Anyway, I arrived at San Francisco last Tuesday. Pretty uneventful flight - I would definitely recommend flying with Virgin Atlantic as their in flight entertainment system takes some beating....
Things got slightly more exciting when I tried to get through US Immigration. You have to fill in a visa waiver form when you arrive here, and on this you have to state where you will be staying. I was due to be picked up by Paddy from the airport and had absolutely no idea where he lived. The best I could come up with was "somewhere in California". The immigration officials didn't think this was too funny and sent me off for further interrogation just to make sure that they were happy to let me in! Things were looking a bit dodgy for a while!
Since then, things have been very laid back - I've been staying in Santa Cruz which is around 50 miles south of San Francisco and the surfing capital of the USA. Despite blazing sunshine I've yet to get more than my toes wet as the water is freezing! The ocean currents wash down from the north and as a result, despite soaring land temperatures, the sea here is always very cold!
Plan for next week is to visit San Francisco on Monday and then go to Yosemite for a couple of days. I'm booked on an Amtrak to LA on Friday from where I fly off to Cancun...
Anyway - I'm off to try surfing this afternoon. I'm sure it can't really be that hard......
