Day 1 continued - San Francisco

Our flight out of Auckland was delayed by 45 minutes, yet we arrived on time - a good 160 km/hr tail wind in the jet stream helped us along. My seat was diabolical - despite pre-booking a seat (like a lot of guys) I ended up in one of the worst available. The girl sitting beside me had the lurg but hopefully didn't get so close to pass on her germs. It was so good to stand up and get out of that damned plane.

No problems encountered at Customs, and same again when picking up the rental vehicles. I took the lead and the second vehicle dutifully followed - my navigation was spot on and we all arrived without incident.

Check-in complete at the Comfort Inn & Suites in South San Francisco and within 30 minutes we were off - with Dave setting a cracking pace to get us to the station. We missed our train by minutes and waited an hour for the next one, and during that waiting period a CalTrain Baby Bullet went through the station.

Our train turned up and soon we were off to the city centre - on St Patricks day when there was a huge Baseball game on. It was packed. Arriving at King Street Station, we all went racing off down to the loco end to get some photos and encountered our first run in with the authorities. Apparently as soon as all the passengers have disembarked, the access doors to the platforms are locked - so we were soon kicked off the platform - I got one shot off...

We were soon following Dave on a crazy and wild goose chase that was an amusing education on how to use the public transport, with some of the guys soon deciding to run off at a tangent and do their own thing. We all made it back to the hotel safe and sound by 9 pm. Lots of sights, smells and sounds in San Francisco, including the Oakland Bridge..

and this crazy metal dude with spinning things all over him...

Tomorrow we should be off to Oakland...could be interesting...