A Boeing 787-9, somewhere over Greenland. Tuesday, October 8th


Outbound flight

It's been the best part of a decade since I blogged here about a feature-length holiday. And whilst I've no cause to complain about the number of countries I've visited since then (Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Cyprus, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Holland, Belguim, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic and the USA (for work)), most of those have been shorter trips around Europe.

However, I get a rather generous 22 days' long service leave for reaching my 10th anniversary at work, so that seemed like an ideal time to go further afield.

Which brings me neatly to San Francisco. I flew out this morning on Virgin Atlantic, which I was quite impressed by. The food, entertainment and service levels in economy were good, though it also helped that I had an aisle seat and nobody sitting in the middle of my row. The forty-five minute delay in leaving Heathrow, and the 90 minute (!!!) delay in getting through US Customs were rather less pleasant, but I'm here now and checked into a somewhat retro, but serviceable, motel.

I might not manage a post every day, but I'll report back on my progress around northern California, then down to Los Angeles and home via New York City.