5 lovely inches and a wet t-shirt

I was going to call this post 'things the travel agent has done to make me mad', but I thought a more positive note was called for at the beginning of the trip.

My flights were reasonably good - had a seat empty next to me on both flights and I'd paid a little bit extra to get 5 extra inches leg room on the Sydney - San Francisco leg. It made such a difference - I think I even got some sleep on the flight. I did snicker at little when I went for a walk round the plane and saw tall people squashed into the regular size seats.

The only hitch was when I opened the bottle of water I had bought at Sydney airport. Unbeknownst to me, I had bought sparkling water. Bubbles + altitude = water spraying all over me and people in the rows in front of and behind me. Luckily they saw the funny side - and luckily I was wearing one of my merino tops that dried in about 10 minutes.

Paying for the extra night in the hotel was worth the extravagance. I arrived and was able to do straight up to the room for a nap. I made myself get up and go out after about a couple of hours. I walked down to the Ferry Markets for a very late lunch of gruyere cheese and pinenuts empanadas and kaffer lime donut. I think it was Antje who suggested that - great tip. Next time I'm going to book a place with a kitchen so I can cook something with all that amazing looking food.

A walk along the waterfront and a walk up up up up the hill back to the hotel. The Half Dome is going to be a breeze after this city. Beautiful architecture - streets and streets of apartments thats seem to be made entirely of bay windows - the bay city in more ways that one.

I made it back to the hotel in time for the free wine hour. They had a chardonnay (bleck!) and a cabernet savignon. The red was ok so I had a couple of glasses and a chat with a couple of other guests, before heading out for a quick dinner at a Thai restaurant one of the other guests recommended.

Now I'm off to my room to eat a wee pottle of hagan das ice-cream.