Five Countries Four Marlboroughs: To tip or not to tip? It has its benefits.

We had a long, broken sleep last night - around 12 hours in total. Out family never sleeps well the first night anywhere.

We headed up to the Regency Club for breakfast and were pleasantly surprised - there was finally something there that all of us ate! They serve a continental breakfast - which i really like as it stops us overeating - and Terry was happy as it included boiled eggs, Will and James happy as there was Conflakes. I still wasn't sure if we needed to tip there. We had to get everything ourselves - including coffee - do i tip? I observed a family that were handed bottled water when they left. Then i saw another family - they too were handed bottled water when they left. When we left shortly after, no bottled water?

We then went for a walk from Pier 1, which is right outside our hotel, down to Pier 39. On the way found the Farmers Markets and had a look at the stalls. The weather is perfect here, about 25 degrees today, and it was a really nice walk down there. Once we were there it is a tourist haven - the kids bought a bucket of mini donuts, James more chocolate brownie, Will had a turn on the high jump trampolines clearly impressing the crowd, then James surprisingly wanted a turn on the carousel. We then went to see the sea lions - the highlight i had planned for the morning. Followed the sign, turned the corner and - there were NONE there. Apparently they had all gone off breed!

We then took a taxi to Westfield in Market St. The kids could finally spend their money they had saved - James bought a pair of basketball shoes, Will a pair of Nike free runners, I bought a new pair of Asics (the ones i was wearing were 8 years old and a complete disgrace) and finally Terry jumped on the band wagon and bought a pair of Mizuno's. The Marlborough Family was now the Shoe Family. It was getting late and we just wanted to get back to the hotel. The BART was still down, and all of a sudden we found ourselves in the middle of peak hour with no idea how we were going to get home. No taxis in sight. We started walking towards what i thought was the direction of our hotel and then around the corner came a taxi - I practically jumped in front of it - it was ours!

Headed straight up to the Regency Club for a drink - this club is worth it's weight in gold - and watched the sunset over SF Bay. The kids were playing on the computers there, encouraging us to stay! A lady who worked there came over and wiped down our table a few times (oh goodness do we tip???) You do pay for alcoholic drinks there, all self service. When i poured my first vodka (lime and soda) i thought there was a measure on top - but no, yippee!! On our way out, we thought we'd tip the two ladies there. They were topping up things in the buffet throughout the evening, surely this was worth a polite tip?? All of a sudden, it was like we were best friends. They told us there was no need to tip in the club but thanked us (and kept the money) anyway. Then they turned and asked, 'would we like some bottled water?' We were in - I'd gotten our bottled water - I'd cracked the code!

We've had a great day - I keep driving Terry crazy, 'can you believe we're in America?!?!' (repeating, repeating, repeating) Really, really excited that we are here!

Fact: the breakfast telly here is sooo different than the English. In England their morning show was so stodgy and boring - here it is really, really funny. Love it particularly when they play, 'Living in America'.