Day 06: San Francisco

We visited Monterary Bay Aquarium, approximately an hour drive from San Fransisco. This attraction is along our route to Los Angles. You may want to check out the programmes and feeding times line up before visiting the aquarium.

We reached in time for the African penguins feeding. Guests are welcomed to sit casually on the floor or go to the glass dome areas to watch these cute penguins eat. Aquarium staff will also explain what they do and observe during each feed.

IMG_3997
African Penguins Feeding

Marine organisms are always fascinating. The aquarium has set up several spots for the visiting guests to interact with these marine animals. Timid me, I do not dare.

IMG_6754
Touch the Starfish
IMG_6755
Touch the Crabs
IMG_6843
Bat Ray Touch Pool

I love this super big panel of water tank view. Time seems to slow down in front of the big blue water.

IMG_6791
Big Water Tank
IMG_6832
Me Dazing
IMG_6833
Lester Dazing

We dine in the aquarium’s cafeteria. Simple food but delicious. You can also dine outside the aquarium. Before you exit, remember to get a hand stamp, so that your re-entry is valid.

IMG_6811
Pizza & Milk
IMG_6812
Burger & Orange Juice

A 4 hours plus drive brings us to Ventura Beach. We are settling here for a night before heading to Los Angeles.

IMG_6879Comfort Inn at Ventura Beach
IMG_6853
Room
IMG_6850
Bathroom Facility
IMG_6851
Shower Area

Our next base station is Los Angeles where we’ll be staying with Lester’s uncle for the remaining weeks.

Day 05: San Francisco

We are pretty done with the city and shopping in San Francisco by day 4. Today is like going through the checklist and see what we have left out.

We dined in The Cliff House for brunch. This place is by the coastline. It takes us around 30 minutes Muni ride and 20 minutes walking before we reach. Got lost a little along the way (never forget to use Google Maps), but the view is so nice. Worth it!

IMG_6662
By the CoastlineIMG_6698
Sunny & Beautiful DayIMG_3787
The Cliff HouseIMG_3835
The Cliff House Interior

Despite this is so out of the way, the reservation queue is close to an hour wait. We are served with a basket of special bread once seated. They are warm, hallowed and light. Doesn’t have much taste but they go well with soup and whipped butter. We each had a breakfast main course. Blurp full~ Ambience is excellent especially if you get to sit beside the windows, food is terrifically good!

IMG_6685
Special Bread
IMG_6684
Famous Cliff House Clam ChowderIMG_6687
Amercian BreakfastIMG_6691
Seafood Omelet

We then spend the rest of the day in Legion of Honor museum. This museum has more galleries than de Young museum, hosting galleries after galleries of artifacts and paintings. The collection is magnificent. Wish we have a whole day there. We stayed through till the sunset, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.

IMG_3900
Legion of HonorIMG_6704
Legion of Honor EntranceIMG_3975
Sunset at Legion of Honor

This is our last night in San Francisco. We’ll be visiting Monterary Bay Aquarium, then takes another 4 hours long drive to Ventura Beach and stay over for a night.

Day 04: San Francisco

Today is sightseeing day. We are travelled by Muni bus, bringing us to Chinatown, Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, these places of interest without a hassle.

After 3 days of western cuisine, we decide to eat Asian food. Took a Muni to Chinatown in San Francisco, it is a total different world. I would say it resembles streets of Hong Kong, a little old, dirty, cluttered and pack with Chinese.

We picked a dining place which labelled itself as Hong Kong cafe, pinning hopes for some good Hong Kong food. Everything we ordered goes wrong, service sucks, we don’t even feel like tipping and probably not even worth mentioning.

We then embark on our Golden Gate Bridge walkathon. One end of the bridge provides the bicycle renting service, the other end provides open top bus tour service. We did a miscalculation thinking that both ends have the bicycle renting services. And we walked to and fro the bridge. Hectic. The return journey took us 30min walk, only if you walk at Lester’s speed. Restrooms are available on both ends. Sun is pretty strong, windy on the bridge. Do put on sun block, sun glasses and a coat. View is magnificent. Definitely a must visit
place.

IMG_3629
Specifications of Golden Gate BridgeIMG_3640
Golden Gate Bridge
IMG_3696
“Happy” Walking

Took a Muni to Lincoln Street where Golden Gate Park is. It is probably a 10 minutes bus ride, but you need to walk into the park to the other attractions.

IMG_6619
Golden Gate ParkIMG_6620
One of the Entrances

I actually love Golden Gate Park the most. You can practically spend your whole day there. There are Japanese Tea House, Botanical Garden, de Young Museum, Academy of Science… You would want to come here early in the day. Most of these attractions close promptly at 6pm and admission fees are sold separately.

For museum lovers, additional USD 2 discount for museum admission tickets if you keep and show them a Muni ticket. For students with student ID, do produce them upon ticket purchase, you’ll get admission tickets at student price. International student ID is also welcomed. We visited de Young Museum, hosting the exhibition “Masters of Venice”.

IMG_6636
de Young Fine Arts MuseumIMG_3762
Golden Gate BridgeIMG_6627
Masters of Venice Tickets at Student Price

Lester researched a Japanese ramen restaurant for dinner, Katana-ya, near our hotel through yelp.com. The restaurant might not have a reception area, but you can help yourself by writing your name, number of people on the waiting list. Wait for your call when the table is ready.

IMG_6652
Katana-ya
IMG_6654
Self-help Waiting List

They serve pretty decent ramen, exactly what you’ll crave for on cold winter nights. They also serve sushi and other rice options.

IMG_6648
RamenIMG_6649
Ramen

Day 05 is arranged just for me. We are going to The Cliff House to have a wonderful breakfast and then head on to Legion of Honor museum.

Day 03: San Francisco

Travelling to geek’s land: Google HQ and Apple The Company Store!

Rented Nissan Sentra from Hertz before hitting the highway. To “perform” Lester’s virgin left-hand drive, we got ourselves a Garmin Nüvi GPS to guide us around. Satellite signals are not as good within the San Francisco city, we only feel more relieve after travelling on to the highway. I cannot resist not falling into sleep in any car ride. I guess I didn’t give much help to him. Opps~

IMG_6469
Hertz Office at San FranciscoIMG_6471
Our Nissan SentraIMG_6478
Bad Satellite Reception within City

It’s not difficult to locate Google HQ, but there are many Google buildings. Be sure to park your vehicle near the mascots and parking is free. Set tripod and you are ready to snap.

IMG_6485
Google HQIMG_3597
All Android Mascots

We also planned Apple’s The Company Store on the same day. It’s about 15 min drive from Google HQ. You can find a parking lot in their big open space carpark. Parking is free.

IMG_6510
Apple CampusIMG_3616
Apple The Company StoreIMG_6519
Welcome & *Kaching*

We bought a number of their tee-shirts for friends. The Company Store sells mainly Apple’s souvenirs which you can’t get from any other Apple retails, together with other Apple products.

IMG_6518
Part of the store sells souvenirsIMG_6515
The other part sells Apple products

An unplanned visit to Gilroy Premium Outlets, our first outlet visit. We had a quick bite in In-N-Out Burger before shopping. Not the best outlet store but it is enough for us to pass time.

IMG_6530
Gilroy Premium OutletsIMG_6533
In-N-Out BurgerIMG_6538
First In-N-Out Burger

Dinner in San Francisco is always a reservation plus at least 1 hour wait in the queue. We dine in Burger Bar at Macy’s where Lester challenges the World’s Hottest Burger. The restaurant needs him to sign a declaration form to declare that the company will not be responsible to any health treats should one consume this burger.

IMG_6551
Burger Bar at Macy’sIMG_6556
Signing Health Declaration FormIMG_6573
World Hottest Burger is HOT!

Next up, Day 04 at Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park & de Young Museum.

Day 02: San Francisco

No jet lag but was too tired to wake up in the morning. Mess up a little of our planning.

Lester embarks his journey of worship to Timbuk2 shop at Hayes Street with Muni bus. An adult requires to pay USD 2  for Muni, regardless of the number of stations you are going to travel. Within the time frame given on the ticket, you can transfer and hop on to another Muni without paying (we only get to understand this on day 03).

IMG_6340Muni

IMG_6341
Muni ticket states between now to 4:30pm, your transfer to another Muni is FREE!

Loves Hayes Street! It is very quiet town with blooming creative boutique shops.

IMG_6344
Timbuk2 Store
IMG_6347
Timbuk2’s Interior

Dinner at Blue Mermaid restaurant at Fisherman Wharf. But of course, there are a lot more dining choices available. Probably the 1 and only 1 meal for the day, we ordered 1 sample soups (select 3 soups), Seafood Trio with shrimps, crab cake, salmon and seasonal vegetable. I chose garlic parmesan french fries while Lester chooses mashed potato.

IMG_6379
Blue Mermaid Chowder House & Bar
IMG_6371

Mascot Mermaid
IMG_6373
3 Sample Soups
IMG_6375
My Seafood Trio
IMG_6376
Lester’s Seafood Trio

Took a stroll along Fisherman Wharf. Hmm… Can’t see much as the night has fall pretty early. We get to pop in and out souvenir shops. Ghirardeli Square is another must visit place. Architecture is romantic, especially with Christmas lightings, very much like Singapore’s Boat Quay. Ghirardeli is a famous chocolate brand in San Francisco, and so we went to its cafe for chocolate drinks.

IMG_6400
One of the Ghirardeli stores at Ghirardeli Square

As Fisherman Wharf is one of the terminals of the cable car, we decided to take a ride back to our hotel. Each ride cost USD 6 for each passenger, regardless where you alight.

IMG_6549
Cable Car Ticket
IMG_6366
Cable Car Terminal at Fisherman Wharf
IMG_6411
Cable Car Ride

Slightly into shopping mood, bought some sleeping pants from Old Navy for me and my sister.

Day 03, Lester will be driving to geek’s paradise: Google HQ and Apple company store. Night!

Day 01: San Francisco

My first extremely long flight to a faraway Christmas land, USA. Will be staying there for close to a month long.

My flight from Singapore is transited at Incheon International Airport, Korea, after a flight time of 6 hours. Then another 12 hours flight to San Francisco International Airport. I thought my power of sleeping anywhere should make sleeping on jet painless. But my sleep is repeatedly disturbed by meal serving, noise around me, inadequate leg space and uncomfortable head rest. Nah~~~

IMG_6260Transit at Incheon International Airport
IMG_6280Reached San Francisco

We finally reached San Francisco and co-shared a van to shuffle us to Chancellor Hotel near Union Square. Rooms are not ready before 2pm. We walked around to get our prepaid SIM card from T-Mobile (with unlimited local calls, texts and data) and Garmin’s GPS. Lethargically, I have to take 5 (actually close to 1 hour) in the room after we’ve checked-in.

IMG_6284Co-Shared Van from San Francisco Airport
IMG_6291Chancellor Hotel
IMG_6431
Our Room

Dragging my feet, we shopped around Union Square and had The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Food is no doubt GREAT! We have to share our main dish though. I didn’t make much purchases except a Forever 21 bathroom slipper. Still adapting to the cold weather, tiredness and environment.

IMG_6313The Cheesecake Factory’s reservation counter. Always packed.
IMG_6315Whoo~ Cheesecakes!