Keep yoúr hands on the controls !!!

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This could have been us yelling out from down the back of the Air NZ 777 flight 008 bound for SanFrancisco as we bumped our way up the South Pacific to the equator.
Things looked promising for an upgrade in the departure lounge when Gretchen was asked to step to one side after her boarding pass threw up a red light.A couple before us were upgraded to something flasher than cattle class and we thought öh boy this will be good".However it was not to be.Just the video in the back of the allocated seat was not working and we would be moved to a couple of spare seats.Only they were about as far down the back of the 777 that you can get.Hence when the plane experienced turbulence for what seemed like a couple of hours we rocked and rolled towards the equator.Neither of us got much sleep enen though the 777 does seem to have more leg room than the older 747.
Once we got north of the equator the ride smoothed out and this was after the pilot had already taken the plane up in three stages and extra 1km !!
The landing into SanFran was sweet as and we prepared ourselves for the queue at US Immigration.
We had already had two goes at filling in the green form on the plane getting the address wrong and even when we got to our turn for fingerprints and a quick photo we still hadnt filled the form in fully.
We will now take up the US Customs and Border Protection offer of writing to "The Office of Management and Budget,Paperwork Reduction Project(no wonder the unemployment rate is low in the USA !!Don't tell Helen as she will think its another excuse to employ more public servants) and tell them that their form is puzzling and needs revamping.
Temperature was in the mid 20's with a warm wind from the west.
An hour later we were through all the officials and off to our hotel in the shuttle.Now this is another industry all of itself with all the hotels around the airport ferrying people back and forth from 4am until 1am the next morning(a 21 hour service not bad eh and at no extra cost to the already discounted accommodation price.)
We were quickly into shorts after checking inth Howard Johnson Express Inn.Typical USA motel but at least the room smelt OK and Gretchen gave it the pass of approval as being clean.
The BART or rapid rail was close by and we were whisked into the city in 20 minutes.
We took a stroll up to Lower Haight taking in the architecture of all the wooden buildings each seemingly painted a different colour.
We then headed down to the Castro(the gay area) and caught a tram back downtown to Pier39 which was humming with people.
We spent time watching the sea lions battling for positions on pontoons making a hell of a noise.
Then it was dinner at Bubba Gumps.We ordered two BIG Sam Adams and found that the price we had paid meant we got to keep the glasses.So now the problem already of transporting something we didnt really need but couldnt leave behind considering the price of the beer!!
We strolled along the road past restaurants and shops selling touristy stuff to the Powell St cable car.By now the mist had rolled in and the sun had gone down and it was a bit chilly but the wait wasnt too long and we were off up hill and down dale.
San Francisco has heaps of attractions and the half day allowed us just to see and do a couple of the things we wanted to experience.Still we have been here before and tried most of the other attractions.Tomorrow its time to pick up the rental car and head north up 101 to 1 and onto Oregon.

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