Galloping Horse: USA Trip: from Parks, Piers to Prison

Singapore Airlines A350-900, waiting to depart from Kuala Lumpur, bound towards Singapore.

SQ 37 took off from Singapore Changi International Airport at 2045 hours of 26th February and I was on the air for about 15 hours. I have to say, I was spoilt with choices when it comes to the entertainment options, which included my all time favourite film in the list. Cruising over Pacific Ocean, I travelled back in time and was given second chance to live Sunday for another day before landing at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) at 2000 hours of the same day. Immigration clearance was rather smooth and despite was prompted by Singapore Airlines app to fill in attestation form with regards to COVID-19 vaccination, I wasn't asked to present any. Was merely asked on my purpose of travel by the officer and found my way to reclaim my luggage. It was about an hour wait for my bag to be out from the carousel before leaving the airport building.

Stepping onto the America land for very first time.

Stepping out to familiar cold weather, I still couldn't believe myself that I was finally in the States. I was finally in America! As I was waiting for my friend to pick up, I saw officers were manning the heavy traffic picking up passengers; A pet dog was so excited to see the return of presumed parents when the presumed kids came pick them up and for a while I thought the dog might get out of the car; a couple was kissing in the car before being told to move as they were holding the cars behind them; there my friend came in her Honda and headed towards Santa Barbara right away, which was 2 hours away. My friend bought In-N-Out burger for my very first meal in the US. It was already midnight the moment we arrived at my friend's place. Had a quick supper eating Lee Fah Laksa before calling it a day. Jet lag or not, I have had a long day and managed get myself to sleep (it was 5pm in Malaysia).

People watching; Cars watching, for about an hour.

U.S. Route 101

Waking up to drizzling morning, we were picked up by car rental company, Enterprise to retrieve our Toyota Corolla to kick start the first leg of this journey via road trip to San Francisco! Grabbed myself a coffee from The Daily Grind and off we went start cruising along U.S. Route 101 up North. Sandwiched by coast of Pacific Ocean and mountains of California, our drive was accompanied by cloudy sky with slim window of sun appearing at some point. We diverged to California Route 1 to do a quick stop at Elephant Seal View Point at San Simeon. There were so many seals lying along the beach. It was so windy and I found myself freezing while admiring the cuteness of these mammals. Had a quick toilet break at Hearst Castle Visitor Centre, we headed towards Atascadero for Thai lunch. I was craving for Tom Yum.

Road trip off we go, with mocha in my hand and my Pokemon kids.

Quick stop at Starbucks, Santa Maria for toilet break. First time needing security code to enter the restroom.

Brief layover to admire the coast of Pacific Ocean, with Morro Rock in the distance.

The seals definitely can handle the cold better than I am

Saying goodbye to Pacific Ocean for now.

We continued our journey further up nortj and I noticed there were jet pumps along the way. I believe it was the San Ardo Oil Field in which I only knew upon googling at the end of the trip. It was another 2.5 hours drive before arriving at Apple Park, Cupertino. Initially we thought that there were some sort of access into the headquarter of Apple, or at least the park surrounded by the oval shape office. Unsure whether it was too late (it was way past 6pm at that point of time and even the Apple Store nearby was already closed) or it wasn't open to public in the first place, we left for San Francisco and settled our dinner at Sotto Mare, which is famous for their Cioppino, a fish stew originated from the city itself. The restaurant was full of people when we arrived and thankfully it didn't take long before getting our table. With a full stomach, we checked in at King George Hotel and rested for the night. We parked our car at garage which was conveniently located right in front of our hotel. Overnight rate is 38 dollars.

Didn't expect to see familiar machinery on this road trip.

No chance to get into the Apple Park so having this photo as memorabilia instead.

Our first meal in San Francisco. Loving the decoration of this restaurant.

San Francisco, California

Our hotel didn't come with breakfast so we walked for 15 minutes to nearby Blue Bottle Coffee, local coffee roaster, headquartered at Oakland to be exact. It was another rainy morning. The shop concept was rather minimalist and the logo was just simply, a blue bottle. Apparently there were plenty of Blue Bottle outlets in Korea and Japan when one of my friends replied to my instagram story in which she thought Blue Bottle was from Asia. Ordered my mocha for 7 dollars and we were set to head for first agenda of the day. Our initial plan was actually to visit Yosemite National Park, straight from Santa Barbara before continuing to San Francisco. However, it was snowy for the past week before I fly and the park was entirely closed. If I recalled correctly, the park was going to be off limit during my entire time in the USA. Tough luck, we changed plan and my friend suggested to visit Point Reyes National Seashore.

Me liking my coffee, knowingly I would miss it back home.

As we started to drive through the city, a familiar landmark started to appear right in front of me and despacito, the red structure stood there proudly to be admired by yours truly. I would think by now you know what I am talking about. The bridge appeared to be rustic red, despite of the name. It was named after the strait below it. We cruised through suburban area and drove through lush of forests before arriving at Bear Valley Visitor Centre an hour later.

Passing through this bridge felt like a dream come true.

Sign of spring with these blossoms by the roadside.

There we realised we navigated to the wrong destination as we intended to go to a light house that oversees Pacific Ocean and that was another 40 minutes away. We drove by Tomales Bay before Pacific Ocean coast was on our right. We parked our car and did 0.4 miles of walk towards the light house. It was super windy and I swear I thought I was going to be blown away, though I did figuratively, admiring the view of the vast ocean. There were some deers within our proximity. Unfortunately, we couldn't get to the lighthouse as the gate was locked, so was the visitor centre. We droved to another view point, Chimney Rock which was on the other edge facing Drake Bay.

One with the lighthouse.

One with the deers.

Another coastline of Pacific Ocean.

Tracking for another 0.4miles along Chimney Rock Trail and was mesmrised by this view. I think I can see Hawaii already, very small of course.

Clear blue sky meeting the green coastline and blue sea for this picturesque Drake Bay.

Spotted another group of seals before returning to our car.

It was close to 2pm before we decided to head back to San Francisco and by the time we arrived at Golden Gate Bridge view point, it was raining again which made it almost impossible to do the photo ops. Based on weather forecast, the rain expected to stop after an hour so we googled to have our tea break waiting for the sky clearing out and we found a place called Farley Bar at Sausalito, 10 minutes drive away. It seemed to be a fancy place as a pot of tea cost 6 dollars and palm size sandwich was 23 dollars. As the sunlight shone once again upon us and we headed back to catch the iconic bridge against clear blue sky. Thankfully. I considered myself lucky that I was able to capture the bridge in good weather as San Francisco is infamously known for its foggy weather and there were the odds that the bridge would be covered in fog. We stopped at Baker Beach for another perspective of the bridge but I was disappointed with condition of the beach. Not sure if it was low season as there was no cars other than ours and the toilets nearby, the mobile ones, were full of graffiti. We didn't hang around for long.

Weather was on our side to capture this beauty!

Another viewpoint of the iconic landmark, though the site was rather underwhelming.

We passed by Palace of Fine Arts before we arrived at the famous crooked street of Lombard. I first noticed about this road from Pixar's Inside Out movie and didn't realise it was based on real place. It was not blooming as much as in the movie since it was still winter season. The Painted Ladies was part of my list of places to visit but I chose to skip in the end. We settled our dinner at Chinatown. It was disappointingly salty albeit the portion was generous.

This architecture reminded me of Edinburgh.

Driving through crookedest street in the world.

Excited to see the setting from Inside Out movie.

It's a thing to take tram in SF, for tourists. We didn't board any.

It was our last day in SF and weather was sunny for the whole day. This was one of those days we have the sun with us till the end. Refilled our car with petrol and returned the car, we were back to our foot. We did a quick drop by at Westfield San Francisco Centre and most of the shops were still close eventhough it was already 10am, unlike the malls we have in Malaysia. Got myself a pair of gloves at HnM before grabbing coffee at Peets, another local roaster. We had our brunch at Luke's Lobster ordering the Lobster and Crab Roll. Basically it was cold seafood sandwich and the lobster's cost 24 dollars. It was 30 minutes walk towards Pier 33 to board the ferry to Alcatraz. We booked our tickets online the night before which was 50 dollars for day tour. We spent around 2.5 hours at the notorious prison and audio guide was included in the tour that brought you stories and events at each site, where one of them was the story about prisoners' attempt to escape by using spoons in making the escape route. Fascinating. From the island, you can have good view of Golden Gate Bridge and skyline of San Francisco.

Peet's Coffee, founded in Berkerly since 1966.

Warm bun with cold lobster.

The only ferry service getting to Alcatraz.

Bonus point of Alcatraz tour: view point of San Francisco skyline. Or may be that's why the ticket cost 50 dollars.

I doubt the prisoners putting the same face as I did when they were detained here.

Last few photo before leaving the island.

The yard where the prisoners spent their limited leisure time when they were out of their cells.

We returned to SF for our early dinner at Pier 39, pretty much only visited by tourists where the price here was slightly on higher end. We had Clam Chower and Giant Scallops at Fog Harbor Fish House. There was street performance as we walked towards the end of the pier and we tipped. From afar we could see Alcatraz. Directly next to the pier was another view point of sealions, albeit there weren't that many of them during this time of the year. I supposed it wasn't the season. They were all just lying on the planks and snoozing away while the spectators were enjoying the scenes of their cuteness.

Another feast of seafood: clam chowder and giant scallops.

The touristy pier 39. I got some of my postcards and stamps here. The shop's name was Lola, seemed to be a franchise.

A photo with Mr Ocean, or so my friend thought the name was.

View of Alcatraz aka The Rock from Pier 39. And you wonder even if they managed escape the prison, how would they survive swimming across the cold sea?

Looking so warm and cuddly.

I read about Ghirardelli being SF's locally founded chocolate company and so we went to the marketplace for a quick break after a long day. It was already 5pm. I had hot chocolate instead of the famous ice cream. Tired from walking, we Lyfted back to city centre to have quick stroll at Union Square. Wanted to buy new winter jacket at Nortth Face but it was out of my budget range. We popped into Macy's and found the one I like but there wasn't my size. Empty handed, we returned to our hotel to retrieve our luggage. Refreshed and cleansed ourselves knowing there was going to be long journey ahead of us, we crossed San Francisco Oakland Bridge to catch our train which was scheduled to depart from Emeryville Train Station at 940pm.