San Francisco Day 5: Return of the Jet-Lagged

Wish I could just click these together and go home

I am ready to go home ... it's been fun but I miss Toronto. Our house. Our devilish cats. My garden. We long for diversion, then pine for the familiarity of home. Humans are so strange. So wilfully difficult. 

We have a lovely breakfast at Aveline, 490 Geary St., located in the Warwick Hotel across the street from the hotel. Griddle cakes and avocado and eggs on toast. Nice! 

Afterwards R and J go to Union Square on Post St., so named for the rallies held in support of the Union forces during the Civil War - for a quick look around. I sit in the lobby and read. Mama is so boring. And so tired. And the lobby is so lovely with its red wood and its pretty illustrations of animal motifs. 

As we are anxious to avoid the security crunch we experienced at Pearson Airport when we left Toronto, we arrive three hours early, breeze through past long line ups in security (we are unsure why - is it because we are virtuous Canadians?) and learn that our flight has been delayed one hour. So here we sit for four hours eating salt water taffy from the duty free store, Japanese fast food in a crowded restaurant, bad coffee and other junk food as there will be no food on the flight. Would that we could click our heels Dorothy style and just arrive home.

The plane finally leaves at 5.40pm - an hour and three quarters later than initially planned. No explanation, no announcement. I would love to support Air Canada but it makes it hard to do so. I take a smidgen of a sleeping pill to steady my nerves but episodes of The Mindy Project soothe me as does my book - a memoir called In the Darkroom by one of my new fave writers Susan Faludi. 

We arrive at 1am and take a fake cab - R soon realizes this guy's car has no markings and he complains about us using a credit card ... but who has $70 in their pocket at 1am? Not us. The man asks if R is arriving from China. China? R's family is of Japanese descent and has been in Canada for over 100 years. R was remarkably polite. Hello multi-cultural, diverse Toronto, we're back ... 

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