively early for us around 8:30 am expecting some heavy traffic but we made the 60 km journey in 40 minutes to Pier 39 which was good.

The plan for the morning was to meet up with Paul Sequeira ( a friend of Joanna’s we met on 4th July) for Clam Chowder at his cousins restaurant called Guardino’s at Fishermans Wharf for breakfast. Paul’s cousin Mike set us up with some chowder, crabs, beer, soda and prawns and we headed around the corner to a private dock for our morning feast. Awesome.

Also managed to grab a cache while here. It was Panning for Gold – GCF6BB

17 years ago, Jenny and I spent a weekend with a family of a Benicia Firefighter. He had only met us a couple of days earlier and invited us to stay with them at Yosemite on the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. We didn’t know you had to book or anything. That weekend was a highlight of our ’92 trip so we needed to catch up with Dave and Lynn Botz.

In 17 years, their kids Cara and Chris have grown up and moved to Washington State and Dave (although still working as a Benicia Firefighter) have moved to Foresthill about 170 km away.

It was an uneventful drive until we got to the Auburn Ravine Bridge. The bridge was closed and there were cop cruisers all over it. A phone call to Dave and he said that the bridge was a popular bridge for jumpers – both BASE and others. As were we on the phone, the jumper was in cuffs and we were on our way.

The weather was certainly warmer than Benicia. Their house was great and we had a good afternoon catching up with the kids throwing some horseshoes as well. We lost track of the time and soon it was 8:00 pm and we had at least a 2 hour trip home in the holiday traffic.

On the way home, we took the old Auburn-Foresthill Road to look at the Ravine Bridge from the river base. Grabbed a geocache as well (GC19J44 – Species: Heteromeles arbutifolia). When we got there, once again there we lights of police cruisers on it as well as a helicoptor idling at the bottom waiting and quite a crowd as well.

A great meal was prepared, plenty of good company then it was time for some household sparklers for the kids before the town fireworks which could be watched from just about the front door.

After a drive in great weather once we left San Francisco we arrived at Joanna and Jiana’s house at around 12:30 pm. It was if we had only been there recently even if Joanna is doing a little renovation at the moment.

After Jiana being the perfect hostess and telling us all where our rooms and facilities were, Joanna’s mother in law Shirley and brother in law Jim arrived to meet us as well. We all chatted for a few hours then the wall hit. It was time for a lay down for an hour to recharge us for later.

At around 5:30 friends of Joanna’s arrived for a typical US 4th of July “cook up” party. Names were relatively easy with just about 2 of everything. 2 X Scott, 2 X Sharon, 2 X Debbie, 2 X Steve and a smattering of other names.

I also managed to introduce some of the assembled to Geocaching as there is a cache no further than 30 metres from Joanna’s house. It is GCW9KH – Waters Edge.

After 13 and a half hours and a couple of circles just out from SFO we arrived to a funny sort of day. Coming in to land, we passed over miles and miles of cloud just waiting to come into twon but at the airport it was warm and sunny.

A fairly quick trip through customs and immigration where we all got finger-printed and photographed except for Rachael (she was too young), then a quick grab of the bags and off on the Air Train to the rental car.

After deciding that the car we originally booked would carry the bags we upgraded to a Dodge Charger (Hey Charger). It was then off for a quick trip through town and over the Golden Gate Bridge as it may be the only time we can see it without fog. I remember Mike Lyons saying 17 years ago, if you see the Bridge without fog, take a picture.

We couldn’t stop anywhere as all the car parks were full because of the holiday weekend but got some pictures as we went over.

A little late but we finally got to board, Once the kids saw the Business Class seats we could have just flown to the US and back – they were very excited at what they could do with the seats.

With a bit of coaxing we finally managed to get them to sleep about 8 hours into the flight.

The plane had finally been prepared and was towed to the gate. Not long now til boarding.

We have made it to Sydney and have walked all around Sydney Airport and through 2 security checks because of a lack of flight details on the departures board but found the right gate in the end.

Jenny has had the pat down twice now – must look like a terrorist 🙂

Now just a 3 hour wait for the next leg. 🙁

After a 4:30 am wakeup, we didnt do too bad and was out of the door at 5:10.

Got the airport with no drama at 5:45 after leaving the car at Adelaide Station. It will change from a red Commodore to  maroon Camry while we are away.

A great checkin as we have been bumped up to Business for the Sydney – San Francisco leg 🙂

Now we are just waiting to get on the Sydney flight.