San Franscisco (30 May - 3 June 09) Part 1

A brief summary of our stay in San Fransciso and pictures.

30 May 09

It was an early flight at 6.45am so by 5.15am, we were already in the airport.

We took leisure strolls around Fisherman Wharf and the Piers. Weather was colder than expected (it's practically cold like winter in Tucson, if not colder!) Cloudy day. (Pictures to come in part 2)

We were all seriously under dressed for the weather, so the little one has to settle for pulling the hood of her sweater over her head, and putting her hands in the pockets (save for that finger to pose for the camera)

First family photo of the trip, with Alcatraz behind us. I'm intrigued by the history behind The Rock.

Pasar Malam

Crabs, before.

Crabs, after.

31 May 09

Bought 3 day Muni passes at $18 each and took streetcars/ buses to Chinatown and Union Square. Saw this in Chinatown. Even worshippers come in hybrid versions now?

Had Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake at Cheesecake Factory, Mango Smoothie for me and Tropical Fruit Smoothie for Mr Liow.

The cheesecake was heavenly... *slurp*

Brought the stroller which was more a burden than help. Cold like the day before and cloudy. Drizzled a little.

At Union Square, is the baby 'Lost'?

Uh-oh!

...but found

Taking shower in public

and hair wash

Family shower

Trying to squeeze sights and faces into one pictures

A tower built in memory of...

Met this guy with his mouse, cat and dog. Click to watch him on youtube here

Had dinner at ... (OMGoodness...I forgot where!)

Mr Liow's dinner

and mine, Clam Chowder (which I had everyday but by different chefs)

AN's mini corn dogs which she took only a bite from.

1 June 09

Visited Alcatraz, Aquarium and boarded a 45 min cruise around the bay (the cruise was almost 90mins instead of 45 mins). Colder than the day before and a little cloudier.

Waiting to board the cruise to Alcatraz

Exterior of Alcatraz

Ex prison watch tower

Water tank that supplied water to everyone on that island in those days. Is the water enough to go around?

Where the parade square used to be (I'm not sure what this building is)

What's Alcatraz?

This was after 1962 when the Indians took over the island as a move to have the government return them their share of land.

Apartments of wardens and their family

How the usual cells look like (3 levels)

Rules and regulations for newcomers

Some infamous escapes (or rather, attempts)

I thought this was THE pipe involved. Am wrong. hehe.

The dummy heads

Another one (of the few)

'D' Block was for inmates who just couldn't stop getting into trouble. Besides the prison grills, there is a heavy metal door for each cell that shuts lights out so they lived in darkness for as long as they were supposed to be in there.

"Put you into "D" block for being so naughty"

"Here you go."

(It was tooo cold for me to walk around in 3/4 pants, so pardon me looking a little wierd with leg warmers. hehe)

Kitchen (Knives were marked on wall so that if any went missing, it'd be obvious)

Dining hall

The last meal of Alcatraz

Shower area

Enjoying cold winds on the bay cruise

Aquarium. There seems to be lots of starfishes in this aquarium. It's fun bringing AN to aquariums finally, coz she knows what she sees now and being able to touch some of the aquatic animals make a difference! She got all excited about being able to feel a leopard shark and starfishes and still tells us about her experience now after a week :)

Anchovies

After a while, all fishes looked the same.

One of the 2 highlights of the aquarium were:

I didn't know starfishes eat fish!

Next up, the Halibut!

I didn't know the Halibut is that fish in Nemo with 2 eyes on one side of the body!

Pardon the wrong focus! I couldn't switch macro off coz the touchpad on my k850 wasn't working. When that doesn't work, the phone is basically crippled, like it obviously is in this case.

It was Mr Liow's birthday and we had crab (Crab Chowder for me and Garlic buttered crab for Mr Liow) for dinner. Notice we had bibs on..

...but not the baby. What's the world coming to?

The crab was good, service wasn't

The crab chowder and birthday man

Will work on the next few days' pictures in another post. That's all for now :)

Baileys' Entry: good news! for us.

For the longest time ever, mummy's been thinking of BARFing us and almost started us on it, till human puppy came and Salmonella became a worry.

And since we came, we've survived mainly on By Nature which had been good (no loose stools but we shed like crazy). Last month, mummy decided to give us a change of diet, hoping that we will stop producing too much furballs.

We got Blue...and then there were WORMS! Someone once reasoned that only good kibbles produce worms coz it meant the ingredients were natural but natural food do not last long enough, so small packs would be better.

Sounded convincing but who would feed their loved ones, food with worms, natural or not. Right?

Blue used to be impressive but no longer is now.

Remember mummy talked about this:

http://www.naturesvariety.com/instinct_dog_kibble_rabbit

We never see this in Petsmart (and Petsmart seems to be THE ONLY PET STORE around here), so all we could do was drool at the idea of rabbit meat, till mummy started to drive and found this store that sells supplies for horses and other animals alike. She had no courage to drive toooo far yet, so ..... Blue.

Papa drove yesterday and mummy asked if they could drop by Ft Lowell where the animal supplies store was. There they saw "Instinct"!

The rest is history. hehe. Our meal of the day for this morning was...tada! Rabbit meat!

Food aside, we got our annual checkup yesterday and our rabies shot.

They just made rabies shots to last for 3 years! Why did they not make that last year when we had our 1st? Could have saved us the agony of burning needles this year *pouts*

And guess what? You'll NEVER guess what the vet said about my weight.

I PUT ON TOO MUCH WEIGHT AND THE VET SAID I NEED TO LOSE SOME WEIGHT.

Maen was TOO FAT, according to the vet. I am just, fat.

HAHAHAHAHAH!

So, we are supposed to get more walks, Maen especially.

Thank goodness the vet reminded papa to give us more walks instead of less food.

And with the new food....

yipeeeeee!

Mummy's little babies thought hard.

AN learning to sing

Some songs AN learns to sing (while I'm waiting for downloads of our trip to be completed)

Nursing holiday blues again

We're home, finally.

It's only 2hrs thereabout from Tucson to/from San Francisco by direct flight but it took us slightly over 7 hrs to reach, including transit time of 3 hrs. The flight was tiring.

San Francisco is soooiooo nice.....

Good weather, good food and so much to explore. I really couldn't bear to leave.

Mr Liow only got to know that Friday's a non working day while we were in transit at LA this afternoon. Such a pity!!! If we knew earlier, we prob could extend our stay. Hee.

Nevertheless, this had been a fulfilling trip. Pictures to come soon I hope :)