San Francisco

Yesterday I left on my first trip away since Katy was born -- 2 weeks in the US, mostly in Milwaukee and Portland. I was feeling somewhat guilty at leaving Nat to fend for herself against two children (partly because Nat has been banging on about it continuously;-). Nonetheless, the whole family trooped off to the airport together to wave goodbye. I've been warning Ella about this trip for a little while, and she claimed (nodding, wide-eyed) to fully understand that Daddy was going away on a big plane and that he wouldn't be back for 2 weeks; but as I turned to wave goodbye from the airport gate she was already in full meltdown mode. I guess that's when Nat also realised just how long 2 weeks will be!!

Anyway, I had an uneventful flight, in that not much happened (not even much sleep) and touched down in San Francisco before I left Canberra (technically speaking). I have a night here to recover before I head out to the snow in Milwaukee. My primary attempt to overcome jetlag has been to head out for a run, and where else would I go to but the Golden Gate Bridge. The first part of the run was pretty steep -- via the crooked street (see photo) and then down onto the foreshore.

I caught my first glimpse of the bridge after 20 mins, and it looked pretty close. But the bridge is deceptively large and it turned out to be quite a way. At least there was a nice track around the foreshore, with no real road crossings -- I suspect it's the only nice place to run/walk in the city because about a million people had the same idea as me. Half an hour later I finally found myself under the bridge itself, took a photo and headed for home.

Hopefully this will help me sleep tonight and I'll be straight into the american time zone.