Day 1: Travel and Hotel Check-In
The night before we leave, I get serious about packing. I went to Target and picked up some of those compression bags that you see on TV infomercials. They are the kind that allow you to squeeze out all the air out of the bag so that the stuff you are packing can fit into a smaller space. They normally make you hook it up to a vacuum to suck out all the air but these are the cheap kind that you have to manually squeeze out the air and wrinkle all your clothes in the process. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't really give a crap if my clothes are wrinkled unless I'm wearing a suit or something like that. They turned out to be pretty effective. I managed to carry 7 days worth of clothes and 2 extra pair of shoes into my carry on bag. Pretty sweet!
The next morning, we are finally ready to set off. We left a key with the neighbors so they can feed our cats and grabbed a ride with my wife's friend to the bart station. Our flight was set to leave at 11:55AM and we didn't get on a bart train till 9:27AM. We were 30 minutes behind the schedule I had anticipated. This was a sign of things to come. We get off at Embarcadero to transfer because there is no longer a direct train from Dublin/Pleasanton to SFO anymore. Thanks BART! This sets us back another 11 minutes as we wait for the transfer train. I always am amazed by how few people ride bart after we get passed the Civic Center station. At that point, almost no one gets on of off the train till SFO. You can tell that all the riders are going to the airport because they all have luggage with them. I hadn't ridden bart in a while but I noticed that it was unusually loud. Usually the tube is the loudest part but passing through many of the secions south of downtown, it was extremely loud. So loud that it was uncomfortable.
Once we arrive at the airport, we hustle up the stairs to the AirTrain. Yes, we had to take a car and 3 trains to get to the airplane. I checked the night before and knew which terminal to get off at so while all the other passengers were looking around trying to figure their terminal for their flight, I was calm and relaxed. (yeah, i'm cool.) We find out terminal and get through security fairly easily. I know now to take off my belt before it sets off the metal detector. I just strip down and put everything in my bag. This time though, I forgot to take off my sweatshirt so the TSA guy had me go back and put it through the x-ray machine. You never know. My sweatshirt could be used to hide a bomb, right? After our violation of our rights, I put my clothes back on and we headed toward our gate to find a huge crowd. We hadn't eaten anything and I knew they weren't going to have food on the 5 hour flight so I had hoped we would have time while waiting at the gate to get something to eat. The second we arrived, I hear "Now boarding First Class passengers for flight 442 to Miami." I look at my wife with a shocked face and say "I guess we're right on time." My wife starts looking around for her boarding and makes this same joke that we always make quoting a line from Home Alone, "He dropped his boarding pass." But this time it wasn't a joke, she really did drop her boarding pass. She goes back toward security to try to find it but comes up empty. Then she goes to the lady at the gate and she prints her a new one without looking at her ID or anything.
We get on the plane and our seats are crappy. We are in the second to last row of the 767. Once we get to our row, there is a family that is seated near us and they take up all of the over head compartments. We have 2 pretty large carry on bags and my back pack. We end up placing our luggage in compartments that are no where near our seats. I was a little ticked off that the family was totally inconsiderate of others and took up all the space but I wasn't about to say anything. I had been needing to drop a load at the nearest toilet for quite a while but never had the chance. I hate using airplane toilets but I figured I wasn't going to last till we get to Miami so better do it before we take off or before there is a line. I do my business and get yelled at for not being in my seat with my seat belt fastened when the plane hadn't even moved yet. We finally get in the air and the movie that they play is "Journey to the Center of the Earth" which I actually had wanted to see. It was an alright movie overall; a good family oriented movie. The family that was seated next to us just happened to have their youngest son sitting behind me. His foot was in and out of my butt for the whole ride. Then he decided that he wanted to play with the tray table by bouncing it up and down. I was patient and complained to my wife and eventually she asked him to stop.
I had things timed so that we could get to the shuttle bus for the hotel by 9. We were supposed to land at 8:05. Since we didn't have any checked in bags, I figured an hour was plenty of time. We landed at 8:15. Still plenty of time to catch the shuttle in my opinion but we sat on the tarmac for another 45 minutes. Add that delay to the fact that we were all the way in the back of the plane and it would take us at least 20 minutes to get off the plane, we had no chance to make it. I went to the person at the gate and told them the situation and he said he would get us a shuttle voucher for SuperShuttle. We get out of the airport and find our way to the shuttle. The attendant at the shuttle is a large, African American woman with nearly all her teeth gold capped.
We get to the hotel and check in. The bell hop escorts us to our room which isn't even in the same building. We get in the room and the odor of cigarette smoke is extreme. I had reserved a non-smoking room. On the table there is an ashtray with cigarette butts and ashes. I had also reserved a junior suite which on the web site showed a bath tub and a couch. This room had neither. I set down my stuff and use the bathroom then head straight back to the front desk and explain to them the problem. After some checking, the gentleman comes back and tells me that there is nothing else they can do for me. They don't have any other rooms and he promises me that the cleaning crew will clean the room and do what they can to remove the odor.
Eventually we get around to trying to get something to eat. It's about 10:30 local time at this point. We walk down Ocean Dr. and every restaurant that we walk by tries to solicit us to come in because they have half price drinks or 2 for 1 drinks. Everything is pretty over priced. People are pretty rude when walking down the street. They have no regard for anyone walking by and bump you left and right. The girls are all dressed like hookers. I was exposed to more boobs and butts than I would have seen at a strip club. We select a restaurant and sit down to eat. While we are waiting for our food, a man comes over with a violin and asks us if we would like to hear something. My wife says yes, and I shake my head no. He of course listens to hear and starts playing. I knew that he would want a tip for his efforts and all I had were $20s. Once he is done, he stand there waiting for a tip. I tell me wife I don't have anything to give him. All she has is a $1 and a $10. Guess what she gave him for a 45 second song? $10. Great!
We go back to the hotel and its annoyingly loud. Right outside our window, is a lounge that is blasting club music. Right behind our bed and on the other side of the window is the patio for the lounge. There are people drinking and being loud. We had a tough time getting to bed. We left the TV on to try to drown our the sound. Eventually we get to sleep.
The next morning, we are finally ready to set off. We left a key with the neighbors so they can feed our cats and grabbed a ride with my wife's friend to the bart station. Our flight was set to leave at 11:55AM and we didn't get on a bart train till 9:27AM. We were 30 minutes behind the schedule I had anticipated. This was a sign of things to come. We get off at Embarcadero to transfer because there is no longer a direct train from Dublin/Pleasanton to SFO anymore. Thanks BART! This sets us back another 11 minutes as we wait for the transfer train. I always am amazed by how few people ride bart after we get passed the Civic Center station. At that point, almost no one gets on of off the train till SFO. You can tell that all the riders are going to the airport because they all have luggage with them. I hadn't ridden bart in a while but I noticed that it was unusually loud. Usually the tube is the loudest part but passing through many of the secions south of downtown, it was extremely loud. So loud that it was uncomfortable.
Once we arrive at the airport, we hustle up the stairs to the AirTrain. Yes, we had to take a car and 3 trains to get to the airplane. I checked the night before and knew which terminal to get off at so while all the other passengers were looking around trying to figure their terminal for their flight, I was calm and relaxed. (yeah, i'm cool.) We find out terminal and get through security fairly easily. I know now to take off my belt before it sets off the metal detector. I just strip down and put everything in my bag. This time though, I forgot to take off my sweatshirt so the TSA guy had me go back and put it through the x-ray machine. You never know. My sweatshirt could be used to hide a bomb, right? After our violation of our rights, I put my clothes back on and we headed toward our gate to find a huge crowd. We hadn't eaten anything and I knew they weren't going to have food on the 5 hour flight so I had hoped we would have time while waiting at the gate to get something to eat. The second we arrived, I hear "Now boarding First Class passengers for flight 442 to Miami." I look at my wife with a shocked face and say "I guess we're right on time." My wife starts looking around for her boarding and makes this same joke that we always make quoting a line from Home Alone, "He dropped his boarding pass." But this time it wasn't a joke, she really did drop her boarding pass. She goes back toward security to try to find it but comes up empty. Then she goes to the lady at the gate and she prints her a new one without looking at her ID or anything.
We get on the plane and our seats are crappy. We are in the second to last row of the 767. Once we get to our row, there is a family that is seated near us and they take up all of the over head compartments. We have 2 pretty large carry on bags and my back pack. We end up placing our luggage in compartments that are no where near our seats. I was a little ticked off that the family was totally inconsiderate of others and took up all the space but I wasn't about to say anything. I had been needing to drop a load at the nearest toilet for quite a while but never had the chance. I hate using airplane toilets but I figured I wasn't going to last till we get to Miami so better do it before we take off or before there is a line. I do my business and get yelled at for not being in my seat with my seat belt fastened when the plane hadn't even moved yet. We finally get in the air and the movie that they play is "Journey to the Center of the Earth" which I actually had wanted to see. It was an alright movie overall; a good family oriented movie. The family that was seated next to us just happened to have their youngest son sitting behind me. His foot was in and out of my butt for the whole ride. Then he decided that he wanted to play with the tray table by bouncing it up and down. I was patient and complained to my wife and eventually she asked him to stop.
I had things timed so that we could get to the shuttle bus for the hotel by 9. We were supposed to land at 8:05. Since we didn't have any checked in bags, I figured an hour was plenty of time. We landed at 8:15. Still plenty of time to catch the shuttle in my opinion but we sat on the tarmac for another 45 minutes. Add that delay to the fact that we were all the way in the back of the plane and it would take us at least 20 minutes to get off the plane, we had no chance to make it. I went to the person at the gate and told them the situation and he said he would get us a shuttle voucher for SuperShuttle. We get out of the airport and find our way to the shuttle. The attendant at the shuttle is a large, African American woman with nearly all her teeth gold capped.
We get to the hotel and check in. The bell hop escorts us to our room which isn't even in the same building. We get in the room and the odor of cigarette smoke is extreme. I had reserved a non-smoking room. On the table there is an ashtray with cigarette butts and ashes. I had also reserved a junior suite which on the web site showed a bath tub and a couch. This room had neither. I set down my stuff and use the bathroom then head straight back to the front desk and explain to them the problem. After some checking, the gentleman comes back and tells me that there is nothing else they can do for me. They don't have any other rooms and he promises me that the cleaning crew will clean the room and do what they can to remove the odor.
Eventually we get around to trying to get something to eat. It's about 10:30 local time at this point. We walk down Ocean Dr. and every restaurant that we walk by tries to solicit us to come in because they have half price drinks or 2 for 1 drinks. Everything is pretty over priced. People are pretty rude when walking down the street. They have no regard for anyone walking by and bump you left and right. The girls are all dressed like hookers. I was exposed to more boobs and butts than I would have seen at a strip club. We select a restaurant and sit down to eat. While we are waiting for our food, a man comes over with a violin and asks us if we would like to hear something. My wife says yes, and I shake my head no. He of course listens to hear and starts playing. I knew that he would want a tip for his efforts and all I had were $20s. Once he is done, he stand there waiting for a tip. I tell me wife I don't have anything to give him. All she has is a $1 and a $10. Guess what she gave him for a 45 second song? $10. Great!
We go back to the hotel and its annoyingly loud. Right outside our window, is a lounge that is blasting club music. Right behind our bed and on the other side of the window is the patio for the lounge. There are people drinking and being loud. We had a tough time getting to bed. We left the TV on to try to drown our the sound. Eventually we get to sleep.
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