SAN, SFO, and SEA – hitting the West Coast

[Katie]

Wednesday, September 29, 2010


Mr Katie and Little Miss dropped me at Central station, and I caught the Air Train to the International terminal, with plenty of time allowed for leisurely checkin and a spot of duty free shopping before lounging and boarding for LAX. I had issues completing the online checkin, but was able to change my seat. Seq nr 3. I was in Y+ (in the mini J cabin on the 2-class 747), and selected seat 24K. I’d normally never select a window seat, but 24J was the only other seat selected for weeks before the flight; I figured it was a good chance to get a nice window seat and that the person sitting next to me would want to move to another seat. All of row 23 was blocked out to me.



Security was fine, my jewellery caused an issue, and I had to take off my bracelets and go through again. I can normally avoid this with my arm position, but didn't manage it that day. I was a bit worried about my bags, but the security guy assured me they’d keep an eye on it for me. Straight to the Duty Free shop to find a small Sony digi camera. I don’t like lugging the big camera for quick trips, and Little Miss had misplaced the 3year old small digi camera I bought for my first trip away without her. (We did find that little camera a week after I got home; we had thought Murphy’s law would kick in a bit sooner than that, but oh well. That 3year old camera also died in December, so I really did need to buy a new one!!)


Camera bought, a wander through the stores at BNE – such a luxury without Little Miss – and then up to the QP. Crowded as usual before the LA flight, but not too bad. Relaxed there for a bit before heading to gate 86 to board. The lady sitting next to me in 24J was the only other person in row 24! There were two men in row 23 – each in the aisle seats of the middle section. The four of us were the only Y+ pax!! The FA had suggested the lady in 24J could go to 23K after we took off, but ended up letting her move well before that. Two other pax were brought forward before takeoff into the A seats. My guess is that they were WPs, none of the staff seemed to treat them like staff/family of staff. But I’m just guessing.


We took off a little late, my pics from the plane during taxiing were taken at 11:25. We took off to the west, and went fairly far west before heading east; I got photos of the UQ St Lucia campus, which was about the most westerly spot we got to. I got some great shots of the city and near where I live before it was time to settle in and enjoy the flight, and enjoy the space next to me. [FONT=&quot] Oh, and change into my yoga pants. (See thewinchester’s TR, I think, for that reference)
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View of UQ

 

[Katie]

Lunch for the flight (W15_BNE-LAX_SEP10 menu)
Green Leaf Salad with Feta and Snow Peas
Mains:
Beef and Stout Casserole with Colcannon and Steamed Greens
Pan Fried Barramundi, Pine nut and raisin sauce with sweet potato mash
Cheese and Biscuits
Dessert
Ice Cream Coffee, tea.
Looks like the usual offerings for create your own toasted sandwiches. The pre-made ones were:
Toasted Turkish with Char Grilled Eggplant, Capsicum, Artichokes, and Hummus
Toasted Baguette with Poached Chicken, Gruyere, Caramelised Onions and Aioli.

Lunch was tasty, I had the fish, which I would normally not risk on a flight, but the beef dish did not appeal to me.


The IFE was mucking up for the first couple of hours of the flight – I think the issue was throughout the plane. Eventually it was working again. I didn’t get a chance to check just exactly where these beautiful islands were:



From there, a fairly uneventful flight to LAX. Two more pax were brought into Y+ during the flight, to the aisle seats in the middle section of row 24. Another pax was brought up to the middle seat of row 24 very close to landing, I'm guessing he was stressing about a connection or something similar, and that was the closest forward seat for him.

As we were taxiing to TBIT, I saw the tails of two other QF 747s already there:



We probably arrived a little late (I did a mini SR on this trip, and it has been more than three months ...), but I don't recall any particular delays with immigration or baggage. Pretty big lines to clear customs, but it was a quick trip up to the drop off, and then the land-side walk to T4 for my AA/American Eagle flight to SAN. Thankfully, the queues for security at T4 were much shorter than when the Katie family came through 5 months earlier.

 

[totalk]

Great and interesting TR.

Cheers

 

[Katie]

I realise I haven't finished this TR - sorry!
Life is starting to become a new normal - new house, above the flood plain where we used to live, our own internet, and after 7 weeks with the ILs, our own space again. Ahh.
Now, back to the serious business:

I left out the breakfast! Breakfast was the usual choice of continental or hot.
Continental:
OJ, Cereal, Date Pain De Mie, Seasonal Fresh Fruit
Hot:
OJ, Fruit Salad, Chorizo, Potato and Tomato Omelette with wilted Spinach, Date Pain de Mie
Accompanied by Grinders Coffee / Dilmah Tea



I had the hot option. Although they can be a bit dry, I do rather like the Pain de Mie. Breakfast was served at the usual 2-2.5 or so hours before landing at LAX. By this stage, the number of pax in Y+ had gone from 4 to 9! Two more pax were brought up into the 24 D & F seats through the flight, some time before breakfast, and a gentleman was brought up into 24E some time before landing. The last gentleman must have had a tight connection or something, I had a sense that the FAs were accommodating him being in a hurry.

 

[Katie]

It's so long since I started this TR, I can't remember any more what arrival into TBIT was like, and the transfer to T4. It mustn't have been all that different or exciting, it certainly didn't stick in my mind!

Checked in bag was deposited with the baggage people before exiting TBIT, and off to T4. My ticket was BNE-LAX-SAN-xx-LAX-BNE.
I was on an American Eagle puddle jumper to SAN, a quick flight down, and just enough time for the FA to a drinks run through the cabin. I'd chosen seat 1A, which was kind of fun, but not great from a hand luggage storage perspective. I had minimal hand luggage anyway, as my wheelie bag was too big for the little puddle jumper, and was checked at the gate.
Arrival into SAN was pretty cool - flying over the city, and then it feels suddenly you can see tarmac and are landing. We landed at the commuter terminal, waited for luggage for a bit, and then I grabbed a cab to my hotel.
Given how close the airport is, the cab ride wasn't too expensive, and there were quite a few fun sights along the way - along hte harbour, the aircraft carrier, etc.

I was staying at the Omni, just past the conference centre and right next door to Petco park. As in, attached to Petco park. In the five nights I spent at the hotel, there were at least three nights of baseball games. I had no idea baseball games occurred so frequently!

I arrived at the hotel at about 11am, well before the usual 2pm checkin time. I decided to go for "there's a room ready now" option, rather than wait for a room on a higher floor. Hindsight - I should waited for another room. The room was perfectly fine, but I was on the 3rd or 4th floor, which was half rooms, half conference facilities, with a view of Hepburn's Tin Fish bar downstairs, the trolley line, and the conference centre.

I spent the afternoon wandering the Gaslamp quarter, and checking out the oddly shaped, open air Westfield shopping centre, getting my Gap, Banana Republic, etc, fix.

 

[Katie]

The Omni hotel:
I really enjoyed staying in this hotel. I was attending a conference which was being held in the hotel. The room was spacious and comfortable for me travelling alone. The bathroom was really lovely - had some odd shutters, I do not understand the idea of opening up the bathroom to the rest of a hotel room. The bath looked worthy of using as a bath, not just a shower. I haven't found too many conference venue hotels like that in the US! Maybe I only stay at the cheap ones??

Some other minor details I enjoyed at the Omni:
If you signed up for their loyalty programme, you could get a free coffe and juice delivered to your door. Not too shabby. For about $3 extra, you could add a bagel or English muffin. The delivery tray was quite sweet:


They turned down the bed at night! Although they turned it down on the other side of the bed to where I sleep, I found that issue quite minor. There was no service like this in the two Crowne Plazas I stayed in on the rest of the trip.
They are little things, they make such little difference in the scheme of a day, but small details such as a fresh coffee rather than going to the nearest Satrbucks, or heaven forbid, the likely-to-be-Starbucks almost-barista coffee in the lobby gift store.



View from my room:


The hotel restaurant was McCormick & Shmicks, the seafood chain. I ate there one night with a friend, and it was a lovely meal. We sat outside, enjoying the warm weather, and even though we were facing the trolley line/conference centre, the noise wasn't bad at all.

 

[Katie]

I stayed in San Diego from Weds 29/9 - Sun 3/10. As I recall, the conference ran from Thurs-Sat.
On the Weds night, the conference organiser had arranged for a walking tour of the Gaslamp area for interested conference attendees. I try to take up these tours when I can, as otherwise I my main touring involves retail outlets.
I may have had an adult beverage or two before the tour, or maybe because it's been more than 18mths since this trip, but I can no longer remember why this horse was important:


We also went inside the US Grant, and came back to near the Omni. Some of the other conference attendees had gathered at the rooftop bar of a hotel across the road. It had very cool fire pits (not super necessary at that time of year)


and a great view of Petco Park

 

[Katie]

On Sunday, I had a 9:10am flight SAN-LAX (AA3084) on American Eagle, again from the commuter terminal, connecting in LAX to AA1936 - my first AA mini status run. I was going to get to QF SG for the first time ever!
These would also be my first flights in my new QFF year, as my year is Oct-Sept.

Arrival and security at the commuter terminal was low key and uneventful. I really did not need to arrive more than 1hr early.
The flight to LAX was quicker than the flight down to SAN, so we had no beverage service on that flight. My rollaboard carryon was too big for the plane, so it was gate checked. A little wait in LAX to pick it up, and then on the bus from the American Eagle terminal to T4 and the AA Lounge.

My flight to SFO was at 12:15pm, and my first AA First flight. We were served a beverage and small snack (bag of pretzel or similar, IIRC).

I was going to be spending the next two days in our SFO office; really it's in Foster City - sure, it's close to SFO airport, but not the city itself. I caught the complimentary shuttle to the Crowne Plaza, checked in to my room, and made my way back downstairs to the next complimentary shuttle that would take me to Hillsdale shopping centre. The last shuttle would pick me up barely two hours after I was dropped off, so it was ninja shopping time. Luckily, although Hillsdale has changed a bit since I first shopped there in 96, we'd been in the Bay area in May, and I've been there enough times, it was perfect for targetted ninja shopping.
I picked up some clothes and other items for Little Miss, books for me, managed a really quick wander through Trader Joes, and it was back on the bus to the hotel.

I decided to be boring, so dinner was in the hotel bar with my Kindle for company. I found out the next day a colleague from another US office was also there, having dinner in the bar. We'd never met one another before, otherwise we might have been able to sit together. Oh well, I was happy reading.

This was my room in the Crowne Plaza:


Pretty straightforward, no view to speak of. Perfectly fine for a two night stay.

I worked in the office for Monday and Tuesday, so I didn't have to take leave days between the conference in San Diego and another conference in Seattle. In hindsight, maybe I should have taken leave days!

View from our Foster City office:

 

[Katie]

On Tuesday afternoon my mini status run really kicked into gear. Two of my colleagues who were in the Foster City office from other offices were also heading up to Seattle were rather bemused that I was flying SFO-LAX-SEA; they were on a direct SFO-SEA flight. I think I used the excuse that it was cheaper, and I was paying for my flights, that was why I had such crazy routing.

AA2234 SFO-LAX F
dep 4:25pm
arr 5:45pm
seat 4A

I loved this flight for the first 20 or so mins, until there got to be a bit too much cloud cover. I was able to keep track of where we were until well south of San Jose ... and even spotted on of my favourite bay area shopping places:


(Gilroy Premium Outlets)

I'd been studying the information here on AFF, as well as the AA in-flight magazine to make sure that I could transfer as easily as possible to T3 for my Alaskan codeshare flight to SEA. I took the bus from T4 to T3, rather bemused by the outdoor stairs at T3. I wandered around the terminal for a bit, I remember there being lots of people queued up or milling around for either VA or VS flights - I think there was perhaps a delayed flight.

I found the Alaskan lounge, I thought I'd try my luck as I was in F. There was a sign at the door saying that QP members were able to access the lounge, cool! I was able to get in with my F boarding pass.
The lounge was decent, had free wifi, and I think asked passengers not to be excesive about the alcohol they consumed.
I had a nice view of this Disney plane, unfortunately it wasn't the one flying to SEA that night:


AA6784 /AS463
dep 7:30pm
arr 10:07pm
First seat 4C

A light dinner was served in flight:


It was a chicken, cheese, walnut, dried cranberry salad. Service was fine, I had a man sitting next to me in 4A who had flown in on VA/DJ from Perth to LAX. He was a property investor, mainly retail properties. He'd been on VA in J; his family (wife + two young kids, under about 7) were all back in Y. He was pretty tired, so seemed to mostly sleep on the way to SEA.

After arriving at SEA, I got a cab to my next Crowne Plaza hotel. My second conference was starting Weds morning, and my hotel was a good half-hour walk from the Bell Harbor conference centre where the conference was being held.

 

[Katie]

Wednesday morning, and I had plenty of time to get to the conference venue, allowing for time to find a coffee and snack for brekky along the way. I was booked into a morning pre-conference session, and I had the afternoon free before an evening welcome reception near my hotel.

I spotted this cool statue (? not sure that's the best description for it) on my walk:



And I made sure that my first Seattle walk would take me past Pike Place market. No time to wander inside, but could go past the outside.


And past the very first Starbucks (Mr Katie is rather fond of Starbucks), still using the original logo, mermaid bosoms and all.


Inside the original Starbucks - no tables and chairs, you grab your coffee and go. Also no free wifi. But there's another Starbucks closer to Pike Place Market red sign that has seating and wifi.


Busking outside 'bucks:

 

[Katie]

Morning pre-conference session over, I decided to use the afternoon for some sightseeing. To the Space Needle!

There was a very cool red tubular sculpture in the park near the Space Needle.


The Space Needle:

It was a clear enough day to see Mt Rainier, though it was easier to see from the revolving restaurant than from the viewing platform.

After looking at the sights from the viewing platform, noticing some very out-of-date digital information screens (stating the Seattle art musem was closed for renovation and would have its grand reopening in May 2007. It was October 2010), I decided to have lunch in the revolving restaurant. Kind of touristy, but there was a good offer for a two course meal with a glass of wine. Whee, sightseeing in Seattle with a slight wine buzz!

For my main/"entree", I had local crab cakes on toast, covered in cheese (ugh - on the cheese):


Dessert was a berry cobbler, accompanied by my iPhone here because I was so excited to be on wifi and checking out my Seattle Lonely Planet guide on my phone. (High dork factor)

 

[Katie]

Some sightseeing in Seattle:
Tickled my fancy as a touring Aussie (all in Pike Place Market)

Chilli decorations

Need to watch out for the fishmongers and those dangling fish! That dark fish that is almost falling off the stand is like that on purpose. As soon as a tourist gets near, it gets pulled back up the ice, much to their shock.

Some of the signage uses rather old-fashioned terminology, and I guess it's historical. There wasn't really a prevalence of medications/sanitary items around this area:

Another view of a fish stall

 

[Katie]

After an informative conference, it was time to make my way home on Friday evening. On the walk back to my hotel, I saw this sign:

I don't think I've been in any other US cities where I've seen a freeway sign for a city in another country.

I had a 5:30pm flight to LAX on AS/AA codeshare. Checkin was slightly complicated, with my two bookings and wanting to get my luggage to BNE. Once I was able to get a human to assist me rather than a computer, it was all sorted out fairly quickly. I wasn't able to get into the AS lounge as a QP member (I was QP PS at the time), but when the lounge dragon saw my F boarding pass, he said I could come in as an F pax. Nice.

Flight AA6844 /AS474 Fri 8 Oct
Seat 4C
dep 5:30pm
arr 8:00pm

Another uneventful flight. This time dinner was a chicken breast and salad, and I got the little prayer card, which I'd never heard of (but have read somewhere that AS are no longer doing this??)
Dinner:

View of prayer card:


I arrived at T3, so back on the bus to T4 for QF16 home. Quite an interesting view of airport operations at T3 at the bus level; you don't get to see this at T4 or TBIT:

 

[Katie]

Arrived at T4, to the lounge, shower, and so on. I probably used of my free drink chits, but I can't recall.
While hanging out in the lounge, saw this pretty plane, but it was heading for TBIT, not T4

But I did get a good view of our plane:


I was on QF16 in Y+ with J seats (woo hoo!). I think this was the last of my lucky flights on QF15/16 with Y+ seats in J cabin. Unlike QF15 on the way over, QF16's Y+ cabin was full. It was also Friday night, so Sunday arrival was probably better for a lot of people.
I had seat 24D, perfectly fine. There was a lovely couple next to me, and I showed the wife in the middle seat how to use her seat controls, etc. I don't think she realised until some point in the night just how far she could recline the seat, though!
I think they were the first people I've sat next to who've pulled out their bible before the meal and shared a prayer together. No issues with that, just something that still sticks in my mind over 18mths later. Also, the wife was WAY more dressed up than I ever am for a flight. I don't look daggy, but I don't wear makeup, have my designer label hand bag, hair done, and designer label sky-scraper heels. But then I'm probably about 1 foot taller than this lady was, so how can I suggest there's anything wrong with high high heels?

Supper options were: (W12_16_94_108_LAX_AUS_SEP10 menu)
Green leaf salad with Red capsicum and feta
Mains:
Beef short ribs with tarrago sauce, red potato mash and green asparagus
Pan fried butterfish with a mustard cream sauce and baby carrots
Dessert:
Tiramisu
Ginders cofee, dilmah tea


I had the beef.

Refreshments available through the flight:
Taosted panini with char grilled pumpkin, slow roasted tomatoes, goats cheese, and tapenade
Toasted baguette with smoked turkey, soft brie, rocket and cranberry sauce
or create your own:
Panini or Sourdough baguette with:

• Smoked turkey
• Char grilled pumpkin
• Soft brie cheese
• Goats cheese
• Cranberry sauce
• Slow roasted tomatoes
• Baby rocket
• Olive tapenade

Fresh whole fruit
Italian nougat
Cheese & biscuits
Chocolate bars

Breakfast
Continental:
Orange juice, cereal, croissant, seasonal sliced fruit
Hot:
Orange juice, fruit salad, Zucchini and potato frittata with bacon, mushrooms and oven roasted tomatoes, croissant
Grinders coffee, Dilmah tea

I had the hot brekky. I hate mushrooms, but usuall find they're easy to remove and put in the fruit salad bowl when I've had the fruit salad



After arriving in Brisbane, it was straight home to get ready for Little Miss's 4th birthday and family party! I arrived on her birthday, and had to make the cake she'd chosen. Luckily it was "only" a family party, so only about 20-25 people there for afternoon tea. :shock: And she didn't choose the carousel cake from the Women's Weekly birthday cake cookbook, so PHEW!!

 

[Simo]

Congrats on a great TR, I can not remember what I did yesterday.