4:08pm PT (I think it's Pacific Time??)
The Blue Mermaid restaurant

Well- last night sucked. We boarded our plane at the regular time and left 1 hour and 40 minutes later, due to liquid that was spilled on a pillow cushion in first class and a leakage of oil (from another plane) on the runway. Boo! Needless to say, I missed my connecting light to Sydney. After a lot of b*tching, UNITED gave me a wonderfully comfy room at the Crowne Plaza hotel and some meal vouchers, which I have yet to use. After some discussions with David and Mom this morning, I decided to explore San Francisco. So far it has been expensive, but very enjoyable. I took the "BART" (that is their equivalent to the T), the cable cars (which are $5 a direction!!! jeesh!), and a Go-Car, which was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!. Currently, I am doing another thing that I have never done- sit down at a restaurant alone. It's almost depressing, but it is so relaxing that the depressing part isn't really there. I'm about to have a whole bunch of dungeness crab, which I don't recall ever trying. I figured I would since it is the local fare.. and hey- it sounded good!

--The meal was awesome. Dungeness crab rocks!

So.. all in all today has actually been a good day. I may have missed Sydney, but I thoroughly enjoyed my tour of San Francisco- the first Californian city I've ever been to.

More later.





CUT TO:

3:49am PT
Flying over (well.. near) Honolulu)

I am very burnt. During today's endeavors, I didn't think at all about sunscreen, though the day was beautiful. It's okay, though. Painful as it is, it is keeping me toasty and warm- something I always need.

So- here I am on the plane, seat 42J. I'm in Economy Plus!!!! It's much nicer than regular Economy. I get an extra 5 inches of leg room! That helps a lot. It is far more comfy. I'm in between two nice boys, and so far on the trip I have made many friends similar to them (though, not yet them). I met a woman who was born in Boston and grew up in Maine. She had a lobster shirt on and liked my blanket (Red Sox, of course!). I met Simon (the only person I got the name of..) who is from Toronto and headed to Australia to hike around. He's in "grade 12" and is a very nice boy. I also met a boy just now as I was walking around that will be studying at the University of Queensland (NOT Southern Queensland). He, like me on planes, is an insomniac. We just stood there stretching and talking while everyone else slept. It was very nice. I have found in my conversations that I am incapable of not mentioning 'my boyfriend' (at this point I might as well call him my fiancé or hubby, but I have no evidence to back up my claim [ode to David]).

AAAnyway. I'm on this plane.. and there are LOTS of Catholics. Australia is hosting World Youth Day this year and there are herds of Catholics flooding to the country. That is why all of the flights have been booked solid. I spent the beginning of the flight listening to the priest and other girl in front of me saying prayers and singing hymns.. from hymnals. Is there a special flight hymn that you don't know the words to already? Seriously? Weird. Anyway, the boy to my left is wearing a WWJD bracelet. When I asked him what Youth Day was he gave me the "I can't believe you don't know.. you sinner!!!!!!" look. It made me feel temporarily very uncomfortable.

On a different note, I've flown so much recently that the excitement of tomato juice is wearing off. I'm having trouble finishing this one. How sad. When they passed around dinner drinks (dinner was gross Turkey and Stuffing.. I'm pretty sure Banquet makes better Turkey/Stuffing meals), I got milk and asked for a can of tomato juice for later. They obliged, which made me very happy.

So this morning when I showered I used the UNITED shampoo and stuff that they gave me- some kind of "spa" seaweed thing. It smelled better than the hotel stuff, but now my hair just smells weird.


And onto another topic.... I should probably attempt some sleep... even though I know I won't really get any. I'm glad I changed to sweats and glasses.. cause wearing shorts and having contacts in would NOT have been comfy- but I'm very snug now. Now I just need a legit bed. I'm not sure if I really hope to make it in time for the bushwalk or not... I'm going to be so tired. Either way though, I think things will turn out okay.

I'm out.