What a breath of fresh air, and warm-er air. I went on business this past week to the bay area in the California and decided to bring Mickie along for a much needed “just the two of us” vacation. We arrived (via separate flights) on Tuesday night. I had some interesting issues to begin the trip… First, I had a row all to myself and was high in the sky when a kid got sick and had to go to the bathroom. When he returned the drink cart was in his way and he couldn’t get back to his seat. The flight attendent then told him to wait in the seat next to me. Not a problem – except that he stayed there the rest of the flight…not really sure why. I then attempt to get a rental car. I went to Hertz first because that is where I thought the administrative assistant had booked me a rental – but they had no record and on top of that no rental companies had any more cars!
Side rant begins here… I believe the rules of engagement for customer service need to be looked at. Shouldn’t you service the person you were talking with first? You shouldn’t pick up the phone and tell the person in front of you to hold on, you tell the person on the phone to hold on…this happened several times during the trip. Am I way off base here??? Okay, side rant over.
I made my way down to Enterprise rental and they must have had my name in the system because I was able to get a car – and a free upgrade! We ended up with a 2005 Silver Jeep Cherokee. It was pretty nice and balanced out the most of the fiasco. At this point I was loading our luggage and noticed my computer bag was a bit damp. (never a good sign – kinda like seeing your transmission in your rear view mirror…) A can of pop had punctured and leaked all over my bag. My company cell phone was trashed, but thankfully everything else including my laptop, and really cool headphones survived.
Wednesday I met with a client during the morning and we went to San Francisco in the afternoon and evening. We explored Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39, made funny faces at the sea lions, walked in a bunch of trashy souvenier shops, and ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. Later we rode a cable car and finshed the night by driving over the Golden Gate Bridge.
We had Thursday to ourselves and went back to San Fran. We toured Alcatraz for most of the time. It was very cool. If you ever go, drop the extra few bucks for the audio tour. Most of the pictures I took were from Alcatraz. That night we drove down the crooked street, went to the marketplace and decided to leave because there were so many people.
We drove over the GGB again but this time I missed the exit and ended up going up US 101 for awhile into the Napa Valley. It probably would have been real pretty in the day time, but we were hungry and tired so it wasn’t.
It was a really good time. You can see photos on our Flickr page here.