Our honeymoon seems like a distant memory but I still have 2 more posts to finish it. Picking up from where I last blogged, we were on our way from Yosemite (goodbye dangerous mountain roads) and onto the motorway headed straight for San Francisco, a 4h drive away.
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| En route SF.. are we there yet?? |
We decided to stay with Air BnB hosts for the second time at San Francisco (SF). Approaching SF I contacted the host Saana and kept her informed of where we were and estimated arrival time. We picked this Victorian house in the Mission district. This is an upcoming district and she was honest enough to tell us it's not the best neighbourhood but they will tell us which streets to avoid. Not that it's dangerous but you know, to be safe… when we arrived, I knew what she meant. I was actually surprised at how many homeless people are there in this city, or rather in this neighbourhood.
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| Driving into SF, the start of the jam that is soon to come |
I will be honest to say that I didn't quite like SF. I know… :( Even I am disappointed with how I feel, because everyone tells me oh-how-much-I-love-San-Francisco and there I was, not really quite getting the I-love-SF vibe. Where are you, vibes?? I do think it's the neighbourhood we stayed at which made me feel like I need to be aware of my surroundings.
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| The world famous Golden Gate Bridge, which is also famous for being shrouded in fog |
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| The obligatory shot |
Saana and Matt stays in this huge 3 bedroom victorian house on the 21st street. They are cool people; she is a textile designer and works from home. We all share the common bathroom and so we had to be extra mindful of keeping the toilet clean and dry when possible. Matt works as an engineer and is a chilled out guy. They have a massive kitchen which he built (impressive, hey) with a huge island in the middle. My dream kitchen… We chatted quite a bit in the 4 days we were there. It's really nice to be able to ask them for tips- where to go, especially what to eat. The chats were really interesting - I love the interaction with locals like that.
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| At Union Square, which is where the shops are |
Like LA, we bought tickets to the hop on, hop off bus for 48h so that gave us ample time. We did all the touristy stuff, with the exception of visiting Alcatraz (the prison on the island). K didn't want to visit a sad place on our honeymoon and I thought it's a fair enough reason.
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| We saw Alcatraz from afar - does that count? |
On top of that, I actually have a friend (well, ok more like ex-colleague) called Dinesh working in SF! He is half Chinese half Indian, born in Malaysia, probably a few years younger than me. He transferred from London to SF about 4 months ago and it was really interesting for us to chat with him - asking him the comparison between working in London and SF; how the work culture here is; and how he spends his weekends. Ahh, sad to say, he is still settling down and I do get that he misses London. Being an M&A banker, he works most of his time he says. He was lured to SF having the same aspirations as many people - to be close to the tech hub, cover tech companies in Silicon Valley, etc. Before he left, I told him "don't forget me when you cover cool companies like Twitter and Facebook!" And so I repeated that to him when I met him and he told me "aiya I cover boring companies lah.." haha
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Dinesh had to laugh at me taking a photo in front (egged on by K) of his office. K used to call me "JPMDW"!
I coined this term up: JPM Dedicated Worker! lol |
Some of the places we visited.
1) Aquarium of the Bay
This is also K's fav in SF. Who knew this place could be this fun? We were captivated by what we saw.
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| Jellyfish |
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| Looks like art |
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| Starfishes |
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| Who knew K was such a good photographer? I love this pic. |
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| He tried to be artistic in taking my reflection among this school of fishes |
2) Fisherman's Wharf
This seems to be a must go for tourists. As such, we soon realised this is such a touristy place that locals don't visit it anymore unless they have friends in town. It was super crowded. Aquarium of the Bay is within Fisherman's Wharf so we spent a good half day in this area.
3) Taking the cable car
The Q is always long for this one. We took this after an early dinner when the Q is seemingly at its shortest. There are two routes so we took the one which stops at Lombard Street, the most crooked street in the world.
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| The iconic cable car which makes the city USD 28mm every year. I say keep them going! |
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| Holding on while on the move! |
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| View from Lombard Street |
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| Lombard Street near sunset |
4) Asian Art Museum
This, you gotta ask K. He was so keen to go early in the morning at 10am whereas I wasn't keen on ancient artefacts; I preferred to sleep in a bit. So guess what? He went himself. Yep. Which on hindsight was a good decision because we both did what we wanted. I took a direct bus to the city hall and from there a short walk to the museum. We agreed to meet at the entrance at 12pm for lunch before going to Golden Gate Park.
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| The city hall looks impressive doesn't it? It's real gold on the dome btw. |
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| That's my hubby doing a selfie! |
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| The Asian Art Museum which he enjoyed |
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| K saw this man lying faced down on the ground and got really worried. He thought it was for real (aha got you!) and looked around to see if anyone else was as alarmed as him. Soon he realised it's part of the installation and so took a pic and moved on. I found it so amusing when he related to me. |
5) Golden Gate Park
This is a sprawling park which was so big we got so tired after a while. You should have seen our faces when we saw the hop on/ hop off bus coming our way. We waved like desperadoes. lol
Perhaps it's because we had just spent 4 glorious days in the national parks, all these pale in comparison to me. Perhaps it's soon to be two weeks away from home and I was a little homesick. Perhaps it was a little too hot and I was craving for an iced cold drink. All the perhaps. But I wasn't feeling
it by now. I started to tell K that I didn't have to visit all the places. I just wanted to take it easy. In fact, I told him I was ready to board the plane back to London. (Hello, vibes??)
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| A shot from the bus |
We spent maybe an hour here before we agreed to get on the bus and just sit through the rest of it all. Guess what? I slept on the bus like I haven't slept for a long time. Completely ignoring the poor guide who was using a microphone by the way.. K was very impressed with how fast I slept. In fact I have actually started dreaming!
6) City Lights Books & Publishers
Saana is very an arty person and recommended us to visit this "cool bookstore" famous for the beat generation of authors like Jack Kerouac. We found it and went in to have a look. My friend is a massive Jack Kerouac fan and so I bought a poster for him here. Pretty cool place I'd say. Jack Kerouac used to be friends with the original owner!
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| The owner knew Jack Kerouac which is pretty cool |
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| One of the most interesting wall murals I've seen. It has books flying out of it. |
7) The Cheesecake Factory
I kept telling K we had to dine at the Cheesecake Factory. Having my first bite of the heavenly cheesecake in Boston many years ago, that fond memory was etched in my mind and I wanted to share it with K. We found the only Cheesecake Factory in Macy's at Union Square and boy was it crowded! We waited almost an hour for our table.
So how did I feel? It's strange. I loved our mains more than the cheesecake. Perhaps my taste buds have changed. Perhaps because we were poor students then; sharing two slices amongst us - that made me savour each bite more. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. But oh the mains were yummy. The steak was done so very nicely and even the mac n cheese was so good. Even the salad was good!
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| Took a pic only AFTER we finished the food! haha what's the point, I know. |
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| We ordered the lemon meringue cheesecake, supposedly the most popular choice |
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| Still good cheesecake, don't get me wrong! |
This sums up our overall our experience in San Francisco. Next up, Napa Valley.
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