As I type this, my laptop says it is 10:14pm but here in San Francisco it is 7:14, so ends the 1st date of travel.

This morning started at 5am. We finished getting ready as Edna (THANK YOU!) picked us up and took us to the airport.  We got there in plenty of time (but not TOO much time) and had a yogurt parfait in the airport before boarding.

About 5.5 hours later we made it to San Francisco.  We left Charlotte at about 8 and when we landed in San Fran I changed my watch to about 10am.  I’ve never had much trouble with time changes on the way out on a trip. Oh well no eating for 8 hours but at least we got onto West Coast schedule.

Only hiccup at the airport is that we were waiting for our hotel shuttle and we waited and we waited for about 30 minutes and then I called and they were like, uh, you have to call to arrange that. Ok. How abou that being on your website. Oh and before that when we got on our plane they made us gate check our back packs because no overhead was left and we had our personal items to fit under the seat. Except they didn’t gate check they CHECKED them. Glad I didn’t leave my laptop in my bag!

But no worries, we got there, ditched our stuff had a quick bite at Wendy’s next door (still eating pretty good, I only had a Jr cheeseburger and a few of Ken’s fries, oh wait and a soda, but still not too bad for a travel day).

We then walked a short block or two to the BART station and took the train into downtown San Fran so we could wander.  We had been to San Francisco back in 2004 with a rental car and everything and while one day of wandering around without one was ok (especially as we were able to avoid the parking fees!) it is still a bit hard to get around with the jerky buses and all.  I estimate we walked at least 6 miles, including several flights of stairs and a good ole uphill climb San Fran style so good workout and test for my feet before Japan!

We went down to the Waterfront to see the seals and the view of the bay and then we wandered around China Town before heading into a few stores and then back to the BART and the hotel.  Dinner was only a few streets away at the first decent place we saw–Subway–and now we are back in the hotel room to relax.

I managed to check in our flight but we have really horrible seats *sigh*.  I’m hoping tomorrow when we get to the airport and print our boarding passes that maybe someone has changed their flight so we can get some better seats!

Tomorrow doesn’t start nearly as early so looking forward to a relaxing evening after an active but relaxing day.

It’s 11:30 am in Kyoto right now. We will get there at about 4pm on Saturday. Whew…