The winter seems so long ago. Once there were feet of snow on the sidewalk and every journey out required piling on the layers and heavy boots. Now, it's nearly 9pm and my toolbar tells me it's still 79F. I'm sure that if I did go outside it would feel even hotter than that.
It wasn't that long ago but it's hard to imagine it ever was. Similarly, in calendar time, it wasn't that long ago that we lived in Hertfordshire and I commuted 60 miles every day to work. J and Harriet would often take me there and pick me up (to escape the awful neighbours) and they were doing 120 miles a day in a car. I now live 1.5 miles away from work, we have no car and Harriet is now extremely car sick whenever we have to take one.
It was a gamble taking a taxi to Kennedy airport but we had so much luggage there was no choice. The driver drove extremely slowly and carefully (a car service obviously not a maniac yellow taxi) but still she started to go just as we arrived at the terminal. Check-in was smooth but then trouble hit us when there was a 2 hour delay due to the fog in San Francisco. It had happened to my parents the day before and from the captain's explanation when we got on the plane it was clear that this is a regular occurrence.
Harriet slept during the 2 hour delay and so was wide awake when we eventually took to the skies. The Virgin America in-flight entertainment looked promising but in fact was useless. It was working but then they announced that there were problems so they would reboot and half an hour later it came on with only the basic TV working. So we had no cartoons for her either and she was not going to sleep.
After an age we finally landed in San Francisco.
We were there because my mother and father, Harriet's Gran and Grandad, were there. They were to spend 4 days in San Francisco followed by 4 days in LA before coming to New York. They will be here on my father's 65th birthday.
Harriet has been to San Francisco many times before. We came last year en route to Yosemite and when she was only weeks old she and J would make the trip from Sacramento to change rental cars (a peculiar feature of the rental company was that it charged $100 per week or $700 per month so J had to keep renting for 3 weeks, returning the car and picking up another one). He and I have been even more often; it was and is one of our favourite places in America.
We shivered when stepping out at SFO though. 60F is what you get if you're lucky so it was back to sweaters and hoodies. Later in the stay it would improve but it was still far below the temperature to which we had so quickly become accustomed.
On our first full day we went to the Aquarium at pier 39. My parents last saw Harriet in February and they had been to Central Park zoo with her, but I knew just how much of a difference they would see. She is so much more engaged with the exhibits and fascinated by everything there. She loved the touching pools and the chance to get up close to her favourites: the starfish.
Afterwards we stopped off at a little beach on the edge of Fisherman's Wharf and they got to see just how keen she is to be in the water and how indifferent she is to how cold it is.
The next day we met them and some of their friends from Falkirk (coincidentally here) just after they had been on a tour in a Fire Engine (don't ask). It was hot now by SF standards and Fisherman's Wharf being so busy we went up to Ghirardelli for an ice-cream. Two of the visitors were my parents' (and my) next door neighbours, George and Morag, and they have always tried to see H when she is up in Scotland - it felt a little surreal seeing them in San Francisco.
The great thing is that Harriet put on a show. You will no doubt see the pictures when J puts them up but it was lovely. We were sitting by the fountain and one of the Scottish visitors foolishly gave Harriet some money to throw into the water. She did and of course kept coming back for more and we were soon out of pennies.
Once the music started though that was it and she wanted to dance in the square with me, J, Gran, Grandad, George and Morag. It was pure joy and really made the trip.
Sadly the next day I had to leave to go back to work. Gran and Grandad left for LA but J and Harriet stayed a few more days in San Francisco. They will all be arriving into Kennedy tomorrow for the next and most important leg of my parents' trip. I picked up Pip from the kennels and from the staff's reactions I could tell that she was an extremely popular little dog. She was sitting in the middle of the day-care room on a stool with another Westie when I arrive, quite content but happy to be off home even in the heat.
So all go - we're off in an RV to Florida in a few weeks followed by J & H traveling to South Carolina to Samara's mother's house. Then my sister and brother-in-law are here and then J & H fly to Edinburgh for their tour of the US. Alas no progress with the next surrogacy - we are having more trouble this time finding a surrogate but we are still looking and hoping.
The heat is going to hit my parents like a freight train but we won't be going far and they too will learn just how nice it is to be out on of the Hudson water parks.
