Friday morning at 4.30 am we're woken by our alarm. We need to get up and go the airport. The taxi is on time and around a quarter to six we're in a queue to drop off our luggage and to get through security. Most of that goes fine and at 8.10 am we lift off on our way to Dublin.
There, we have a four hour stop, during which we get processed by the American Immigration Services. There is (obviously) a long queue, but after our fingerprints are taken, we are allowed through. The good thing is that we're now a domestic flight into San Francisco. We have a bit of a wait in Dublin and our flight is delayed by about an hour, but we're not hit by the Microsoft/CrowdStrike security failure, as lots of flights elsewhere in the world are. The flight itself is uneventful. Freya manages to get some sleep, but the flight is long for her (11 hours). We think she manages well. We arrive in San Francisco around 4pm local time. We pick up our luggage and are picked up by a driver who drops us off at our hotel. Our room is on the 15th floor and we have a nice view over the bay and the Golden Gate bridge.
Freya and Nicole have a stroll around in the neighbourhood and visit Target (number one on Freya's bucket list), a large department store. On their way back they visit a McDonald's where Freya gets some food. When they are back at the hotel around 8.30pm, Freya collapses on her bed and falls asleep straight away. Nicole pops out and buys a take-a-way pizza which she kindly shares with Joes in the hotel room. After that we follow Freya's example.
