Map from The Great Circle Mapper

Up early this morning to pack. Got picked up by a car to go to Buffalo Airport. The driver was Canadian and the only other passenger was American. When we got to the border the other two didn't even get their passports checked. We got asked lots of questions, the luggage was checked, The immigration guy also complained that he couldn't hear us but made no effort to move out of his box and closer to the car. Even the American we were with thought them a bit heavy handed. Got checked in, though not with seats together for the second flight. As American internal flights don't have Business Class and they won't upgrade us to first class we have to travel economy. It was then onto security where we got sent to the shirt queue. The staff were very taken with our accents, asking if Andrew could talk some more and if I sounded the same. We still got patted down and our bags searched though. We then had breakfast whilst waiting for our first flight. This was two hours to Chicago and our first time change of the day, only one hour this time. The flight was OK, though you don't get fed.

We then had a long wait at Chicago airport. I used the time to write postcards. The flight was very overbooked. Eventually we got boarded, not next to each other. The flight was generally uncomfortable, there wasn't the space or peace to sleep, and this was their Economy Plus seating rather than Economy class too! The service was awful - 2 drinks and one bag of nuts on a 4hr flight - and the staffs attitude was generally not very good.

Eventually we arrived at San Francisco, and had a long wait to be reunited with our beloved backpacks. We then phoned for a car and a very nice one turned up in less than 10mins. The drive from the airport passes between the mountains on one side and the bay on the other. We arrived at our hotel, which is somewhat different to our last few nights accommodation. The entrance hall is marble and gold and has chandeliers. We were met by a uniformed doorman who took our bags of to be delivered to our room. We checked in and went to find our 'room'. The door opens into an entrance hall, straight on is the bedroom. This has a king-size bed, mini bar, flat screen TV, games console, desk with a posh designer chair, armchair and coffee table. Down a short passage to the right is the marble lined bathroom containing a sink nearly as big as a bath as well as a bath, shower, toilet and TV. The information folder informed us that our butler can be called on to provide such essential services as running a bath and fluffing our pillows to our required fluffiness level!

Once we had settled in and had our bags delivered we set of in search of food. The weather in San Francisco is a lot cooler than on the East coast - thankfully. After some wandering we came on a place called Maxims. Here we made a pleasing discovery that America does have some decent beer. I couldn't decide between the crab cakes and the salmon to eat, so settled for the crab encrusted salmon. This was delicious though I didn't quite manage to eat all of the huge piece of salmon that I got.

We then headed back to the hostel for a beer in the bar there, where we also got free popcorn yum! From eavesdropping other peoples conversations I learnt that one of our fellow drinkers at the bar was a Kuwaiti diplomat. We then retired for an early (by our new time zone) night.

Day 6    Day 8