A beautiful week ahead

Tomorrow, God willing, I head out to the sunny San Francisco Bay Area to welcome Yaty, my wife, to the US and to hang out with my folks for a few days. The weather looks perfect, I'm almost done packing, I've remembered to pick up a couple of gifts for her birthday (June 10th), and another little surprise for when she lands in the airport (can't say because she reads my page).

Currently I haven't planned much for the week, but I'm hoping for a short trip to Monterey to see the Aquarium; a trip into the city to see Pier 39, the Golden Gate, and Muir woods; a dinner out with the IUC gang; and something special (map) for her birthday. That right there should take most of the time we have, I guess.

I hope I am remembering everything I need for the trip, but to be honest this should be the easiest packing I've done in a long time. Iman has school and won't be able to come along, so I'm only packing for me. And California, contrary to the belief of some, is a domestic destination and requires little more than a visit inside Virginia.

I am flying America West, but I'm not sure how that happened, I had been planning to try out DC's newest airline, Independence Air, but somehow ended up changing that. It also seems I haven't flown much domestically in a while, as I've been informed that food is available for purchase on the flight. For purchase? How cheap have American airlines gotten? Can I fly JAL to California? I'm very skeptical about this shift in the food policy of airlines, but I've been told that everyone does it that way now.