Saturday July 18 (Napier to San Francisco)

Well, on my way to the USA again!

The plane was late into Napier due to the bad weather in Auckland and the airport was marginal. However, by the time we arrived it had improved a lot, the rain had stopped and the winds were only light, phew!!! It was quite a pleasant trip!!

I walked over to the International terminal, no queues for the Smart passport machines and was so quiet in security it was straight through!!! I bought a couple of needed items and headed for the lounge. On arrival, I checked to see if I had my upgrade to Business and I have yay!! This meant I could use some of my Airpoints dollars to purchase an upgrade for the return journey, yay again, lol!!

Once I sat down, I realised I was missing the purse I had put my US$ in it also had some NZ money. I retraced my steps and two places were a "No" but was so lucky that where I had left it had been found by the people and they were just about to send it to security, phew again!!! My heart could do without that excitement, lol!!

After a relatively smooth crossing we landed in San Francisco at 12.15 pm, a wee bit early. At last, there are Smart Gates for the electronic passports and it was so much quicker. We were through so quickly that our luggage had not appeared. We waited and waited but no luggage until finally a message of apology came over, there was a mechanical fault. Later events suggested that it might have been with the aircraft.

After nearly two hours of waiting, my bag finally appeared!! then I made my way to the BART train station and spied a Starbucks nearby so had to avail myself.

As the Amtrak train is to leave from Emeryville, near to the far side of the Oakland bridge, I had booked into a hotel close to the station. \

The BART took took me to another station and I was fortunate enough that the EMERY Go round free shuttle was loading up, it stops right outside my hotel!!!

I freshened up and went for a walk to the Amtrak station so I could get an idea of how long it would take. On my return, I took some photos from my hotel window, such a lovely day with a beautiful sunset.

After a shower, I headed to bed earlier than usual!! Oh, and it is still Saturday, lol!