We departed SG on 27th Sept to Hong Kong on a CX plane for transit to San Francisco. The entire 18hrs flight was pretty un-eventful except that on the HK-SF plane, I was seated next to an idiotic Indian Guy. He's not that kind of BLACK Indian, he looks more like the fairer type, but still black! Back to him, he's BIG sized and he sits in that same position throughout the flight. His arms are rested on the seat-rests and that intruded into my 'turf' because of the size of his arms. I was feeling extremely un-comfortable all the way and certainly showed my displeasure in the hope that he would do something about it. I was wrong, he can't seemed to be bothered at all! Luckily SO offered to swap her window seat with me so that I could be more comfy. She, being smaller sized than me, sat beside that FAT-ASS without much trouble. Not too sure if its me or my luck... but what a way to begin the vacation.
We landed in SF at about 6pm local time. The view from the air is breathtaking. I've always enjoyed looking down on land from way up there! Once we're on the ground, no time was wasted as we proceeded to check-in at Travelodge Golden Gate and headed out towards Ghirardelli Square on foot. It was a 30mins walk at temperatures of about 15degrees (Celsius). There wasn't many shops still opened by the time we reached. However, there's this famous shop selling Ghirardelli Chocolate. Popping in for a look, we came out with 10USD worth of chocolates! We popped by this fastfood joint called Johnny Rockets for a (big) sandwich on our way back to our room.
We were out and about early next morning at about 7am; destination : Palace of Fine Arts & the Golden Gate Bridge. The former is within walking distance according to the map. But as it turned out, we not only walked to the Palace of Fine Arts, but an additional 3miles or so to the Golden Gate Bridge as well! The bridge looks VERY impressive. But as luck would have it, that morning happened to be extremely foggy, covering the tops of the Golden Gate Towers. I'm pretty disappointed by this San Francisco Fog. :( Nevertheless, we still made it to one of the most prominent landmarks in the world. After all that walking, I demanded breakfast and we settled it at an eatery called Mel's Drive-In which is a stone's throw from our room. The rest of the day was spent walking, sight-seeing, shopping at Fisherman's Wharf before going over to Union Square towards the evening. Union Square is where SO's shopping onslaught began. I witnessed at close range how SO can shop! We walked into Banana Republic, spend about an hour plus inside and came out with about 700USD worth of merchandise including about 400USD for a bag that she helped a friend to buy. Her modus operandi can be closely compared to that of an Antivirus software which scans every single file by default. Anyway, we took a cab back to hotel as we were too drained to shop/walk further. There's a Cheesecake Factory outlet on Level 8 of the Macy's Dept. Store but I was too drained to even think about wanting to go there for a look or a meal.
We went on a tour to Napa & Sonoma Valleys on Day 3. These are the famous wine regions of California, maybe even the world. The tour brought us to 3 vineyards, 1 in Napa, 2 in Sonoma. The host at the vineyards gave a short introduction of their estate, how they made the wine and of course, granted us all some wine tasting. Please do not think its complementary, the tasting fees were included in the package! SO wanted to go to Union Square again because she didn't have much time to shop yesterday due to the early closing of the shops on a Sunday.
We went on yet another tour on Day 4. This time to one of USA's first wilderness park, the Yosemite National Park. This park is 2-3hrs drive from SF and I bet everyone on the tour is eagerly awaiting the entry into Yosemite. The tour allowed us a few stops for photoshoots and for lunch. I managed to catch some picturesque shots with my trusty Lumix Camera. There's also a shot of one of the residents of Yosemite! SO and me ended up at Fisherman's Wharf where we intended to have dinner. I wanted to have some seafood for dinner but SO wanted to try the In-N-Out Burger since Gary strongly recommended it. And so, we decided to try out In-N-Out Burger since we managed to spot an outlet right before us. Stepping inside and in front of the ordering counter, we were surprised to see only 3 Burger items on the menu. Thinking that this could be a scaled-down outlet, that may explain the limited items on the menu. Having decided what each of us wanted, we proceeded to order and soon settled down to savour Gary's recommendation. 5mins later, we only have this to tell Gary, "In-N-Out is NOTHING fantastic. Just so-so only!". So if you're thinking of trying this out the next time you're in the States, you may wish to think twice....
We bidded farewell to SF and say "Hello!" to Los Angeles on Day 5! We flew From SF's Oakland Airport to LA's Long Beach Airport via JetBlue, one of the domestic airlines in the States. I'd be putting up Part 2 & 3 of my USA Trilogy soon. Do stay tuned! In the meantime, do enjoy some of the pictures taken in SF...
SF Aerial View.
Palace of the Fine Arts.
Egg Benedict from Mel's.
Can't recall the name of this dish which I had for breakfast. However, I do know I like the scrambled egg portion very very much!
The stretch of Lombard Street where it's known as the crooked-est road in the world with a series of 8 consecutive hairpin turns.
The famous Boudin's Sourdough Clam Chowder Breadbowl.
Noisy & smelly sea-lions of Fisherman's Wharf.
Grapes ready-to-eat from one of the vineyards in Napa Valley.
This is not the natural colour of the grapes. Its the colour of the grapes heavily costed by dust!!
A very scenic view from one of the Sonoma vineyards looking down onto its estate.
A waterfall with some trickling water in Yosemite.
My favourite picture out of the entire USA Trip! This was taken in Yosemite.
A resident of Yosemite National Park.
Our In-N-Out Burger Dinner....
We landed in SF at about 6pm local time. The view from the air is breathtaking. I've always enjoyed looking down on land from way up there! Once we're on the ground, no time was wasted as we proceeded to check-in at Travelodge Golden Gate and headed out towards Ghirardelli Square on foot. It was a 30mins walk at temperatures of about 15degrees (Celsius). There wasn't many shops still opened by the time we reached. However, there's this famous shop selling Ghirardelli Chocolate. Popping in for a look, we came out with 10USD worth of chocolates! We popped by this fastfood joint called Johnny Rockets for a (big) sandwich on our way back to our room.
We were out and about early next morning at about 7am; destination : Palace of Fine Arts & the Golden Gate Bridge. The former is within walking distance according to the map. But as it turned out, we not only walked to the Palace of Fine Arts, but an additional 3miles or so to the Golden Gate Bridge as well! The bridge looks VERY impressive. But as luck would have it, that morning happened to be extremely foggy, covering the tops of the Golden Gate Towers. I'm pretty disappointed by this San Francisco Fog. :( Nevertheless, we still made it to one of the most prominent landmarks in the world. After all that walking, I demanded breakfast and we settled it at an eatery called Mel's Drive-In which is a stone's throw from our room. The rest of the day was spent walking, sight-seeing, shopping at Fisherman's Wharf before going over to Union Square towards the evening. Union Square is where SO's shopping onslaught began. I witnessed at close range how SO can shop! We walked into Banana Republic, spend about an hour plus inside and came out with about 700USD worth of merchandise including about 400USD for a bag that she helped a friend to buy. Her modus operandi can be closely compared to that of an Antivirus software which scans every single file by default. Anyway, we took a cab back to hotel as we were too drained to shop/walk further. There's a Cheesecake Factory outlet on Level 8 of the Macy's Dept. Store but I was too drained to even think about wanting to go there for a look or a meal.
We went on a tour to Napa & Sonoma Valleys on Day 3. These are the famous wine regions of California, maybe even the world. The tour brought us to 3 vineyards, 1 in Napa, 2 in Sonoma. The host at the vineyards gave a short introduction of their estate, how they made the wine and of course, granted us all some wine tasting. Please do not think its complementary, the tasting fees were included in the package! SO wanted to go to Union Square again because she didn't have much time to shop yesterday due to the early closing of the shops on a Sunday.
We went on yet another tour on Day 4. This time to one of USA's first wilderness park, the Yosemite National Park. This park is 2-3hrs drive from SF and I bet everyone on the tour is eagerly awaiting the entry into Yosemite. The tour allowed us a few stops for photoshoots and for lunch. I managed to catch some picturesque shots with my trusty Lumix Camera. There's also a shot of one of the residents of Yosemite! SO and me ended up at Fisherman's Wharf where we intended to have dinner. I wanted to have some seafood for dinner but SO wanted to try the In-N-Out Burger since Gary strongly recommended it. And so, we decided to try out In-N-Out Burger since we managed to spot an outlet right before us. Stepping inside and in front of the ordering counter, we were surprised to see only 3 Burger items on the menu. Thinking that this could be a scaled-down outlet, that may explain the limited items on the menu. Having decided what each of us wanted, we proceeded to order and soon settled down to savour Gary's recommendation. 5mins later, we only have this to tell Gary, "In-N-Out is NOTHING fantastic. Just so-so only!". So if you're thinking of trying this out the next time you're in the States, you may wish to think twice....
We bidded farewell to SF and say "Hello!" to Los Angeles on Day 5! We flew From SF's Oakland Airport to LA's Long Beach Airport via JetBlue, one of the domestic airlines in the States. I'd be putting up Part 2 & 3 of my USA Trilogy soon. Do stay tuned! In the meantime, do enjoy some of the pictures taken in SF...
SF Aerial View.
Palace of the Fine Arts.
Egg Benedict from Mel's.
Can't recall the name of this dish which I had for breakfast. However, I do know I like the scrambled egg portion very very much!
The stretch of Lombard Street where it's known as the crooked-est road in the world with a series of 8 consecutive hairpin turns.
The famous Boudin's Sourdough Clam Chowder Breadbowl.
Noisy & smelly sea-lions of Fisherman's Wharf.
Grapes ready-to-eat from one of the vineyards in Napa Valley.
This is not the natural colour of the grapes. Its the colour of the grapes heavily costed by dust!!
A very scenic view from one of the Sonoma vineyards looking down onto its estate.
A waterfall with some trickling water in Yosemite.
My favourite picture out of the entire USA Trip! This was taken in Yosemite.
A resident of Yosemite National Park.
Our In-N-Out Burger Dinner....
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3 comments:
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
i tink u can cancel ur blog soon :P
y?? cos long time no update?
ya la.
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