11/10/12: Journey’s end

We’ve been back a couple of days and have finally found the time to end this story. But first, what happened since the last post? Well…

First, some of the photos are from the night before we had to leave.

If you are wondering about the last photo, it was taken on the corner of Powell and Geary (near our hotel), about 8.30 in the evening…this bunch rocked up, plugged in and started playing some killer blues…

Our last day was the longest one. We had a reasonable start, repacking our backs for the last time before wandering down to breakfast and coming across a couple from our tour…they had taken the long way to San Francisco.

With our flight leaving at 8.45pm, we had a long day of keeping ourselves busy before departing. We took some time to check out some the sights we had not seen and do some final shopping before returning to the hotel to collect our bags and jump on the shuttle.


12 hours on the plane got us back to Auckland, followed by a four hour wait, after which we jumped on another plane for the three hour trip to Brisbane where we were picked up by Jodie and Melinda (both rewarded – with thanks – with libations from the Duty Free shop). A couple of short hours after that were were home…it was hot and we were zombified after 30-something hours on the go.

Since then, we’ve been doing the boring stuff…shopping for groceries, paying bills, washing and starting to work on the post-trip and back-to-work blues.

This has been a huge trip – way to big to describe in 25 words or less. All along the way there were interesting and wonderful things to see, and helpful and friendly people as well. One thing is certain, do not believe all you see on TV about the USA – there is much more to it than we realised.

Do we want to go back? Short answer is YES! Longer answer is “It depends”…on our bosses and bank managers.