San Francisco

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco…. Mark Twain

We arrived in San Francisco to find that it was FREEZING. Like 40 degrees freezing. I am fully packed for SouthEast Asia… warm, tropics. Freezing and windy was not on my agenda. In just two days I have worn virtually every layer of clothes I have and I’ve still been cold. We arrived with varying levels of luggage. Rainey wins for packing the lightest (and it is an award of which he is particularly proud) with Angel and Emily a close second. I was clearly in last place until we saw David and Natasha’s luggage and then I was redeemed. My trunk is DEFINITELY lighter than their trunks (Thank Goodness… as I was fully sick of Rainey’s condescending comments about the size of my suitcase).

On Friday, we took the boat out to Alcatraz to tour “The Rock.”The first night we went to eat at a DARK restaurant, which is exactly as it sounds. We ate in the pitch black, served by blind waiters. It is TOTALLY DARK. You cannot even see your hand in front of your face. There is no difference with your eyes open or shut. You expect your eyes to adjust to the dark. They do not. You expect that you will get used to being totally blind. You do not. You expect that it be the same as eating in a regular restaurant. It isn’t. The food tastes different. You talk louder. You end up with food and sauces all over your hands and butter in your hair (and no, I have no idea how butter landed in my hair… but it did). It was a great and unique experience and we had a blast.…

It was a beautiful day so the boat ride out was nice and the tour is very informative and way better than I anticipated. But … I hate prisons. I hate everything about prisons: the horror of being locked-up, the lack of control, the gloomy dismal surroundings… and Alcatraz has a strong creepy factor as well. I cannot even imagine being imprisoned there. Talk about really awful.

We then ate lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf and took dozens of photos of the lazy sea lions snoozing in the sun.

At 4:30 PM we had to check-in for our Around-The-World scavenger hunt. It is always exciting to get to meet the other teams and check out the “competition.” There are ten teams this year. Here’s the line-up:

2. Return of the Silver Surfers: Natasha and David (second time on the trip)1. Lawyers without borders: That’s Rainey and I.

3. 3. . Young Guns: Rainey’s daughter Emily and her boyfriend Angel (Emily came on this trip last year so she’s the veteran of their team)

4. 4. Mad Dogs: Kit and Joanne. They are a great couple from Canada who have been on the trip twice before with us and whom we LOVE. It was great to see them again and swap stories.

5. 5. Wyoming Wandering: Brent and Sue. Brent is a retired geography teacher who literally knows EVERYWHERE in the world. Sue is a retired nurse. They are super fit.

6. 6. Kiwis: A father and son team from New Zealand.And by that I mean not just regular get-out-and-jog-a-little fit. Brett did a marathon in Antartica and a 150 mile run in Saharan Africa. Sue walks 1,000 miles each year. Yes, that kind of fit. WOW !!! Talk about intimidating. (47)

7. 7. Sydney Sisters: A team of sisters from Australia. One sister is a VP for Starwood Hotels and has traveled the entire globe for work. The other sister heads the lab that tests all food for its glycemic content. They are great and very excited about the competition.

8. 8. You are not in Antigua any more: A couple from New Zealand. She is a teacher. I’m not sure what he does for a living. (48)

9. 9. A father / son team from California. Dad is a lawyer and a friend of Bill’s.

10. 10. A team of singles. One guy is from Louisiana and the other is from Australia. They met for the first time yesterday.

We got told at check-in that –rather than heading straight out for the Far East - we would spend all day Saturday in San Francisco doing challenges here.

And Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day… sunny but cool. We had dozens and dozens of things to choose from. We walked on the Golden Gate Bridge, ate Dim Sum in Chinatown, rode the cable car from beginning to end, and trekked up and down so many hills that I think my feet may well drop off. When we checked in at the end of the day, we found out that our first destination is…. TAIPEI, TAIWAN. We leave in 5 hours…!!!!!