Flying through customs

We had a good run from Melbourne to Seattle. Some delay out of Melbourne which made our 1 hr connection in Sydney seem a bit (???!!!!) tight due to the transfer from domestic to international (and long queues at security), so there was some nervousness from certain members of the party when WBM was taken aside for last minute, additional random security search of his carryon luggage.        We made it - no worries(hah!) with 5 minutes to spare before they closed boarding.

QANTAS San Francisco 121/2 hr flight uneventful. Some of us slept a bit. (double hah!) Highlight was Sue miming Monty Python while listening to the comedy channel. (One,two, three, tee, hee, hee, Eric the Half a Bee!) Industrial strength whiskey,quadruple sized shots of cognac and wines with dinner may have had something to do with that. Arrival in SFO was a dream (well I don't have dreams like that!); off the plane, through customs and immigration in 15 minutes! Then through security (not too slow and the Border Security and Customs Officials were surprisingly cheery and welcoming)and a short wait for the Alaskan flight to Seattle.

Hotel driver met us at the bagage claim and drove us to the hotel (in a vast, black, leather and wood lined Lincoln Continental). It is of course raining here and 7 dg C.It always rains in Seattle.(Everyone we meet keeps apologising for the local weather, but it is gorgeous after Melbourne!) Hotel gave us a complimentary bottle of vino and a vast cheese and fruit plater on arrival (a 9 day stay gets you special treatment I guess). The room is very comfortable and the view grand. We have our own balcony complete with big Pacific sea gull where we can watch the boat traffic on Puget Sound.

A quick walk around the market: there is real food to be found in the USA and here is one the places. A couple of nice grocers, wine shops, delis (De Laurentinis deserves further investigation), fresh fruit etc. One even stocked Tasmanian Leatherwood honey. We bought a few supplies to supplement the cheese and fruit platter and tucked into an early dinner.(Gorgeous Pennsylanniva Rosemary cured ham, Californian cacciatorini and San Francisco sourdough) Sue has now given in to jet lag and crashed (dammit man, the floor was moving - 25 hours without sleep will do that!). I'm trying to stay awake a bit longer so as not to wake at 3 am ........not sure I can keep the eye lids open....zzzzzzzzzzzzz

(It was actually 11pm whe he woke me, crashing around the hotel room... See - we managed a whole blog entry and neither of us have been cheesy enough to say we are Sleepless in Seattle. Oh, &^*^*,...)