U.S.A Day 8 - 11

San Francisco

If you're going to San Francisco,Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair. If you're going to San Francisco, You're gonna meet some gentle people there....."

So there was a song that goes like this. And indeed SFO was such a scenic and serene place, a vast difference from the rowdy and loud Las Vegas.

We transported like 6 hours from Vegas to San Frans to get to National Yosemite Park. Perhaps it was the long journey that raised our expectations of this scenic place. It tured out to be your every day Yogi bear park - we weren't very impressed.

On to other photos....

Of course, having been to SFO, we had to do all the touristy visits - we went to Stanford University which was regarded with highest accolades in California, saw the majestic Golden Gate bridge which was really just a highway bridge, went to Fisherman Wharf and sailed passed the Alcatraz also known as "The Rock" aka the unescapable prison, took photos with the 7 famous Victorian houses, visited a Danish village and ate a "ahem" danish pie.

And we were done with San Francisco!!! All that in a span of 3 days and it's back to LA!

I apologise for the extremely delayed post. I am suffering from what is called post travel syndrome.

U.S.A. Day 5-7

Las Vegas

The advantage of not following a package tour is that we get to choose what we eat. I had enough of hard and cold bread in budget hotels.

We tried their McDonald's version of Egg Mcmuffin. Only difference is their bread is replaced by biscuit and it was yummylicious!!!

It was a long journey from LA to Las Vegas. Bless the numerous Factory Outlets around to satisfy our shopping craves. I think the hub did a better job than I. We finally arrived at Las Vegas around 4-ish. We were looking forward to meet up with Liv's mom to bring us around but little did we know that this is only the start of our 'misfortunes'.

Of all the 365 days at this particularly small strip, they decided to hold a marathon and closed the roads! The only way to commute was by foot! It took us 3 hours to walk from our hotel to the Venetian! -_-"

 

Imagine 6 hours in total of walking! I think our dinner with pizza and fries are justified. We went back to the hotel and slept like a baby that night.

Woke up at 4am to head to Grand Canyon - one of the 7 wonders of the world. Of course, after 6 hours of walking and less than 6 hours of sleep = very cranky people. The breath-taking sunrise, the captivating view from above, made every deprived hours worth it!

 

 

Las Vegas is like your aveage town in the day and the streets are pretty much empty. The entire city comes alive only at night. We saw the fire fountain at Mirage, witnessed the captivating water fountain show at the Bellagio, people wearing all sorts of costumes on the streets and the amazing architecture of the various 6 star hotels along the strip.

Next stop, San Francisco!

 

U.S.A Day 1 - 4

A friend of mine recently asked "Do you still blog?" And I answered her sheepishly "Nowadays very busy ah. Also don't know what I'm busy with."

Indeed. I have lost the momentum to blog. My kid doesn't need a timeline for me to track his development anymore. I can't put a funny hat on him and make a joke out of it. And so today, I mustered every living energy cell and decided, this is it. I MUST at least blog about USA right?

HAWAII, HONOLULU

Months and months of research finally paid off. I would say this is the best budgetted trip I've planned. We even have enough to do a pit-stop at Hawaii before heading to California.

We arrived in Hawaii around 7am. The weather was heavenly! It was too early to check-in but having been on a flight for the past 22 hours, we really needed to freshen up abit. Thankfully, there was the shower room.

No time was wasted. I quickly ushered Dylan onto their bus trolley and headed off to one of their biggest shopping mall. It took us awhile to get used to their money - they had dimes, pennies, quarters, dollar. Why can't it be more simple?!

And this is me very randomly taking a shot of the renowed Victoria's Secret. Their changing room were so pretty! Everything was pink, fluff, ribbons and lace. Of course must buy something to remember right?

I won't go into details of the shopping. Taxes were relatively lower in Hawaii and hence we unleashed our shopping bugs but at the same time have to practice self constraint as it's only Day 1! How miserable. :(

So after all the shopping, one must also do some sight-seeing right?

First stop - The Polynesian Cultural Centre. This is where we learnt about the various Hawaiian tribes and do the Hawaii dance!

Day 3 - How can one forget about Pearl Harbor especially with all the gruelling we had in our History lessons?!?

It was a very solemn experience. We watched videos, interviews with the survivors and even went on-board on one of the sunken ships. If you asked me, Mr Yamamoto was a very brilliant man, despite being labelled as the cruel man who caused the war. Who would have thought of such a well executed attack plan? He had to do what he was instructed to do and he did it well.

Enough of sight-seeing. We need to explore the food of Hawaii. We discovered The Cheesecake Factory and of course have to try their Hard Rock as well.

One of my MUST DO list was to go diving in Hawaii. It has been 7 years since I took my last dive. After having heard of the raves of Waikiki, I told the hub that I HAVE to do it ONCE. I can only say, I have no regrets. 2 dives - One to a ship wreck 30m down and another was a leisure one. I didn't get to see any phenomenal underwater creatures but it was good to re-live the underwater experience again.

And that sums up Hawaii! :D