From the San Francisco International Airport

I'm 1/3 of the way through my flight!

Having an 8 hour layover in San Francisco, and given the fact that it is currently about 70 degrees and sunny, there was no way I was staying inside!  The thing about New Englanders is that we get very possessive about our sunshine.  Unlike other areas of the country, we are not guaranteed our Vitamin D, which means that when the weather is nice we drop everything else and run outside to enjoy the warm sun.  This can actually be rather compulsive.  There is a definite amount of guilt in 'wasting' a beautiful day which maybe you visitors to New England have picked up on by now.  My parents and the parents of many of my friends were very quick to state their negative opinion of indoor activities on a gorgeous day, and as it was bred into us, I expect I'll do the same.  It's self perpetuating.

So in order to avoid heaping on guilt of letting some sun beams go to waste, I made the wonderful decision of not sitting in the airport for 8 hours.  I didn't really know where I was going (I still don't really know where I ended up) but I hopped on the train and got off a few stops later.  I had a vague idea of going to some park that was written about in the airports information brochure, but as I left the train station I saw the tail end of the bus that I think I was suppose to be on.  It's probably for the best though, because I didn't really have a good idea of which direction the bus was suppose to be going when I got on it.  I do however have great faith (perhaps too much) in my personal sense of direction, and so I started walking.

San Francisco and the surrounding areas has a lot of hills.  'Hill' may be a bit of an understatement as some of those 'hills' could very well qualify as cliffs.  But, I went up because it was something to do.  In going up I discovered this wonderful little park on the top of the hill with a nice view of the city and a swing to sit in.  I can't state enough how wonderful warm weather and sun are when you come from an area that gets excited about highs of 35 degrees in February.

I'm now back in the airport and not letting those free 45 minutes of wifi going to waste.  (Is this a trend?)  13 hours over the Pacific await me, however those 2 hours of sunshine made all the difference in the world!  Maybe I'll even get to sleep on the plane!  Who knows?  Here's to hoping that the rest of the flight goes well!!