I will begin with the fact that we normally do not check our luggage. For some reason we decided to do so today. Hmmm? We hoped it would be an auspicious beginning to our trip. Although it was actually rough going way before we checked our baggage. I over-filled Aki's coffee cup at four in the morning. Aki took advantage of the circumstances and spilled it down her white shirt a few minutes later. We then got in the car (late) and I was about to drive away, when I noticed that Aki did not have her purse or computer. She thought that I had already put them in the car for her, leading to a rather loud discussion in a very quiet, residential street. We arrived at the airport to see amazingly long lines at check-in. After an hour on line we reached the counter only to discover that Aki had somehow forgotten her license and had no photo identification. This led to having to stand on the longest security line and go through an extra security check. We barely made it to the gate for the final boarding call. Finally in our seats, we buckled in and waited for takeoff. Two hours later we were still waiting. Not only were we still waiting but we had watched our luggage get taken off the plane half an hour before, along with a large group of people headed for Shanghai. The air staff assured us that all was well. Our luggage was being put on the 8am flight, which was leaving before our 6:30am flight, and our bags would be waiting for us in San Francisco when we arrived. The cause of our delay was some sort of malfunction with the fuel line. They couldn't get any fuel on the plane and when at last they did get it to work it was very slow going. We finally took off close to 9:30am. When we arrived in San Francisco we discovered that our bags did not actually take off before we did. The plane that they had moved our luggage to also had mechanical difficulties and it would be at least two hours before our bags arrived. They could not guarantee our luggage would make it to Napa tonight and suggested that we remain at the airport until our bags (hopefully) appeared. One of the desk agents was very nice, while the other managed to imply that if we didn't sit around and wait for our luggage, any further mishaps were entirely our own responsibility. Needless to say we were in no mood to wait. Besides, Le Sanctuaire's newest outpost in San Francisco was closing at 2:30pm and this was our only opportunity to stop by. As it was now well after twelve, we ran to the car rental desk to get to town. Things didn't exactly improve at the rental desk but we did make it to the store with time to spare, when finally our day took an incredible upswing...
*Although our luggage had not arrived by the time we tumbled into bed at close to 11pm, thankfully it was at the front desk when we opened our eyes this morning. Hopefully the rest of the trip will be smooth sailing. At the very least, now we have our essential supplies.
