California Vacation 2008: Day 1

If I had room for a subtitle for this post, it would be: "You get what you pay for". Our vacation is not off to an incredibly rousing start thus far. Not that we're not enjoying being in California, mind you...it's just that, while this will be a great sightseeing and visiting trip, it will not really be a "relaxing and restful" time. As far as the subtitle goes, here it is, blow by blow:

4:00AM: As we're lugging suitcases, car seat, carry-ons, and baby to my parents car for the drive to the airport, we very quickly make the decision not to carry through with our afternoon plans of taking BART (San Francisco's version of the subway) from the airport downtown to pick up the rental car. We rented off site and saved $200...turned out to be a not-so-great move, as you'll see later.

5:23AM: After a short wait, we check in. Yep, as I feared, we're overweight on luggage. Luckily we're able to rearrange and avoid an $80 fee--just because we're a mere 4 pounds over.

7:00AM: The plane's supposed to be moving back from the gate now. No dice. Turns out it has a little something to do with the lightning and thunderstorms going on. We have to wait for the lightning to clear, another 35 minutes, before taking off. I officially start to worry about missing our connection in Atlanta.

9:30AM: My fears are confirmed. We run, but miss the plane by just a couple of minutes. Thankfully Delta does their best and re books us on a flight about two hours later. At least this gives us an opportunity to grab some breakfast and relax just a little.

1:15PM: We land in San Francisco. Given that we've nixed our previous transportation plans, we have to come up with new ones. Taxi? Limo? Hitching? We settle for one of the many "door-to-door shuttles", which encompasses $50 and a 45-minute ride. But it's pleasant enough and, in fact, we share the ride with a couple from Cocoa Beach.

2:12PM: We are dropped off at the Alamo office in downtown San Francisco. Here's where the fun begins. We walk in the office to find a line at least 30 deep, most of whom seem incapable of speaking English or--as it turns out--actually driving (I'm not kidding. I actually witnessed one of the attendants frantically teaching a French family how to put the car in gear and drive). After standing in this line for 30 minutes and not moving, I call the 1-800 number and complain. I'm told I should be able to use the "express counter" downstairs in the storage garage because I have a reservation. We trek down there (pulling luggage and Jacob with us) to find...uhhh, there is no "express counter". Nevertheless, the attendant working has pity on us and gets us set up in a Rav4 fairly quickly, which is a good thing, because Jacob's not happy, and letting everyone know it. After stealthily moving the SUV out of it's tightly packed parking space, we load up and head in the city. Where we realize we've forgotten a map. After a few turns, though, we find I80 West and head out of the hustle and bustle of the city. Lesson learned. After spending $50 on transportation, unnecessarily lugging all of our stuff, and wasting valuable time...well, I'll probably just go ahead and rent at the airport next time.

4:27PM: We make our first stop in Fairfield, where we zip into the Jelly Belly factory to load up on a few "Jelly Flops" for our eating pleasure.

5:08PM: Our first of what I hope will be a few stops at In and Out for delicious burgers and fries.

7:04PM: After a short stop for supplies at WalMart, we finally arrive at our destination for night one, Becki's friends Dave and Melanie Eastman. It feels great to finally stop moving for the day. We rest up for Yosemite tomorrow.

One rant for the day (besides the ones above): Because of the missed connection as outlined above, we got bumped to another flight later on. This meant we ended up being on a smaller plane, with far less amenities. Like leg room and entertainment. Keep in mind, from Orlando to Atlanta, we were on a newer plane with a bit more room and, more importantly, individual entertainment screens that included live TV. I have no idea why Delta decides to do this, but it makes no sense. Orlando to Atlanta: a mere 1 hour and 20 minute flight. Atlanta to San Francisco: almost 5 hours. Yeah, that's what we need on longer flights: less diversions from the fact we're crammed in like cattle for hours. And we pay for this privilege. Seriously, next time...we're driving.