PrettyShabbyChicky: San Francisco Part 1

Friday 21.08.2009 - Singapore

Here we are at the Changi Airport Departure Hall. We did our own self-portrait. Can you tell how happy and excited I was to be going to SF?

After a long flight (estimated 18 - 20 hours, sorry I wasn't really counting!) with a short transit in Hong Kong, we've finally arrived!!

It's USA Friday 21.08.2009 - night time.

Here I am getting my passport and immigration card out.

Yes, Welcome to San Francisco!!!

We had a really, really, really, really, really.... long wait at the customs!! OMG! I was tired from being cramped up in economy class and I had to stand for a really long time just to clear the customs! Too slow!

As soon as we got our luggages at the airport, we hopped unto a yellow taxi and headed to Bush and Powell Street in downtown San Francisco where we stayed at the Orchard Hotel. It's a really LOVELY (I betcha Sarah and Gloria are laughing at this word :P) boutique hotel. It's good enough for Dave and myself and I find it really comfy!

And as soon as we placed our bags in the room, we layered up and ventured out in search of some chow! We were hungry! We decide to venture out to the next block where they had this really awesome diner called Lori's Diner and we had a sumptous meal of Fish & Chips and Chilli HotDog.

Yumz! Sorry! We were hungry! So no photos of ourselves at the diner!

We went right back to the hotel after our dinner and decide to catch some shut-eye as we were meeting Sarah and Gloria the very next day - they had so graciously and awesomely to show us around the best places in SF!!

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Saturday. 22.08.2009

Meeting time: 10.30am!

We woke up at 6am!!!

LOL!

We couldn't sleep (lah).

We were really jet-lagged!

So we got out really early at 7.30am for breakfast back at Lori's Diner again!

David took a quick picture of me with the upriding cable car in the background on the way to Lori's diner. This is the corner of Bush and Powell street where Orchard Hotel is just along side Bush Street.

And yes! I was cold in the early morning!!

As usual, we didn't take pictures of our yummy breakfast. :P We were just too hungry.

Since we were still early, we decide to take a walk around. We just walked straight down Powell Street (that passes Union Square - a major fashion shopping district to famous US brand names)

and we ended up at the "terminal station" and starting points for the cable cars running along this street. Where we stayed was a good 4-5 blocks away from the station. It's not really that far off!

As usual, Dave and I took turns to take a picture.

At the T- junction of Powell street was Market Street.

And there stood a stately GAP building!!!

(I'm not really sure if the whole buidling was owned by GAP but we did our main GAP shopping there!)

We made our way to get ourselves a pre-paid phone by T-mobile (they have a shop along the GAP building) that made it easier and cheaper for me to contact Dave and Sarah without incurring too much IDD charges.

They opened at 10am! So by the time we were done, it was close to 10.30am!! Yikes! We were really late!

We rushed back to the hotel by brisk walking and got there by 10.35am and saw Sarah sitting in the hotel lobby. Yikes! Sorry about that Sarah babe!

We dropped off our stuff at the room and came back down with a meeting gift for Sarah and Gloria - a jar of yummy Ya Kun Kaya (it's like coconut/egg jam).

We were greeted by their beautiful Schnauzer (did I spell that right?) pups - Maui and Hilo! Boy were they excited and they were generous with their puppy kisses! I'm really sure Daren would have loved to hug them both!

First stop for us - Scrapbook Territory!

Dave was NOT surprised.

LOL!

We headed to Berkeley area just outside of San Francisco via the Bay Bridge. Sarah and Gloria decided that we should work from outside and back inwards towards SF!

And here we are:

Clear evidence of our buys! I swear I didn't really buy as much and went overtly crazy in there! But I think I bought enough to help Sarah gain a 5% off her future purchases. *winks to Sarah*

Next stop - TeaCake Bake Shop @ Bay Street Mall. Emeryville, CA

For CUPCAKES!!!

I was swooning to Sarah time and again via email and on her blog comments how I wished I could sample the yummilicious cupcakes that she had "advertised" on her blog! And boy did she and Gloria brought us to try the yummy cupcakes!

Here are some pics to share:

A gleeful me!

Yumz!!!

They were the most scumptioulicious cupcakes I've ever had!

The ones in Singapore doesn't even come close!

On our way back to the car, Dave found these stone ornaments around the outside of the cupcake store highly amusing and thus snapped the pictures of these.

They reminded him of the Japanese cartoon version of poop!

And away we go to another site to see the sights!

Driving through the Bay Bridge! I'm amazed at the suspensions!!

Gloria and Sarah proceeded to share with us the history of a great earthquake that took place and how it had disrupted the bridge or something. But they had assured us that it is still safe to drive through. LOL!

See how foggy SF bay area can be?

And here we are at Ocean Beach!

It was freezing cold!!! We had a ball of a time to see Maui and Hilo run through the sand and having lotsa fun!

The waves were strong and "high" and the wind was really blowing really cold! I was freezing and had to have the hood of my sweater over my head to keep warm!