Glitch in the Plan (a.k.a. the bonus Frisco Day)
I should pre-empt this post by saying that today reminded me of the night Pam and I went to the Midnight Oil concert at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. We were so excited because I had lined up for ages to get us dance floor tickets. The night came and we arrived at the front door to greet the usher when he said “oh, these tickets were for last night’s concert”. Major stuff-up! We were devastated! We got to see the show but were relegated to the back row!
Ahhh yes…when making your travel plans (or any plans for that matter) it is very important to check them and then check them again – something we failed to do it seems! We set our alarm clock this morning and trundled off in our taxi, half asleep, to the airport, ready to board our plane to Chicago and embark on the next leg of our trip. After our late night at the gridiron (and even later night packing up all our stuff) with a very early start, we were all a bit bleary eyed so when Rossco punched in the confirmation number for our flight and the computer told us that flight was actually for the following day and could we please check in tomorrow…it took us a while to register what was happening!!! WHAT?? Tomorrow? How could that be? How on earth could that have happened? A closer look at the tickets and another couple of attempts at punching it in the computer just for good measure, assured us that yes, we had a major booking stuff up on our hands! (“a mix-up with our travel arrangements” we would later call it). We tried to postpone the flight until the following day but apart from the fact that it was booked out, we would have had to pay another $900! At that stage, no amount of money would have been too much for me. Please, let’s just do it! We could have caught a later flight today. We were checked out, packed up and already at the airport…..but….Ross was adamant that we would not waste $900 unnecessarily and we would just spend another day in San Francisco (our “bonus day” as we will now refer to it!). OK.
So, we called for another taxi, called our friend Lisa in Chicago to apologise that we would actually be a day late, and headed back to our favourite Fisherman’s Wharf Hotel. We even got our old room back! As it turned out, it really was a bonus day. We all had a bit of a much-needed snooze, had a relaxing walk around the city and a fun lunch. Sam and Toby also managed to fulfil their long-held ambition of having the 2 litre Slurpee from 7-11. (a one-off I might add!)
We’d said all our goodbyes to Ben and Jules last night and they were heading off on an all-day tour of Yosemite National Park today. So it was with great surprise that Sam and I, while chatting to some people we’d just met from Adelaide when I was coveting their Vegemite, saw the Somerville Family walking through the lobby of the hotel in the middle of the day. Of course they were equally surprised to be seeing us here instead of Chicago!! We were both staring at each other saying “What the??” Would you believe, their tour bus driver had dreadful gout in his hand and was deemed by his superior to be unfit to drive today! They said he seemed to be in pain and was suspiciously holding one hand very high in the air while they were boarding. They were offered another tour later in the day but that wouldn’t have brought them back until midnight so they declined!
So here we were, with a bonus day in San Francisco AND a bonus day with Ben and Julie! Tonight we all had a great dinner down at Pier 39 at another Bubba Gump’s restaurant. While it wasn’t quite the experience we had at the Santa Monica branch, the food was delicious and we all had fun. We are really going to miss the Somervilles! We had a lovely walk around the pier and the kids went on the merry-go-round. We also checked out the sealions on the pier and saw some great buskers and street performers!
While we are disappointed to be missing a day with Lisa and her family in Chicago, we did end up having a good day after all and all was not lost in the end. There is a lot to be said for travel agents! At least we’re already packed and have rehearsed for tomorrow morning!
