There and Back Again

And so all good things must come to an end, at least for some of us.  Friday morning (NZ time) we dragged our big bags to the airport and took the flight from Palmerston North to Auckland with Claire.  It was beautiful weather and Mt. Ruapehu, Nguarahoe, and Tongariro gave us some great exit shots.  We got to Auckland, checked in, and then said good bye to Claire, off on her second adventure (must have some Took blood in her).  She stored some stuff at the airport for her return in about 10 days and then we said good-bye as she hopped on the bus to take her downtown Auckland to the youth hostel.  We heard later she went to a big gold/jewelry fair they were having and met someone who had trained with Herr Schulz-Wahle!  But we'll let her add her own tales.  She'll be traveling on the Stray Bus through the North Island ending in Wellington.

So then it was just Lynda and I again.  And it was very sad to say good-bye to New Zealand.  I went to sleep on our Air New Zealand Boeing 777 watching an old All Blacks - British Lions rugby game (guess who won, of course).  But wait, we finally saw a bunch of sea lions!  Well, yeah, we did, but where?

Here is your first clue.  Don't scroll down to look for the answer until you have looked at the pictures.  There is a landmark in the background up on the hill behind Mom that is your 1st clue as to where this picture was taken.
And your second clue is this scary old place behind me.  Wouldn't want to spend the night out there, would you?
Yes, after a nice plane flight from Auckland leaving at 7:30 pm their time and arriving at our first stop about noon THE SAME DAY Mom had a great idea.  Our next plane didn't leave for 8 hours, so we put our carry on stuff in a locker, hopped on BART and headed down to the Embarcadero.  Yes, the answer is San Francisco.  We had a nice sunny afternoon, had lunch at Fisherman's Wharf looking at the Sea Lions, Alcatraz, and Coit Tower (in the background).  Then back to the airport and on to our minimalist USAir red eye to Philadelphia.

We arrived quite tired the next morning at 6 am local time, but got on our plane to Charleston at 9:30 am.  Well, we got on and in our seats.  Then they let us know there was a mechanical problem (some light coming on) so we all had to get off.  Fortunately they got us another plane rather quickly and we were out of there about an hour and a half later arriving in Charleston at about 1 pm - Total Travel Time since leaving Palmerston North - 41 hours!  But a smiling Papa and Grandma were there to meet us and we had a nice trip home.  After  a little unpacking and a little nap, we just had to take a walk to the beach.  It was nice to be back in the Shire.