It's a good thing that we walked everywhere, because my food intake has only gone up. On the bright side, my coke-habit is diminishing. (not by choice, really)

The foodie in me is out in full force on this trip, and we haven't even hit the all-you-can-eat boat food. We were looking for a place to eat while on the electric trolley. Mom said wherever I wanted to eat. My little eyes spotted a bread company, and I hastily got us off the trolley and made a b-line to Boudin's.

The chocolate food group is also meeting it's daily servings. The picture makes this sundae look really small. We've been splitting meals in order to sample more and eat more often. It's been working like a charm, a real smorgasbord.

We leave the continental U.S. tomorrow. Onward to the land of Lost.

crj

We have covered some ground these last two days! San Fran can be a two day city if you move as fast as we do, tops three. We used the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) system to get downtown. Stopped first in the financial district and then took an electric trolly car down to Fisherman's Wharf to eat at Boudin's Sourdough shop. Visited the Maritime Museum and looked at all the boats down the pier too. Ghirardelli's chocolate factory was next, and yes, we had to have a hot fudge brownie sundae! Heaven baby! We then hiked up Hyde St. (take a look at the picture) to Lomard St., which is the most crooked street ever. Hyde is the steepest street we walked up that day. Great views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, the Bay Bridge and shopped in the Ferry Building. Fed the seagulls, pigeons and checked out the barking sea lions.

Coming in to SF last night was a little tricky with all this luggage. I came in on Terminal 3 while Candice came in on terminal 1. So we decided that she would stay put at her baggage claim and I would seek her out since she had one more additional piece of luggage than me. So, out the door I went, up three floors by elevators, down a very long corridor, cross over the deck, up one more elevator to the Airtran platform, ride down to terminal 1, down one elevator, across the deck, down three flights by another elevator and a hike down to baggage claim #1. Wheels or no wheels, dragging 100 pounds of luggage through the airport is no fun! So we got hooked up, juggled the luggage for better transport and headed out to catch the hotel shuttle bus. Had to make the rounds and it just so happened that we pulled up to the International terminal and there was a guy standing there with about 8 bags of luggage. The driver asked if all this luggage had to go, he confirmed, and the drive started loading the bags. One duffle bag was about 5' long. I think I could have fit into it. Well up to this point we could only hear the man's voice. So after all the luggage gets on, he walks up the steps followed by his wife and I asked him where all the people were for all this luggage. He said "Well, when you're gone for a month that's how much you have to take." Someone else asked him where they went. He said Cambodia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand. I looked at Candice and told her that they don't have ANYTHING on us. She sat there smug as a bug knowing that she IS the master packer! But the guy did say they were bringing back two more bags than they took with them. But so far we're winning the luggage war. Even though we packed two more suitcases inside ours, there is NO WAY that our bags are going to be as big as their bags even if we have 7 suitcases and two backpacks.

Cardinal rule is never be too early to the airport. We're here 2.5 hours early. I have never gotten to the airport this early before. We even had time to take a picture. This is were it all starts and ends! I think I'm up .53 cents on the trip so far. Luck would have it that the guy in front of us picked up his TSA grey tub and the one underneath it had a bunch of change that someone left behind. Candice didn't want me to pick it up, but another one of my cardinal rules is never pass up free money. I always bend over to pick up a penny! Life is sweet. Game ON!

Well, we leave tomorrow morning. Actually, make that this morning. As much as I planned, nothing will keep Sandy from packing at the last minute. She did have the clothes packed early, but it's all the little things.

Every cubic inch of our luggage is spoken for, I must say I am a master packer. I don't know many people who could fit a two-person, three-month trip into three suitcases, two garment bags, and two backpacks. Including, formal dresses for twenty or so nights. With room to squeeze in five books. While the packing had some major planning, as in splitting our clothes incase a bag gets lost, packing our carry-ons with items we refused to part with, and abiding by the airline restrictions of numbers of bags and weight of bags, its really the cleaning that will kill you. Last minute vacuuming, dishes, bathrooms, laundry, and trash duty started around 9pm-ish and is still going strong.

Juju left today to go have his own vacation with Amy. He usually doesn't like it when we leave him, but it worked perfect tonight. Amy picked him up, and he was obliviously happy because all he knew was that he was going on a ride. He doesn't look depressed now and hopefully it will stay that way the whole trip.

Well, we'll be in California tomorrow evening. Until next time.

crj

Some were asking about our humble abode during the trip. Well, here she is, the Queen Victoria. She has a gross tonnage of 90,000 tons and a guest capacity of 2,000. She leaves New York today.