If it's Friday, we must be in Vancouver!

Had to leave San Francisco this morning for the next stop on our journey, Vancouver.  By the time we got to the hotel and dropped our stuff it was already 3 pm!  Spent the afternoon exploring the area immediately around the hotel - a small shopping center with a great supermarket and a 3 story mall across the street.  Unfortunately, no movie theaters, so we still haven't seen HP-DH2.  The interesting thing to me about this part of our trip is that we are apparently in Vancouver's Chinatown.  The grocery store had all sorts of Asian food products in addition to stuff I did recognize (like diet Coke!)  Sarah was sampling the foods that were out; Samantha refused to try anything she did not know!  At the food court, Samantha and I had burgers but Sarah had Vietnamese food (beef/noodle bowl); the lady at the counter did not want to make the soup spicy, so Sarah had to add hot sauce to it before she would eat!

Tomorrow is the never ending flight to Beijing.  We will be on the flight for 11 hours.  Just hope they've got some good movies on the plane.  I've got the Kindle charging so I'll have something to read.  The girls should be well rested and ready to hit Beijing running!

We made it to San Francisco!

We spent today riding various forms of public transportation.  BART (subway), MUNI trolley, a double decker tour bus and the free hotel shuttle (yeah, I know that one's not PT).  We saw lots of Vespas and other scooters and I'm glad I don't live in a large city!  I would definitely be one of the folks riding the Vespa instead of depending upon public transportation.  I appreciate that it is there and is cheaper than driving to work, but the waiting and the going up and down stairs to get to the stations is a killer.  Then, the car that we got on this afternoon on the subway must have been 100 degrees.  And the high in San Fran today was probably 70!

It was a gorgeous day here!  We even saw most of the Golden Gate Bridge.  We rode one of those double decker tour buses around SF and crossed over the GG Bridge.  It was unbelieveably windy!

Our flight to Vancouver got moved up so we will have to leave SF earlier than we expected.  That means no more touring.  Guess we'll have to come back out another time to get up close and personal with my favorite city.

2 days to go!

We are trying to get the last loose ends tied up before Wednesday's flight.  The dogs are scheduled for a little R&R at Linda's place in Waverly.  They will be safe there and well taken care of until we get back!  We are washing clothes and trying to pare down to just a few essentials.  It feels like I'm carrying enough electronic equipment to broadcast a shuttle launch!  We've still got to purchase gifts for our hosts at the orphanage and the foster parents.  Boy, it is hard to find something that represents Georgia that is not made in China.  Boiled peanuts in the can?  We are taking lots of photos of Sarah's time here to share with the family and the orphanage folks.

We will actually be in China for 2 weeks, flying to Beijing Xi'an, Chengdu, XiNing, Guangzhou and back to Beijing.  The will skip a day going out and live through the same day twice coming back!

Sarah said she is hungry for Chinese food - I told her not to worry, she'd get plenty in a few days and then she'll be asking for a burger or fried chicken!

3 more days until we head west!

We are flying out to San Francisco for a couple of days before leaving for Beijing.  I've got a list of places in San Fran to show the girls.  Alcatraz came in #1 in recommendations (I've never been there, even though I've been to San Fran several times), so I tried to order tickets online and they are SOLD OUT!  Who knew?  Guess "So I Married An Axe Murderer" will continue to be my only contact with Alcatraz!