Journey to San Francisco

I was picked up at 7.30am for the trip to Heathrow to catch a flight at 12.15pm.  The journey was mostly clear, despite being in the rush hour.

Security was quick with no queue and then just as I exited, also coming through were some of the Pakistani World Scrabble Championship contingent who I'd played against last week, who were also just coming through.  They had an equally long flight ahead of them back home to Pakistan as my flight to San Francisco.

We pushed back a few minutes early, and then taxied around for 25 minutes before finally departing.  The flight was not very busy at all - first class was full, and business about three-quarters full, but economy looked largely empty.  This is my first flight since the introduction of United Polaris - the new name for their business class section.  The food was as least as good as it was before, with a starter of beet-infused smoked salmon with a mixed green salad, a choice of mains (I had the short rib with roast potatoes), a cheese board, and an ice cream with a choice of toppings.

We flew over Iceland, Greenland, the northern territories of Canada and down the western side of the Rockies to land about 20 minutes ahead of schedule, arriving at the gate around the expected arrival time.  15 minutes later, I was down on the BART platform waiting for the train into San Francisco.

I got off at Civic Center to switch to a streetcar to travel up to Fisherman's Wharf where my hotel is.  Unfortunately, whilst I was able to but my MUNI passport for my Clipper card, I could not add cash value to the card as the credit card and debit card authorization was denied - perhaps because the address associated with my Clipper account does not match my credit card.  However, I was able to reload it at a customer service booth the next day.

It's quite warm here.  Unexpectedly so, but I was quite tired so went to bed mid-evening.