Our day started very early, as we had to be at the airport by 10 AM. And this is where the problems started. On the way to the airport, an 18 Wheeler was attempting to make too tight a turn under the EL and blocked traffic for about 10 minutes. This wasn't the worst part of the day. When we arrived at the airport, we had problems with our boarding passes for which we needed help. And we encountered a Karen....
At first, the Karen was willing to help a little, but didn't listen to us or pay attention to our needs. Both of us needed to have our Trusted Traveler Numbers attached to our boarding passes, so that we could use TSA PreCheck. She got my boarding pass fixed, but RQS had to look up her number from another airline's site. We asked for help again, but the Karen started redoing my pass and was ignoring RQS. So I started shouting to get attention, but I drew the wrong kind of attention. After things calmed down, the Karen refused to help RQS, or even let her through to the kiosks we were told to go to, as the Karen was taking things out on RQS to get even with me. (You can guess what will go into a "nastygram" RQS plans to write.) I ended up going through 1 PreCheck line while RQS got her problem dealt with at the kiosks on the other side of the floor.
Once we were past the TSA checkpoint, I was able to relax. It took me a while to chill, but we had no further problems at JFK. We got on the plane with no problems, and had an uneventful flight to San Francisco. And that's where we were greeted by someone from Princess Cruises, helping us with our luggage and the cab to the Mark Hopkins Hotel in Downtown SF. Both of us were tired and needed sleep. But if we slept, we wouldn't be able to find something affordable to eat.
Around 6:30, we took a cab to the Stinking Rose, a restaurant specializing in Garlic dishes. They moved to a new and better location since I ate there. So I was glad that the cabbie knew that the place relocated to a spot further down the street. RQS loved the place, finishing up her ravioli. As for me, I enjoyed the food, but couldn't eat more than a half portion.
By the time 8 pm came, it was time to go back to the hotel and finally get some much needed sleep....
