July 8, 2015: Back to San Francisco

Today is my big travel day heading out to San Francisco.  I woke up around one this morning but tried going back to sleep and managed to get a few minutes here and there but was awake at one thirty and again at two and got up around then.  Luciana was so snuggly and today is going to be so long that I did not want to get out of bed any earlier than necessary.

I was in the shower by twenty after two.  Dominica was up a little after me and at a quarter after three we were in the Spark driving up to Houston to get me to Bush Intercontinental which is way up north of the city so it is rather a long drive.  At this time in the morning there is absolutely zero traffic so that makes it easier since it is actually less than an hour to make it to the airport, during the day it is a few hours.

Dominica dropped me off just after four.  I got into the airport and found a long line waiting for Frontier Airlines to come to the airport.  There was even a sign up that said that they would staff the check in desk one hundred and twenty minutes before boarding time – but we were well under that and there was no sign of anyone.  The line got much, much longer very quickly too.

The wait was less than twenty minutes before the Frontier staff arrived and did a pretty decent job of getting us checked in pretty quickly.  I had one piece of checked luggage and got that taken care of and headed to go through the TSA checkpoint.

Security went quickly and was easy.  The gate that I was waiting at had only six seats, which was really odd.  So I went to Starbucks and got myself a venti blonde roast and sat in a nearby gate having my coffee while I waited for the flight.

The flight was on time and we boarded just before six.  This is very early!  My seat was in the next to last row which I do not mind at all.  Actually I often prefer the quieter back of the plane.  I had a row where there was one guy by the window and me with no one in the middle seat which was awesome.  I believe that we were on a Boeing 737.

It was insanely humid this morning.  When we had first left the house the luggage that I had got wet with condensation in the time that it took to walk from the house to the car!  Here in the airplane the top thirty percent of the cabin was filled with fog coming in from the vents.  The air conditioning was making the humid Houston air condense.  It was probably the strongest fog reaction that I have ever seen in an airplane.  People were waving it out of their way to see as they walked through the cabin.

The flight was a bit bumpy but overall went well and we arrived ten minutes early.  Pretty happy flying Frontier Airlines on my first try and the price is awesome.  That was about $400 for round trip, direct flights between Houston and San Francisco including taxes and luggage.

It was just after eight, Pacific Time, when I landed in San Francisco.  Plenty of time to get to the office before the early morning stand up meeting.  I got my bags and took the BART to San Bruno station where Sarah picked me up and took me up to the house where I dropped off my suitcase, we picked up Jeff and drove into the office in San Francisco.  We got in at least twenty minutes, maybe more, before morning stand up.  This flight from Houston is perfect.

Today was a long one at the office.  We were pretty busy with me being in the office for the first time in months.  There was a lot to be done and a lot of people to see and a lot of catching up to do.

For lunch, Jeff and I went to Dos Piñas which is right next door to the office. We had tried going up to Live Sushi but even at one thirty the line there was ridiculous.  At Dos Piñas I got a fish and chips burrito which turned out to be absolutely amazing.  I cannot believe how good fried tilapia, French fries and avocado can be in a burrito!

We were at the office until eight this evening, which meant that by the time that Sarah picked us up I had been up, traveling and working for twenty one hours!  I did not feel too badly but I was certainly starting to get tired.

We came back to the house and hung out with Jeff and Sarah’s roommate Suzanne and celebrated Jeff winning a major award at work with some whiskey.  We were up probably till around eleven.

I am sleeping on the couch in the living room tonight.  It is quite firm and I think that I will sleep well on it.  As soon as I laid down two or three of the cats climbed on me.  I am not sure which cats it was as it was dark but there were at least two that decided to sleep on top of me, at least for a while.