The journey to the airport over, I duly set about checking in via the cattle market that was the Virgin-Atlantic check-in area. This was helped along by being moved to a shorter cue for the SF flight (because I was cutting it fine to making it on time), which meant I got through just after Chris (my travelling partner), who had been queuing for about 1 hour more than me!

We hoofed it over to the departure gate, and just made it through when our seat was called; we entered the plane that would be our winged chariot for the next 11 hours to Anmerica. I of course used my wily charms suggest to the air hostess that we might be moved to a more fitting class for us, and she said no-one was allowed in the hold, but said she would move us to the exit seats if there was room. Which, there was, but the seats we had been allocated were OK anyway, as we had a spare place between us and the leg room was generous. We have made a pact to try be upgraded to Premier Economy for free on our return (seperate) journeys. (I might say I did anyway).

After 3 OK meals, we arrived promptly into SF International airport, and waited to be picked up. We headed straight to the golden gate bridge to check out this famous land mark. We walked halfway across, and got bored (theres only so much bridge architecture you can photograph!)

We then went to Lombard St. (No, i've never heard of it before either) which turned out to be the most windy (as a clock is windy) street in SF/USA/World? allthough I think some of Hastings' Old Town streets may be able to challenge this claim.

We then headed back to our hosts house, where we planned to go out for beers and meet some natives. We ate, and promtply fell alseep on the Sofa (The american for sofa is Couch).

The next morning we awoke to have a touristy adventure in SF itself; first-up, a visit to Alcatraz, which has (as the guides never cease to tell you) a 'Layer Cake' of history, starting as a rock, then being populated by the military, before becoming the countries most secure prison with no-one successfully escaping (because they didn't find the ones that tried, they assume they died in the 'Treacherous' waters surrounding the island!), it then became inhabited for some time by some hippie indians who claimed it as reserve land. It's now a tourist attraction for people to come wander round with headphones on and take pictures of bricks and stuff (which I duly did; slideshow when I get home for all that are interested, and most that are not). Towards the end of the tour we came across and old man was very informed about the methods used to escape from the island, and I resisted the urge to quiz him as to whether he in fact was one of those escapees from the Rock who were assumed dead, and in a Ironic twist managed to secure a job back at his old place of incarceration undet the radar of the authoraties, however, he was busy chatting to other people, so I just chuckled to myself.

After alcatraz, went to Pier 39 (Apparently also famous) where there were lots of crappy shops, the kind you find at a theme park, and we had lunch. Which consisted for me as Clam Chouder and Ceasar salad. I had heard that Clam Chouder is a speciality of SF, and am pleased to report that it indeed was tasty, not too fishy, it was kind of like a soup in a bowl made of bread (I'm sure Homer Simpson would join me in rejoicing the benefits of eating my own crockery, as it is made of food). Salad was crap.

We then headed of to Gharidelli square, which is made of chocolate, well I hoped it was, as Gharidelli is (apparently) a famous chocolate brand. Alas, I was dissapointed to find that it was only a shop and some other crappy shops. But made the best of it by buyin a huge lump of chocolate to take home with me (bigger and thicker than my hand).

Last off, we headed off to China Town to have a wonder around, but by this stage it was getting late, and we didn't spend much time there (allthough I went into all of the camera shops to find out the price of camera's that I want to buy: Sony T9, Nikon S7 and Canon SD800 / SD900, which were cheaper but not by much).

Finally we went back to our hosts house for a rack of ribs, and some artichoke hearts and then we were kidly transported to our hotel in a town called Pleasanton, to be installed into our shared (between Chris and I) suite, which has a kitchen and stuff!

We quickly headed the shops (American = Grocery Store) to get some supplies (groceries) (beer) and we are now kicking back, ready for our long week of training, US Style. Which will be interesting. :)