San-Francisco

22 November 2017 We have arrived safely in San Francisco in the US of A! The flight from Auckland to San Francisco was very long (approx. 12 hours), but the movies and food were great. I was able to get some sleep as Katelyn generously offered me the window seat for the middle section of the flight, however Nicole and Katelyn didn’t get much sleep unfortunately. We thought immigration in San Francisco would take ages, however we got through in record time. The private shuttle that our travel agent had pre-booked for us wasn’t there when we left immigration, however a quick call and ten minutes wait and we had the shuttle ready to go.

24 November 2017 We are staying in the Hilton Union Square in San Francisco. A very nice hotel — so good in fact that it is not for the exclusive use of humans. Believe it or not, you can have two dogs of up to 70 lbs (approx. 35 kg) each stay with you in your room! I love dogs more than most, but that sounds a little excessive (and weird) to me.

24 November 2017 Today was our first full day in holiday mode. I woke up early and went for a walk around the city centre while Nicole and Katelyn slept in. What became very obvious, very quickly, is that San Francisco is full of crazy people … and homeless people … and crazy homeless people. I’ve never seen so many people sleeping rough anywhere. According to a taxi driver the residency policies for this area encourage homeless people to move here from other areas, as after 12 months here they can apply for housing support. Whatever the policy, it is a very sad indictment on society here — brought into sharper focus given that today is Thanksgiving Day.

25 November 2017 This morning was a visit to The Rock (aka Alcatraz Island) — for the first time for Nicole and Katelyn and a return after just under 25 years for me. I must admit very little, if anything, has changed there in the last 25 years, however it’s still a great place to visit. I’m a huge fan of the Escape From Alcatraz movie starring Clint Eastwood, and a visit to Alcatraz just breathes extra life into the story.

25 November 2017 This one is very closely related to Weird American Thing #1 and was relayed to us via Victor — our moustachioed Mexican tour guide from yesterday. Apparently San Francisco has more dogs than kids (definition of kids not provided). While it is apparently a close count, I think that qualifies as weird. Having watched the first two rebooted Planet of the Apes movies on the flight over, where hyper-intelligent apes rebel and effectively take over San Francisco, I’m having some disturbing thoughts about whether the next time I visit San Francisco it will be the humans wearing the leashes in public areas.

27 November 2017 Today was, in comparison to the first few days of our trip, a bit of a non-event. We all slept in, headed out for breakfast, checked out of the Hilton, and then checked into a hotel only two blocks away — this being the staging area for our tour. We then did some shopping in the afternoon before heading back to the hotel. Here’s a photo from the top of the shopping centre.