My goodness, its like its my first tour or something?! It all started out when I brought the van to the hotel to get my stuff dropped off and parking it was like CDL practice all over again.
I got myself all checked in and was given a message from one of my guests. She wanted me to call her, so when I got settled in I called her and she wanted to get together?!. Yikes! So I met her in the lobby and she just wanted to tell me her schedule for tonight and then also to discuss the city tour tomorrow. She used to live in San Francisco and decided to not do the tour with us tomorrow morning. She will meet us for dinner at least, which will be nice since she won't have spent much time with anyone else. The point I was about to make about this first encounter was that she didn't think I was funny in the least, I mean, I count on my humor (as bad as it is) to make them like me...otherwise I'm left with my looks and that usually doesn't get me far. Wink, wink!
So I had a horrible flashback to another guest I've had in the past who really didn't like a thing I said. We shall see, she seems to know what is coming though and is excited for it so you never know this early!
I've got three couples (sort of, one is a father and son) and the rest singles. Should be a good mix. They were all pretty haggard tonight. Back to them in a minute, I want to talk about me some more.
I hustled myself to the BART station to get to the airport tonight. I was literally racing the clock! I got my ticket bought (there was a line...come on!) I put my BART card in and went through the turnstile, then I ran down the stairs instead of taking the escalator and when I hit the platform (not literally as could have been the case) I realized I was one entire hour early! I didn't need to hustle up until 8:05 and it was 7:05pm. But you can't back track because you've slid your ticket through (locals, don't tell me if you can!) so there I stood waiting for the train. I didn't even pack a book to read for the hour I had to kill. I wasn't really planning to be early, ya know!
I did go in search of some food. I should never wait to eat until I get to the airport because who wants to pay 2.95 for a little yogurt. But I found a Starbucks that sold the parfaits for cheap enough and I went off to eat it. Have any of you bought one of those before? They come in a tall cup and some granola in the lid to sprinkle on it. I sat down for fear I'd open the lid and spill the granola everywhere. Instead, I sat there like a monkey in the zoo trying to get that damn lid apart to reach the yummy treat in the middle. I'm sure it must have been hilarious to watch me poke and prod it and dig at with my spoon.
Well, I finally figured it out and enjoyed my snack. Then after I'd scarfed the whole thing down I looked at myself and was wearing yogurt all over. Oh yeah, that's attractive, no wonder people getting their bags were looking at me funny! Ha!
So I got myself cleaned up, I had plenty of time after all. It even dried in time, as you can imagine!
I held up my sign at the bottom of the stairs and waited to catch my group coming down to claim their bags.
Has anyone heard me describe what that's like? You have a sign (mine's bright red) and you stand at the bottom of THE stairs, the ones everyone comes down, people are walking past you, looking you up and down, reading the sign. If you had any inclination to be shy this would be the hardest part. Because at some point your people come down the escalator and they see you usually before you guess its them and they come up and look relieved to see you. Its quite a process.
Tonight I only snagged a couple of fish. I usually catch them all but most of this bunch got by me. I found a few and went with them to baggage claim and gathered as many as I could. I was short two people and that makes me a little nervous so after a while I finally paged them and here they came right away. Thank goodness, I though my group was going to mutiny.
I walked them upstairs and outside and down the sidewalk to the express van lane and discovered the area I needed was way down the other way. You have to understand, I'm learning to try and avoid that situation so I called them and asked "where do I find you exactly?" the guy said, just go outside, no joke, at San Francisco International Airport. yeah right...so we get to the area and the guy says "the van will only hold 9" I said "we'll squeeze in, just get us a van please" so a van pulls up and 10 people fit in and I'll just catch another one, you know? Easy peasy! Then the guy comes back up to me and says, the van you chartered is coming right now, they'll have to get out of the van. I couldn't believe it "they're all in the van, the doors are closed, luggage loaded, take them to the hotel?!" but no. He made them all get out and we waited for 10 minutes for another shuttle van to show up. My goodness, why can't that ever be smooth? With a group that size, I should have just driven, it would be easier. And cheaper too. This is the third time that has been really embarrassing for me and I know Erika has arranged the whole thing to make it easy but no, its not!
Once they got out of the van and were standing on the sidewalk I said "welcome to the first adventure of the trip!" ha! They laughed (see, someone thinks I'm funny!) and I told them that was a good exercise in loading and unloading a van :) they laughed at that too. So, they are good sports at least! They'll need to be, with me leading the way! Haha!
They were all anxious to get to bed so we kept it short. I'm excited to get them all together tomorrow and have a chat with them!
I'll try to do a quick city tour this time. No epic round about tour like the last one! I hope these people like to eat! Oh! I do have one Swiss person. The boyfriend/girlfriend I have are British Swiss, that should be fun I guess. Throw a little variety in. I don't know much about Swiss people. The only ones I've met were in Chamonix France and I was really popular (the only girl in the bar...my brother was not amused to have no one to talk to) those were Swiss Guards though so they were cutting loose. This lady has been here on business for a week already. Sounds like some savvy travelers in this bunch.
What a night! I have to get up early and go get the van. Oh the parking in this city! What a pain in the butt!
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