Arrival

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Arrived on a beautiful day and went straight to airbnb without drama from airport. Stayed in a gorgeous little studio apartment overlooking a valley with an excellent walk just outside the house. 'King Mountain' trail. Everyone was friendly and helpful. Herve had done a lot of preplanning so we went straight into busy mode organising the car, his driver's license (I can't get mine until i get a Social security number and I cant get that until i get approval to work..a lot of bureaucracy!) and most importantly the house rental tours. Before anything else was the banking which we did straight from the airport before we even went to the airbnb. Walking into a small bank in America is like walking back in time. You are greeted warmly and we all sit down for chitchat while the paperwork is done. Banking in general seems a little behind Australia...especially online banking which we soon were to find out would be a big pain. The set daily limits meant we could not set up regular payment of our house rental which was rather strange and the US still has an obsession with checks. Anyway, minor details.

In general, everything went very smoothly. We were busy every day with one or two important tasks but we still made time to go for walks in the redwood forests and enjoy a lovely dinner at home. Also visited the city Golden Gate park to see the bison.

All looking good!

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