Christmas in San Francisco

[Justinf]

SO after a few months of deciding, my family (wife, 16-year-old daughter, 25-year-old stepdaughter and her husband) decided we'd spend Christmas in San Francisco, a few days in Las Vegas, New Year's in Hollywood, and finishing with a couple of days in Anaheim for Disneyland.
We all flew Qantas in Y, which was always going to be a massive challenge for me given that my last long-haul flight was in F and the trip report can be found here: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....tos/my-first-class-bucketlist-trip-75766.html
We flew to SFO via SYD from MEL on December 22.
We awoke to the news that two lanes on the West Gate had closed and we quickly hightailed it out of our home and onto the road. Fortunately the road had cleared quite quickly and we had a good run to A1 Airport Parking at Tullamarine.
Check in at the international counter at QF Domestic took a while, but before long we were in the QP and looking forward to our journey.
QF426 was on time at 11am and we are all seated in row 6 for the domestic leg of our trip.
Sneaky beer and a coconut slice for the flight up. The FA was quite surprised I asked for a beer 'so early in the morning' and gave me it for free. I was unaware that 11.30am was early?



A smooth flight and touched down and made our way to Gate 15 for the seamless transfer.
A quick ride on the bus.



Pretty soon we found ourselves through customs and security at SYD international and into the J lounge for our flight to SFO on QF73. I am QF Gold so could guest the wife and my 16-year-old just qualifies for the cut off point for another fre guest. Stepdaughter is Qantas Club member so she guested the son-in-law.
We were quite excited by now (except for me having to travel in Y) because it was my stepdaughter's birthday on the 23rd, so we would get two birthdays, two Christmases and two New Years when you consider that everyone back home would have celebrated it all before us.



And of course those who have read my trip reports, know that I am a selfie junky.
So here we are boarded with the three 'kids' in the middle aisle of row 72 and the two oldies also in row 72, but with the two seats to themselves.

By now I am thinking 'whY oh whY or whY am I sitting this far back on a 747-400'?

 

[cjd600]

Beauty, count me in for this one

 

[mmchow]

Enjoyed reading your previous trip reports and looking forward to this one.

 

[Major]

Your selfie prompted my memory of your last TR which was great.

Enjoy the trip.

 

[Justinf]

Your selfie prompted my memory of your last TR which was great.

Enjoy the trip.

There will be lots. There will be not many that are good. But there will be selfies. Oh yes, there will be selfies. But I will actually try and capture the places we went to as well.
Next installment tomorrow. Just arrived home a few hours ago and fighting to stay awake.

 

[drron]

1130 too early for a beer!Tell her she's dreaming.

 

[LadyC]

I hope you all had a great trip. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[love_the_life]

1130 too early for a beer!Tell her she's dreaming.

A bit early for me drron. Though I will accept a bubbly if offered.

 

[NoName]

Loved your previous report and love these locations so will tune in with interest!

 

[Justinf]

Before too long and after some nice chardonnay in the QF J Lounge, it was time for boarding.
I can’t emphasise enough how much I was dreading the next 14 hours. We took our seats and noticed just in front of the ‘kids’ was a full row of four empty. I told a couple of them to get up immediately and take them as soon as the seatbelt sign went off after takeoff.
Sure enough the wife and Miss 16 moved and had the row to themselves, which meant I had two seats to myself in row 72 on this refurbed Boeing 747-400. Noice!
Not long after a woman complained that her IFE was ‘scratchy’ and demanded that my wife move back her original seat so she could sit there. My wife overheard her saying to her husband “You watch, I’ll get this seat whatever it takes”. The FA was called and the wife was banished back to her seat beside me. I’m not going to go into the rights and wrongs of this, as technically she did vacate her original seat. It was what it was. I'm prepared to accept the consequences of vacating our allocated seats. After an hour or so, the woman gave her seat to her son so he could lay down in row 71. I moved to sit next to Miss 16 who still in her ‘moved’ seat and we played cards for a few hours.
Lunch service was pre-selected by all of us from Q Eats, which I found to be really good – not the lunch, but the fact that nobody else in the cabin seemed to have done it, so we got our meals and drinks first.

I had the chicken cacciatore and another Boags. The meal wasn’t too bad as far as Y meals go, but the lack of any butter or spread for the roll was puzzling. I had another few chardys and watched War Dogs (I love Jonah Hill), which wasn’t too bad. Before long I drifted off and managed four hours of sleep. The ‘son’ had moved now and vacated the seat that mother fought so hard for which meant Miss 16 was able to stretch out over two seats and put a pillow on my lap. The end seat we left vacated as we were told to do by the FA at the start of the flight, as we didn’t want to cause a fuss.
After waking, cabin crew come around with some cheese toasties which I grabbed with glee. I was quite peckish by this stage.
Time for another movie – Suicide Squad, which wasn’t great but not nearly as bad as the reviews made out.
By now I was feeling pretty good about the economy class caper. Four hours sleep was four more than I thought I’d get and by the time the breakfast service came around, we all know that means there’s only around two hours left.
Breakfast was pretty ordinary. Your stock standard eggs (probably powdered), chicken sausage, some bacon of some kind with coffee and juice. Yes, that's apple juice on the brekky tray - not chardonnay!

Before too long, San Francisco was in sight and what a sight it was from the window of this old 747.
I’d done it. I’d survived Y after going from F. Way to go Justin!

 

[v1nce007]

Sneaky beer and a coconut slice for the flight up. The FA was quite surprised I asked for a beer 'so early in the morning' and gave me it for free. I was unaware that 11.30am was early?

Nothing wrong with that when you're on holiday!

 

[sausagefingers]

loved your last TR, subscribed for this one.

 

[shufflingfeet]

I'm flying to SF on Thursday with the family at the back as well. I hope we get some empty seats too.

 

[Justinf]

So after hoping that clearing SFO would be less painful than LAX, I was wrong. The lines were horrendous. Took over an hour to get out of the place.
got into a cab and got into our Air BnB place on Jones St, two blocks from Union Square. We paid a fortune for this place, but it was worth it. What a terrific location.




By now it was 4pm and tiredness had set in. Wife stayed in, kids went straight to Ross for shopping so what was I to do? There was a Speakeasy bar literally two doors down from our place. Well, that was sorted then.

We ordered Uber Eats and most of us were tucked away asleep by 7pm. I fell asleep on the couch (perhaps due to four pints of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale) and we were looking forward to Alcatraz, Madame Taussauds (got some great pics there) and the Dungeon tour tomorrow.

 

[TomVexille]

I’d done it. I’d survived Y after going from F.

That sounds rather familiar...

 

[Buzzard]

Enjoying your TR Justinf, look forward to more pics.

 

[Justinf]

That sounds rather familiar...

Sometimes it just has to be done.

 

[Justinf]

Enjoying your TR Justinf, look forward to more pics.

I have heaps. I sometimes get a little worried that I post too many unrelated stuff like selfies and stuff.

 

[TomVexille]

Sometimes it just has to be done.

I know. Just got home from a trip where we spent close to 50 hours in Y

 

[Justinf]

A slow start to the morning with all of us feeling the pinch.
But excitement awaited as a big day in San Fran awaited.
We ordered an Uber to take us to iHop down at the wharf for brunch. After a 20 minute wait we finally got seated and Miss 16 had waffles, which she would come to enjoy very much throughout our stay.
I had an omelette of some description and some very typical weak American coffee.




The day also happened to my stepdaughter's 26th birthday. It was weird flying in the day before and seeing all the birthday messages on her social media when it wasn't the 23rd in the US yet.



After filling our bellies, it was time to venture to the ferry over to Alcatraz. Weather was wet and windy and about 12 degrees.
Standing line at the ferry, I was able to take a few quick snaps.