Day 21 - 24 Last weekend in SF

Day 21 - relatively uneventful since Louis had to work and I needed to conserve my financial resources. Had lunch at a Thai cafe named 'White Elephant' and headed to Serramonte to look for a luggage at Ross. Couldn't decide on one so Louis dropped me off at the Millbrae library where I spent time reading the latest issues of Time and Newsweek. The library is cool. The magazines are all up to date, not like those you find in Singapore. All outdated. Bleah. Borrowed a few DVDs to watch back at the house and while away the time till Vera came to fetch me for dinner. I don't have any photos of this day. I can't remember why. Anyway, after dinner at Shabuway located in San Mateo (very Japanese place!), I went to Vera's house and we completed the Wii shooting game that we had started last week. I feel extremely accomplished!!

Day 22 - Louis is off for the weekend and he brought me to the best bakery in San Francisco - Tartine, located at the intersection of Guerrero and 18th Street. The food was DIVINE. FABULOUS. SUPERB.

The cafe doesn't need to put up its name for the queues to form and according to Louis, the queues go out of the shop on weekends.

We ordered Lemon Meringue, Bacon Quiche, Spicy Turkey sandwich, an eclair and a glass of iced coffee. All were absolutely delicious! Too bad we don't have such places in Singapore. Sigh.

After lunch, we went to the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge Park. The vast spaces of verdant gardens were spectacular.

This is a satellite photo of San Francisco and we saw this at a tower from De Young Museum located in the park. It offered views of the surrounding gardens.

Enough of greenery, we headed to Sutro Bath where there was a cave that Louis wanted to show me. You can see it at the far end of the photo below.

They are actually the ruins of a public bath but was destroyed by the Great Earthquake in 1906. This is according to wikipedia.

My hair is always in a mess these days because the winds are so strong!

And this is the view at the end of the cave. Words cannot describe how scenic it is. It's like a National Geographic moment.

It was getting pretty late by then and Louis had a dinner with his colleagues to go to so he dropped me off at Stonestown Shopping Mall where I waited from 5.30pm - 9.30pm before he remembered to come fetch me. I was freezing and taking refuge in Borders where the books transported me to a tropical climate.

Day 23 - Started the day off pretty early because I wanted to go to a Farmers' Market. Went to the first one set up in SF at Alemany Blvd. We bought peaches (very sweet!), cheeries (very cheap!), oranges (sweet and cheap!) and a bottle of Eucalyptus honey. I don't know why the honey. Louis just wanted it for fun.

Anyway, we wanted to go to Pt. Reyes for some hiking so we stopped to buy buffalo wings on the way and ate in the car.

We ended up walking more than hiking because the hiking trails were not as scenic as the walking trails and would take up far too much time.

Another National Geographic moment.

I loved the feeling of walking and enjoying nature around me without any hurry. No need to compete, no need to rush to another appointment. Just stroll along, breathe in, smile at the birds and pray that snakes would stay away. Perfect.

Oh...there were seals resting at the sheltered bays along one of the walking trails. They were so close that we could almost touch them but cannot lah! What if they bite us???

Day 24 - Went to Cornerstone church for service. It was about a life worth giving. The sermon was preached by Ps Terry Brisbane, the senior pastor. He makes stories come alive. Very inspiring. And they have cool powerpoint slides. Heh...

Had bought tickets to visit Alcatraz the previous night so we grabbed clam chowder from Pier 39 for lunch before walking over to Pier 33 to take the Ferry to The Rock.

It was a really fascinating experience and the audio tour of the main prison cells was very comprehensive and interesting.

After that, Louis and I took the famed cable car to Union Square for some quick shopping as the stores close at 7pm. Had dinner at another Thai cafe that served cheap and good food. Then took the cable car back to a place near Fisherman's Wharf where he had parked and finally got back, out of the chilly wind.