San Francisco Day 7
We started the day off by going to Mama's for breakfast. The food there was sooooooo goooooood!!! I couldn't remember what I had (I think it was like smoked salmon scrambled eggs). The best thing there was the liquid berry jam, which was sooo goood with bread. I usually only had one small piece of bread, but here I had the whole bagel and one side of Raymond's English muffin.. I just couldn't stop eating them. :)
After breakfast, we went up the telegraph hill to see the Colt Tower. We saw SF downtown from the hill. It was nice. We went to Alamo Square to look at nice Victorian houses and the SF skyline behind it. It was worth it. Before we left for the airport, we stopped by Japan town again to walk around and to get instant noodles to eat on the plane. The noodles were really goood. It was real uncooked soft noodles (not the hard uncooked ones) with meats and good soup.
And we sadly were on the way to the airport to fly back home to NYC..
Labels: san francisco, travel
San Francisco Day 6 (Napa Valley)
It was raining all day today but it didn't stop us to go to Napa Valley as planned (even though we were not too happy.. ) We took Golden Gate Bridge..driving on the bridge in the rain. The first place we stopped was Domaine Chandon where they made sparkling wine. The only reason we went to Chandon was that Chandon was in the Snoop Dogg "Drop It Like It's Hot" song. While waiting for the tour, I had sparkling wine tasting.. Raymond didn't like drinking so he wouldn't try, (but did sip a bit.) I had three kinds of sparkling wine (and a glass I drank as a souvenir). They were supposed to taste and smell a bit different, some tasted like apple, some tasted like citrus.. the lady there said the difference came from difference in soil and weather, and blah blah blah. It was good, though I couldn't tell the difference too much.. and because I hadn't eaten anything that day, I was quite tipsy afterward.
After the tasting, we went on the tour of the winery. (I tried real hard to walk straight so Raymond wouldn't know I was a bit drunk.) It sucked that it was raining and we only got to tour the indoor wine making facilities but not the outdoor wineyard. It was interesting learning why the bubbles got in the wine. It was said that the sparkling wine (or champagne if the grapes were grown in Champagne, France) was accidentally created when someone bottled the wine too early and the fermentation started in the bottle and created bubbles. When the bubbles were created in the bottles, the pressure in the bottles were really high, so the bottom of the bottles were egg-shaped to make it stronger. And because the fermentation was still on in the bottle, there were some left over bacteria and it made the wine unclear. They said a nun discovered how to get rid of it by tilting the bottles and turning once a week (either clockwise or counter clockwise, I couldn't quite remember, or maybe it didn't matter.) Every single time the bottles were turned, they were tilted even more. At the end, those bacteria was at the bottom. To get it out, the bottles were frozen to lower the pressure and to freeze the bacteria which were at the bottom next to the cork. It was then warmed up to higher the pressure and the cork would pop out with the bacteria. A new cork was put back on and wine would now be nice and clear.
Out from Chandon, we stopped at KFC for lunch and continued to the Beringer winery. Beringer was started by two German brothers who found Napa Valley great for wine making. Their house was really beautiful with an old oak tree where they featured the tree in their wine. This time, Raymond did the wine tasting with me.. (well, cuz it was part of the paid tour!) The wine was a bit too strong for Raymond and me.. I liked sparkling wine much better. During the tour, we saw a wine cellar that appeared in the movie "A Walk in the Clouds" with Keanu Reeves.
By the time we left the Beringer, most of the wineries were closed already. One of the wineries that were still open was Peju where we stopped by. We only see their giftshops, some wine barrels, and a bit of the wine making facilities. Oh, we actually saw the grape wines. It was supposed to ripe around Aug - Sept, so we only saw the grape buds.
Now heading back to SF, we got stuck in traffic a bit on Bay Bridge. Once we got to SF, we parked the car and went walking around Union Square stopping by some shopping stores.. (like my favorite Forever 21 store located in an old historic building!! hehe..) For dinner, we went to a Thai noodle place called King of Thai Noodle House. It was really good and authentic. All the waitresses there were so pretty.. we both just couldn't stop staring at them.
Back to the Intercontinental Hotel again in a different room, not a suite anymore because they upgraded us only for one night. Moving in a hurry from the suite to this room, I forgot my glasses. Raymond went down stairs trying to get them back for me. Luckily, he got them.
Labels: san francisco, travel
San Francisco Day 5 (Monterey Bay, Carmel-by-the-Sea)
We started off our long (but very enjoyable) day early to go to the Monterey Aquarium right when it opened its door at 10am. We stopped by for coffee and baking goods at a local store on Cannery Row. Once we got in, it wasn't as big as I had thought. The reason we came was that we heard that Monterey Aquarium is very impressive and those who have gone to the Monterey Aquarium would be disappointed when they go to other aquarium afterward. Well, the appearance really doesn't tell you anything because its exhibitions are all very impressive.
Ok, let's start. We first went to the giant fish tank and saw some sharks and other fishes. My most favorite was rock fish. The striking thing about those fish was that they can float without swimming! So, when they were floating, they looked dead! The lady there told me that the fish had a special organ that can hold air and made them float. Other kinds of fish didn't have the organ and had to swim to keep them afloat. Then we went to see penguin feeding. The penguins were as cute as always. They were not emperor penguins, but some penguins from South Africa. I couldn't quite remember their name. Then the tunas, they were big but fast!!
Next, it was another one of my favorite exhibitions. It's the Jelly Fish Exhibition as an Art!! At every jelly fish tank, they put picture frames so that they looked like paintings or art works! Some frames were classic and some were modern. The idea of framing jelly fish tanks was so creative! One interesting jelly fish were the ones that stayed up side down.. Last but not least, we went to see the otters! They were so cute, swimming and playing!
That's it for the indoor aquarium. We next went outside for some natural outdoor aquarium. We saw a lot of black cranes through the telescope and saw somethings we thought sea lions. When we were done, it was about our lunch time and we had food at the aquarium cafeteria. I had some yellow fin tuna melt and Raymond had fish and chips. Both were delicious.
After our stomaches were full, we headed off to go to 17-mile scenic drive. We drove pass Pacific Grove and their views were spectacular. The grass along the way were blooming and the ground were pink all over. The 17-mile drive was as spectacular as Pacific Grove. It went along the coast and looped back up the hills.
We planned to drive through the coast, got out to visit Carmel, then back the hill portion of the drive and back to Monterey. During our drive along the coast, we stopped by to see pebble beaches, a bird rock where all black cranes hang out, the famous lone tree, and beautiful cliffs..
We also saw squirrels, sea gulls, black cranes, and of course, the Pebble Beach Golf Course where we stopped by for souvenirs and bathrooms.
Raymond heard about Carmel from his boss. It was a very cute romantic town. We loved it at our first sight, the cute little english tea house that looked like ones in the fairy tales, the secret gardens and pathways, the cute little stores, and nice restaurants. We stopped by a historic Carmel Mission but couldn't go in because it was already close. The outside was already beautiful enough.
After walking around, we stopped by a local historic restaurant called Em Le's for dinner. It was a prix fix meal, and it was great!
On the way back through the hill portion of 17-mile drive wasn't as beautiful as the coastal portion. We drove through Pacific Grove again and it was beautiful as ever around the sunset time. We finally had to leave for San Francisco.
Back in SF, we went to Intercontinental Hotel where Raymond used his points to book. The hotel was on Nob Hill which was supposed to be the steepest hill. We parked one block down the hill. Walking up with our lugguages was a killer! I had to stop to breath after only a few steps! It was nice when we got the hotel, which was magnificent. We got upgraded to the suite with SF downtown view. The view was amazing and the room was real nice with a private jacuzzi!! It was a good nice sleep. :)
Labels: san francisco, travel
San Francisco Day 4 (San Francisco, Monterey Bay)
We started off today by driving down the crooked Lombard street. The fun was on Raymond, but he said it wasn't as challenging as he had thought. We then headed to Golden Gate Bridge again because it was such a nice day today and no fog!! We drove to the Golden Gate Bridge visitor center and drove to the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge afterward, which was the breaker. The visitor side was on a bay with beaches where you could walk around. The breaker was a cliff where the waves hit and broke, (so it was called the breaker). We then drove part of the 49-mile scenic route in the Presidio.
At the breaker, we visited a pretty modern white building called the Cliff House. It hosted a restaurant and a gift shop. Afterward we went around the Golden Gate Park for a bit before headed to Monterey Bay.
We took route 1 down because it was supposed to be a scenic drive and it was not disappointed!! It was beautiful! so beautiful that we had to stop so many times just to enjoy the view. The ocean was as pretty as ever, the weather was so nice, sunny, and breezy. Sometimes we saw bays with nice beaches, sometimes a cliff and a breaker.... so pretttttyy!!
We stopped by at a city for fast food lunch. It was ok. Around 30 mins to Monterey bay, the traffic came to a halt. We saw a few police cars and a few fire trucks fly by, so we thought there might be some fire somewhere, and finally realized that we were only 100 meters from where the fire started. We turned into the Moss Landing beach near by and watched an old house burning. It didn't seem like the fire could be put out soon and traffic was still stuck, so we decided to try an alternate route, which took more than an hour to reach a place where it could have been 15 mins if there were no fire.
Anyhow, we got to Monterey Bay. The ocean scenes were beautiful. Cannery Row was supposed to be a nice beach town in Monterey, but it was not too interesting. We had dinner at a restaurant called The Fish Hopper. The view was great but the food was just ok. After dinner, we just went back to the hotel and went to bed preparing for a long day tomorrow.
Labels: san francisco, travel
