California - not all aircraft

[PAXboy]

This is about some aspects of 'air' and a little of what we met this month. Hardened Pax need not read!

We had a two week fly-drive planned for March and plans had to change due to the highly unusual weather conditions.

BA LHR-SFO, chose the 380 rotation over the 777 for (I think) obvious reasons. In PE, we paid extra to ensure the A+C seats and not be trapped in the middle. Good flight although, I thought, the main meal served too early but the light meal before landing was very good.

I have been to SFO before but Mrs PAXboy has not. That worked well. we had planned to drive from SFO to San Diego, all the way on Highway 1. However, the very wet winter followed several years of drought. So many landslips occured and a couple of major ones on H.1. So we had to cut in at Santa Cruz and use the 101, then out again to reach San Simeon. Visited Hearst Castle and knew that W.R.Hearst was an earlier Murdoch - having a profitable newspaper handed to him on a plate. In the opening blurb, the Guide said, "If Hearst was alive today - he would be a mixture of Rupert Murdoch, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk." You may imagine that this really endeared me to the late WRH ...

Visited friends and relatives on our way to San Diego and found restaurants (across the spectrum) to all be VERY much more expensive than on previous USA visits. Overall, the trip has cost a lot more than we expected. On our second day there was another big storm that did a lot of damage across California and we had the edge of it - heavy rain and wind. So we had to scrub going to the zoo and went inside to the San Diego Air & Space Museum. This we both enjoyed very much. I can say that the NASA exhibits interested me more as I had no idea of the scale of them. The Appolo 9 Command Module was SO small. Astonishing what they did with it. Also, the Mercury 7 mockup was so tiny.

A lot of good exhibits (actual, repro and model) covering the range of flight and military and commercial. The WWI section also covered the Germans which I thought was good..

Then to SAN for a short flight to Fresno on Air Alaska, operated by Sky West with an E175. The inbound was delayed by the storm in SFO. it had to wait for the 60mph winds to drop!! Lovely little aircraft and good flight and cabin crew.

Apart from cost, we found many staff in shops and restaurants wearing masks - which we had not expected. So they had obviously learnt the hard way and know that there are a lot of unvaccinated folks here.

[S.o.S.]

Friends in California have commented on the prices. Apparently, prices are much higher there than in many other states. Thanks for the information about museum, I did not know about that one.

[Union Jack]

A very interesting summary, thank you, although I am still working on the second sentence of "In the opening blurb, the Guide said, "If Hearst was alive today - he would be a mixture of Rupert Murdoch, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk." You may imagine that this really endeared me to the late WRH ...":ok:

Jack

[PAXboy]

I should have said about abut San Diego Airport:

It is one of the best airports that I have been through. It is up to date, clean and well organised and sign posted. The rental drop off has a large multi-story for all and a VERY good shuttle to the terminals. The rental facility is on the North Side of the runway and the terminals on South Side, like many old airports, the city has grown up around them and squeezed expansion space.

When we got to the shuttle, there was a staffer helping those that needed to get on and lift their bags. On the bus the driver was then loading bags into the racks and would not let you do it yourself as it was a regulation! Both men were cheerful and polite. On the ten minute ride, the driver told us a few facts about the airport and how the only other single runway that has more rotations a day is LGW and then only by a margin. He also told some 'Dad jokes' which was OK. He helped us with the bags at the terminal and we were happy to tip him.

The terminal was VERY clean and great signposting. The Alaska check-in agent was also friendly. We were early but a comfortable area to eat a snack and watch the planes. The inbound was delayed by a very big storm at it's last port (SFO) and we departed about 45 mins late but, as mentioned, great service.

By comparison, the internal signposting at SFO a few days later was terrible and we were not the only ones trying to find our way around. When we got back to LHR T5 the next morning, we soon discovered that they have not fixed their staffing problem with bag handlers and had to wait much longer than expected, given it was the early afternoon and the terminal quiet. Passport queue was short.