Australia 2007

Friday, November 30 – San Francisco to Vancouver

The sun was shining but it was quite cool out when we woke up this morning at 6:00 in San Francisco. After we got cleaned up we walked down to the lobby for our breakfast. They served a selection of cereals with milk or yogurt, toast or bagels with cream cheese, waffles, juice, coffee and muffins. It was wonderful and a good start to the day.
After breakfast we went back to the room to throw our few things in a bag, then down to check out. The shuttle bus came at 8:00 and we loaded up. The driver was originally from Fiji but has family in Surrey and knows the area well. He really wanted to talk about our area and where we had been. We had to stop at three other motels in the area to pick up other passengers and then headed to the airport. We arrived and picked up our checked in baggage, then headed to terminal 3 for the domestic departures. It was interesting that Vancouver was considered domestic. We were actually flying on United Airways flight UA1116, as a carrier for Air Canada. When we started to check-in, there was a huge lineup as their computers were up and down sporadically. Once we got checked in, we went directly through security and into our gate area. We took turns staying with our backpacks and wandering around. There was a tax free store where we bought some liqueurs. It was interesting, because when we left Hong Kong we had intended on buying duty free alcohol there. However, they told us you couldn’t buy alcohol and take it on the plane, due to the security with liquids. The check-in counter staff told us they would be going through our carry on at the gate, and no liquids other than the 100ml in the see through bag would be allowed on. Anyway, we bought our liqueurs and waited for the flight. As on every trip we take, I did meet someone at the gate that I used to work with at BC Hydro, who was on his way home from a month in Thailand.

We boarded the flight and had a smooth trip on the 737 all the way to Vancouver. When we got to Vancouver, we walked the length of the airport to get to customs, but, although the lineup was quite long, with several international flights coming in around that time, we got through in about 30 minutes. My sister, Andrea was waiting there to give us a lift home and it was good to see her. She laughed at us because we weren’t wearing coats and it was quite cold out. Ina also decided that she might consider taking a flying trip next year, because the flight home was so smooth.

So this was the end of our wonderful adventure.