2 Days in San Francisco


This is Union Square. It's the central shopping, hotel and theatre district in San Francisco. Our hotel is just within walking distance from here.



One of the must do things in San Francisco is going on a ride on its cable car. It costs US$5 each trip. We got lucky that day, because the three of us got to ride it for free!!
The driver was a very friendly chap and chatted with me throughout the journey.
I guess it was considered rather early in the morning and we avoided the tourist crowd, so the driver just let us alighted the cable car without collecting money from us...






I recalled what the bus driver in New Zealand said when we were making our way to Wellington last year. He said that Wellington and San Francisco gave him a very similar feeling. Both are famous for its cable car, have tram lines everywhere in the city and steep rolling hills. And he was right!


We took a ride on the tram too. It was interesting to note that instead of having the sign "Bus Stop", the sign read "Stop Requested".



Us at Chinatown. There's quite a large population of Chinese in San Francisco. This was the only place throughout the entire trip that we came across chinese channel on tv.






The very famous Lombard Street. It is aka "the crookedest street in the world"!



Making our way down the slope. The reason why the street has such sharp turns was because in the past, it was meant to allow traffic to descent the street incline with less difficulty.


Taken from the bottom. Now you can really see how crooked the street is. The flowers along the way were beautiful. Mummy was soooo in love with them...



Hanwei and I at the cross junction of Lombard street. She and her family also joined the same tour! Knew her in ajc and she studied business in ntu. What a coincidence! Got to know her even more throughout the trip.



We took a cruise to see more of San Francisco. There were lots of sea lions at the bay, doing suntanning.



Golden Gate Bridge, the landmark of the city.






Alcatraz, the infamous maximum-security prison.
The island is only a mile from the shore. However, i read from the brochure, there was no evidence of any successful escapes. It was the only one in the federal system that provided hot showers for the prison. Why? To keep them from acclimating to the cold sea water.





Bay Bridge behind us. Alot of ppl tend to mix up Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge. The former is silvery in colour whereas the latter is orange in colour.



After the cruise, we explored Pier 39. It was a very lively place.









Chocolate Heaven! Yes, I felt like I was in heaven... =)






After having a look at the golden gate bridge via cruise, we then admired the bridge on foot.






Twin Peaks. This place has San Francisco's best 360 degree views! The view up there was awesome!



San Francisco is renowned for its chilly summer fog. In fact, it has the coldest summer and warmest winter. The fog is able to blanket out the whole area within a few hours.



Civic Center, where you can find all the government and cultural institutions. Behind us is the City Hall building.



If you go to the usa, you definitely must try their cheesecake factory. Though it's not exactly very cheap, it's worth the money.



See's Candies! We regretted didn't buying more. It was so nice..



The rainbow flag represents the gay community. In San Francisco, the rainbow flag is so prominent, it's almost everywhere.



Roaming about in the city...



Entrance to chinatown..



The buildings in San Francisco all have fire escape stairs outside the apartments.



The flight back home was a very interesting experience.
Firstly, we got to travel on the new sia boeing 777-300ER. I like the quality of the monitor which is considered bigger and also the cup holder design. The flight was from San Francisco to Seoul. And then from Seoul back to S'pore. During the second part of the journey, the monitor infront of me was not working. I was fine with it because i have already watched 11hrs of movie during the first part and was already intending to read my storybook.
But the air stewardess was really kind. She gave me alot of magazines and newspaper. And towards the end of the journey, she even presented me a USD75 voucher for me to buy stuff from their kris shop!

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Monterey

The journey from Las Vegas to San Fransico was a very long one.
We stopped over at a little town called Fresno for a night, and the next day, we visited Monterey which is located in northern California and around 115 miles south of San Fransico.

The place seriously reminded me of Auckland.. Really do miss there alot.






The Fisherman's Wharf at Monterey was once the center of California's fishing industry.



The street...



That's our tour guide in the middle..



The place is famous for its clam chowder. There were many restaurant selling it and they have sample outside for you to try..



After trying a few sample, we decided on Grotto....



Slurp~




17 Mile Drive and Pebble Beach

17 mile drive is a scenic road drive and you got to see a lot of rich men's houses there. It's basically a place for golf lovers as it passes through the very famous Pebble Beach.










The place is very strict about conserving the trees, especially trees that have a very long history. So if they say you can't cut the trees, you will have to build your houses around the tree or find another way out.
See the tree in the middle of the road? It has a very long history and hence even if it caused inconvenience for the cars, it can't be chopped.


Lone Cypress Tree behind us. It's the official symbol of Pebble Beach. This view has been patented. Meaning, we can't developed the photo and sell it to someone else.









The lodge..