Traveling to SFO

Great transit through Sydney.  From shuttle transfer bus leaving the domestic airport, it took just fifteen minutes for me to be on the good side of immigration and security.  I settled into the lounge, awaiting Kate's arrival as she was on a one hour later flight from Brisbane.  Food offerings were pretty disappointing but things looked up when Kate arrived and let me know there was a Dumpling Bar in the Qantas lounge.  While sort of true, it transpired the Dumpling Bar is in the Qantas Hong Kong lounge, so there's that to look forward to :)   We made do with the existing offerings, still happy to be in a lounge.

Boarding and departure delayed around 30 minutes, but quickly settled into our "throne" seats.  The only two single business seats in this fit-out with enormous space in front and wonderful bin storage beside the seat.  No need to get anything from overhead all trip.  Pro tip, don't place your phone on the bin lid and then open it later in the night, lest your phone fall down between bin and wall and you have to get a grumpy flight attendant to fish it out for you.

Leg room? Yes, we do.

Service from staff was very ordinary - everything seemed a bit of an unreasonable effort to them.  When I was unwrapping my cutlery at entree time, the knife fell to the floor - pretty much at the feet of the attendant, yet she just tried to ignore it and move on.  I selfishly requested a replacement, which still hadn't been delivered by the time the main meal arrived, so had to ask again.  Obtaining water entailed presenting one's empty bottle to the staff who were hiding away in the galley, chatting or eating and doing an Oliver impersonation.  You get the drift.

Being able to lie down gave me a few hours sleep, so I was very happy with that.  Watched Game Night, which was great and started watching Gurrumul - to be completed on the homeward journey.  I was very impressed with the sleep ability of the young gun across the aisle from me.  He retired relatively early, lay on his back and appeared not to wake or move until woken for breakfast some 7-8 hours later.   I was beginning to suspect someone had died on the flight and they were being "stored" on that bed, but he did indeed wake later on.

Our booked car transfer was not there on arrival which is always annoying at the low humour/energy side of a long flight.  Finally to Beck's Motor Lodge around 11am but disappointingly there was no magic room available and we faced a long, long 4 hours wait until 3pm check in.
Had a coffee at the "Squat and Gobble" cafe (we are in The Castro) and hatched the brilliant plan of filling in time with a movie.  The fabulous Alamo Drafthouse cinema to the rescue, gorgeous decor, free water and the sensational Crazy Rich Asians got us to almost 3pm.  We briefly considered moving into the cinema instead of the motor lodge.  The staff seemed friendlier, it had a bar and food, free water, great movies, long couches and Kate still had her Qantas "sleep suit" (pajamas) in her bag.

However, we walked back to Beck's, stopping to rest my aching feet along the way and sharing delicious grilled corn in chlli butter and some meatballs.  The corn was beautifully presented when it arrived, but unfortunately we devoured two pieces before I thought to take a pic.

Back at Beck's, the lady checking us in took some time however the guy at reception asked if we wanted help with our bags. He asked how long our flight had been and responded we definitely deserved help with our bags after that.  So he waited with us until the drawn-out check-in process had been completed and then carried the 2 large bags out.  Down the 3 steps from reception.  Then handed them over.   Ha ha ha.  thanks so much!

The infamous 3 step obstacle

The walk to the lift and hallway to rooms which required no assistance, apparently.