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My last night in the States was spent in Sonoma County north of San Francisco visiting some friends. Friends who make wine. Lots of wine. :) I had a great time up there. I had rented a car and driven up there, it only took a couple of hours to get there from San Francisco and it was completely different. Northern California is really beautiful and green.

In the morning i struck the rush "hour" and it took me a little over 3 hours to get back to San Francisco. There was no real time pressure anyway, except that i had to check out of my hotel. My flight didn't depart til evening. So i just sat there in the very slow moving traffic trying to enjoy my last few hours in the US.








On the way back into the city I got to drive across the golden gate bridge - a lifelong dream! Parking in San Francisco cost me $2.50 every 15 minutes, so i only parked for a short time while i was checking out of the hotel. Then i hit the roads, cruising the streets, flanked by cable cars and such. I went down to South San Francisco and sat on a beach with the airport flight path in front of me knowing that soon i would be on one of those planes.

I went to the airport far to early, thinking i could check my bags in and do some shopping, but the airline checkin desk wsan't open yet and i got really bored at the airport. When it was time to check in i quickly and quietly checked my bags and disappeared into the terminal shopping areas. Air New Zealand gate lounges quickly make you feel like you're already home. Not that it wasn't nice to be home, i just wanted to spend my last few hours in America. The plane was one of the brand new 777s which was exciting for about 10 minutes until the pilot announced a one hour delay due to someone spilling hydraulic fluid on the taxiway.

I know I did the right thing coming home, it just wasn't working out the way i had planned employment-wise and i wanted to go travel around too much. I'm really looking forward to all the possibilities here now too, i just need to find a job! Since turning my trip into more of a tour i had an amazing time and was able to see so many sights and do so much. Still, at the end i'm not sure if traveling really satisfied me or if it just left me hungry for more.