The Smiffs Go West - Day 1 Travel Day (Where IS dads Jacket?)

[Ruthy1604]

Where’s Dads Jacket ? – Travel Day

The index is here

I'm Ruth & I'm married to Rob. We have DS Oliver 14 and DD Emily 13. We've been to Florida 5 times now so we thought we'd spread our wings a little this year and do a road trip around California.

We had a bit of a hiccup on the day before we travelled. Just after I left work I received an email on my phone saying that our hotel booking in Monterey had been cancelled by the hotel due to maintenance issues and asked us to contact Expedia to rebook.:angry: This was the last thing I needed the night before we go and I spent almost 2 hours on the phone trying to sort it out. They wanted to rebook us into a hotel miles out of Monterey and they tried to sell it as an upgrade. I wasn’t having any of it. I specifically booked our hotel on the location – we had planned to eat at Hulas and have cocktails so it needed to be somewhere that we could walk to. We also wanted to be near the pier that the Whale Watching tour leaves from so that we didn’t have parking stress. Eventually I got it sorted out, but I dread to think how much the phone bill will be as it was a US number. My whole relaxed afternoon packing was right out the window, but we still managed to be ready to go, and in bed by around 10.30pm.

The taxi arrived right on time at 5am, and we were on our way. Well almost. We got to the bottom of the road and DH couldn’t find his jacket. The taxi turned around and DH spent the next 10 minutes searching the house for it. Eventually he gave up and brought a different jacket. We set off again! When we got to the airport DH opened his bag & his jacket was there in his bag where he had obviously put it. This jacket almost derailed our plans later that day too.

I like to be early and it worked well as we were first in the queue for check in. Unfortunately we had been moved from our chosen seats to 4 in the middle. We all prefer window seats so had requested 3 by the window and 1 across the aisle, but it was not to be. We had a lovely breakfast in the airport and mooched around the shops for a while before boarding on time for our short hop to Dublin.

Dublin Airport is lovely with a great selection of shops and restaurants. We had a little drink in the bar and then headed on through for immigration.

This is us in the bar!



The calm in the shopping area, hid the massive chaos that was the pre clearance area. It was absolutely rammed. We passed through the security part fairly quickly but the queue for the desks zig zagged right the way through the hall. At one point they had to stop letting people through security as there was nowhere for them to stand in the hall. We waited around 3 hours in total. Staff kept coming around pulling people out of the line to get them to the front so that they could board their flights, but this only slowed it up for the rest of us! I was so grateful that we decided to go down to pre clearance early. We eventually got through, bought a sandwich for our vegetarian son in case the plane food wasn’t to his liking and boarded the plane.

I watched a few films (I really enjoyed Noah) and the time passed fairly quickly. DS liked his food (but ate the sandwich as well) lol We decided against upgrading the food on the flight and I’m glad as the standard food was some of the best I’ve had on a flight. We landed on time, collected our luggage and only had a short wait for a taxi ($70 incl tip). The traffic was really bad so the journey took a while, but it gave us a chance to take in the weather and the surroundings.

We checked into our hotel on Nob Hill – The Stanford Court and were really pleased to be given a high floor room as requested. I politely asked if there was a rollaway available and they supplied one free of charge. When we got to the room I was bowled over with the view. We had a fabulous view right down the hill over the city to the water. I could have sat and watched it all day, but we had plans for dinner.

I had read great reviews about the Nob Hill Café so that’s where we headed. It was about a 5 minute walk from the hotel and already had a 40 minute wait when we got there. There are a few chairs outside, but if you’re not lucky enough to get one you just hang around on the pavement til your name is called. DH went back to the hotel for his (now famous) jacket, as it was getting quite chilly. He seemed to be gone ages and ages, and then they called our name. The three of us were just getting seated when the hostess clocked that only 3 out of 4 of our party were there. She said that we couldn’t sit until all our party were there, but DH barged through the door looking flustered just in the nick of time, so we were off the hook. The food was fabulous, but none of us did it justice as we were getting tired.

Yummy Pasta!


The bill came to $87 including tip for 4 bowls of pasta, 2 glasses of wine and two soft drinks. We headed back to our lovely room and the view was even better at night. The beds were super comfy too. Bliss.

Our view

[abiknox]

Great start (apart from the Montery hotel, missing jacket, moved seats and queues at Dublin!)

I loved Noah when I saw it at the cinema so am planning to watch that again on the flight.

Im looking forward to reading more days this week if you manage to get them up. Its so much more exciting when you know its your turn soon! Really hoping you ate at Hulas so I can read a review!

[Ruthy1604]

Thanks Abi
I will try to get the next few days sorted over the weekend. I'm struggling with adding photos, but I'm sure I will suss that you later.

[abiknox]

Originally Posted by Ruthy1604

Thanks Abi
I will try to get the next few days sorted over the weekend. I'm struggling with adding photos, but I'm sure I will suss that you later.

See more...

I use photobucket, you can upload them onto there and then just copy the image code into the correct place on your threads.

[PixieFairies]

great start, how far away is the hotel from union square and fisherman's wharf?

[Pussycat Doll]

Looking forward to more, love SanFransisco, it's about time I went back! Pussycat

[Guest]

Beautiful view from your hotel. I love San Francisco, My favourite US city.

[Nubbedy]

What a long time in pre- clearance Glad it all went well for you though.