California!

Well we made it to San Francisco! The trip took about 6 hours since our plane was delayed but it wasn't too bad. We flew Virgin Atlantic for the first time and it was a very nice experience! We bought our plane tickets a few months ago and it was good we did since a couple of weeks later they started charging for baggage (no first items free).

VA seemed to have a sense of humor - their instructional video on airport safety was pretty funny. The plane itself was cool. The lights were a hot neon purple that kind of gave the plane a "club" feel. Water and soda was free, which seems rare nowadays. All of the staff was friendly. Each person had a nice entertainment center to themselves - you could watch movies (at a charge), tv, play games, and even message with other people in the plane. They also had a power outlet so you could use your laptop without having a dead battery midway through.

I spent most of the time on my laptop doing some Oracle 11g database training using some self study CDs I got a few months ago. Laura spent a good amount of the trip sleeping and I joined her towards the end. Luckily we had the foresight to pack lots of snacks so we weren't hungry along the way and we didn't have to pay for anything. The only downsides of the trip was that the plane was a little delayed, the entertainment system went out for about 20 minutes during the flight, and there were some loud kids in front of us and behind us. But we would still fly VA again!

When we got to the airport, we picked up our baggage without any issues but then we had to find a way to the hotel. Sadly it was about midnight at this point and the Bart that we were planning on taking had already left. So, we wandered about for a little bit trying to figure out what our options were. We eventually settled on a taxi since we were tired and just wanted to get to the hotel. The first taxi person we met was actually an illegal limo service so we passed on them since they seemed a little expensive. After that we got in a taxi but realized that we didn't have enough cash and it didn't take credit card. After that an airport guy helped us find a taxi that took credit cards so we took that one. The taxi driver was really fast so we gave him a good tip!

We got to our hotel in the Financial District - the Harbor Court Hotel. It is a nice little hotel wedged in between a couple of other buildings and we like our room, although not too fancy or large. We had a good 5 hour sleep and now we're surfing the free internet to figure out what we're going to do today! We're thinking of starting of at the Ferry Building/Marketplace so stay tuned!