USA Trip , day 1 - 24th January

George and I left Aberdeen 2 ½ hours late on 24th January – a few flecks of snow apparently brought Heathrow to a stand-still as numerous aircraft competed for de-icer. This meant the plane which we were due to catch was late in getting to Aberdeen. So, we missed our connecting flight to San Francisco and the only alternative meant a journey via Chicago and arriving at our destination 6 hours later than planned.

This was the first time I have been into USA since the new security system came into force. You still have to answer the same stupid questions for the visa waiver form, such as "are you an international terrorist?" If you're stupid enough to answer "Yes" to this, then you don't deserve to enter the country. At the immigration desk, you now have a much longer wait (so it's worth getting yourself off the plane and in the long queue as quickly as possible) and they scan each fore-finger and take a digital photo of you. Apparently they check this matches up when you leave, then delete all your records. You then have to collect your bags, go through customs and get your bags checked through to your next flight. George managed to rescue his bag before it got shunted off into oblivion at this point.

We arrived at San Francisco slightly ahead of schedule and picked up our hire car with little fuss, except it was cheaper to upgrade our small car to a 4WD Jeep than fit a ski rack. We got to the Fisherman’s Wharf Hilton with little fuss and a bit of help from LizLiz.