Homeward Bound

Well our very last day on US soil, for six months anyway, still a couple things to do. We get up and shower and I finish the blog from yesterday that I left mid sentence. A quick check to make sure we have everything stowed away. We have to ditch our final tins that we haven't been able to consume including the soup I had been saving Beer and Cheese with Beef and Bacon!! Then it's down to the lobby to drop our bags. We go straight to the bus stop to get down to the Hyde Street Cable-car turnaround. Hooray it's working now, though there are a team of engineers continually checking it, the queue is only short as well. We get on the second car and stand outside at the back next to the guy who operates the brakes. It's another experience ticked off and looking back, as you tend to at the end of an adventure, we have ticked off quite a few experiences over the last three and a bit weeks. The change in gradients as you ride the car can get quite severe and on our trip we go uphill and downhill, at times quite dramatically, it certainly wasn't a dull ride. We got off and had to walk a couple of blocks to get the hop on hop off at Chinatown Gates. Quite a wait for our bus but eventually it turns up. I only wanted to go to Filbert Street

steps, for obvious reasons. The steps are a large number of flights alledgedly over a thousand steps up to Coit Tower. The guide made the stop sound interesting but there wasn't even a sign for the steps so I made do with a street sign and a building frontage. Job done we realise we are quite close to the Cruise Ship Pier so we make our way down and then past Pier 33, where we took our Alcatraz Tour from. Donna needed the toilet and as I waited in the shop area I saw a T-shirt I liked and decided to buy it, shock horror for those that know me well, then we were on our merry way again. It's hot again today 92F and the sweat on my navy shirt where the band of my bag sits has left a nice white line d'oh.
We make our way onto Pier 39, a last look at the Sealions,it must be hot today as a lot more of them are swimming around and playing in the water. From here it's back to Fisherman's Wharf to finish off the brunch we started yesterday. Today we shared Fish and Chips and a Crab and Shrimp Sandwich, large Sourdough Roll to be precise, washed down with a can of beer each. It was nice but very different to proper Fish and Chips, like what we have at home lol, we did get a very nice spicy tomato sauce though. Well after we had finished our brunch / lunch it was already 2.30pm and time to start heading back

to our hotel as our shuttle is booked for 4 pm. There are quite a few people waiting in the lobby and when the shuttle gets here there are 4 couples and we are all going to the same terminal.
An easy job for the driver really though he makes a bit of a song and dance about how heavy all of the cases are. Dropped off at the airport and now for the moment of truth, how heavy are the cases? We have to ask where we can weigh our cases and a nice lady told us we we could use the check in scales.......good news we are well within weight so we can empty some of the rucksack into the cases. So we check our cases in and then get through security no problem, Donna has come up trumps both ways no make up,perfumes, corkscrews or anything, well done!! We find a cafe bar and have a couple of beers whilst we have some time to kill before we make our way to the departure gate. Whilst relaxing Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton start their first live TV Presidential Debate. It's amazing how many Americans are crowding round trying to listen to the debate...can't really see that being repeated in good old blighty somehow can you?
Well we are soon at Gate 96 waiting to board Flight 930. Boarding takes a while as usual but it's not too long before we are in our seats and awaiting take off. I think this is a bigger plane than before, Boeing 777, but we still end up sharing three seats as the plane is not quite full and the guy sat next to us wanted to move, to make it more comfortable for us all, was it something we said? Well flight time is 9 hrs 32 mins and 5355 miles, most of it at around 37,000ft.
Did we do the same as the one and only Tony Bennett and leave our hearts in San Francisco, we have seen his by the way in Union Square

he painted it himself, no not really it seems to be a lovely place on the whole it has a great vibe and the people seem genuinely nice but home is where the heart is and that's where we are going now back to our loved ones.
A couple of Heinekens then dinner, not too bad, Chinese chicken with rice and Chinese veg with a quinoa salad. Followed by Green Tea Gelato. then it's lights out and blinds closed with the request that we keep them closed as it will get light quite early in the flight. I have been so uncomfortable that haven't had a wink of sleep and my body makes it 3.20 am, Donna's tried and tried but I don't think she has managed any sleep either. Currently over Iceland less than two hours till touchdown.