USA Trip 2006

On our first morning in California, we headed out to breakfast, which was preceded by a short session of Breakfast Prep’, courtesy of Jocelyn. It had been a couple of years since I’d last had Breakfast In America, and I’d forgotten how to respond to the awesome number of choices and options that would be flung in my direction by the waitperson. Here’s how you order breakfast in Britain: <td> “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_English_Breakfast">Full English Breakfast</a>, please.” </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Waitress: </td> <td> “D’you want tea or coffee with that?” </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Diner: </td> <td> “Tea, please.” </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Waitress: </td> <td> “OK.” </td> </tr> In due course, the standard, empire-forging breakfast is served, and is consumed heartily, perhaps after a little trading with your breakfasting companions (“I’ll swap you my tomatoes for a rasher of your bacon?”). Everybody knows what is expected, nobody has tricky decisions to make, there are no surprises, and everyone enjoys what they get – and if they don’t enjoy it, well, they don’t mention it, because complaining about such things just wouldn’t be British, damn it. ...

Monday 10th April 2006 The sun was still shining as we touched down at SFO, about 22 hours after we’d woken up. If every day could last that long, I swear I’d get more work done – or maybe I’d just spend more time playing Civilization… We picked up the car – a Pontiac Impala which initially seemed unfeasibly huge compared to our Focus, but it’s funny how quickly you adjust and get used to the size, making use of the available space – then it was off down US 101 on the final leg of our journey. Despite it being rush hour, we had a swift journey due to being able to use the Car Pool lane (by virtue of not being a single-occupant vehicle). I was amazed how under-utilised this lane was, and started wondering how much of an incentive would be needed for more Bay area commuters to start sharing rides – there’s another good question for the economists to ponder. ...

_Monday 10th April 2006 Travelling West during the daytime is a blast, especially on a sunny day. Time it right and you can experience daylight for 24 hours, which afforded me time to catch up on some reading. For Christmas Joce had given a book entitled Freakonomics – A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side Of Eveything, and now I finally had time to read through it. I surprised myself by finishing it by the time we reached Chicago – this may be a chunky hardback book on economics, but it’s also really interesting and easy-going. ...

Last month Jocelyn and I took a trip to the States to visit friends and family, attend Teri & Jimmy’s wedding, and take a vacation to Nevada and Arizona. So, there we were, sitting at the departure gate at Manchester Airport on a bright Monday morning, having awoken at 0430 to make our way across the Pennines. A few seats away were a group of teenagers. They were from Michigan, and they were annoyingly noisy. Thus began our American adventure. ...