US Trip: San Francisco

Ahh... San Francisco.  One of several cities I love to visit.  I can't say much about living though because I never had the chance.  A city that is pretty popular to be depicted in the movies, especially those disaster ones, given its iconic landmark -- the Golden Gate bridge.  The most recent one that I could remember is 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes', where they had a standoff between the primates and man on the bridge.

Anyhow... the plan was to drive to the city, meet up and hang out with Josh, another friend of ours from school.

Roadtrip!

Are we there yet?  Almost!

A new Bay Bridge is being built

On the Bay Bridge

You could see the Coit Tower and Transamerica Pyramid, among others

Gene timed it right that we got to SF in time for our lunch reservation.  Unfortunately Faiza was feeling under the weather so only Zak tagged along.  And boy, Zak is all grown up.  He was still in his stroller when Gene and Em got married.

After lunch, we walked to the Ferry Building and had ice cream for dessert.  We sat at the outside with a good view of the Bay Bridge.  The temperature was in the 60s (~15-ish), a good 20 degrees (Fahrenheit) difference than in Sacramento.  Gene had to lend his UCLA light jacket to me because I didn't pack one.  To be fair, I was expecting summer weather.  But this is San Francisco we're talking about.

Gene: "Stargate"

Interesting

The gang

Emily was explaining about the water fountain to Zak

This is where Occupy SF was held

The cute couple

Heh heh heh

Zak wasn't sure why we were giving thumbs up for.  LOL!

Walking inside the Ferry Building

I scream, You scream, We all scream for icecream

The Bay Bridge.  And on the other side is Oakland.  Josh jokingly said "Those ships are fully loaded from China and they left empty" :D

Zak really wanted to ride on a cable car, but he had to be content with a trolley ride to Pier 39.  Well, since he was still at a young age, he won't be able to tell the difference.  He enjoyed the ride regardless.

We skipped Pier39 and headed to Hyde Street Pier (part of San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park) to check out some historic vessels. Zak would appreciate the ships rather than the packed Pier39.  Besides, he had even gone to the aquarium with the mom before.

The Golden Gate in its entirety.  No fog to be seen.

The Rock. I was there in '97. For visit :)

The historic vessels at the maritime park, with the Transamerica pyramid in the background

Ghirardelli, known for their chocolates, and there were people swimming in the bay. The water had to be in the 50s

Squishy, squishy

We were looking for coffee once we were done with the maritime museum.  They were looking for Peet's but there was none in the vicinity, so Starbucks became an alternative.  But could you believe it was closed.  There's typically another one in another block right?  But we took a bus ride back to the Ferry Building looking for Peet's.

In the bus

When we got to the Ferry Building, we weren't really looking for Peet's that hard, so we settled for one another [coffee shop].  (We found out later that Peet's was actually there at the outside :P :D)  Em had tomato soup.  Zak wanted spaghetti but surprisingly there was no shop selling it.  Huh.  Anyway, he was happy to have a baguette as a substitute.

It was funny that Zak didn't want to share his baguette with the dad, so Josh had to get one of his own.  In the mean time we had some interesting conversation with Zak. One that involves his best friend.  I know this may sound wrong, but we had a good laugh over it.  Em asked him what do they usually do together?  "We play naughty games together" was Zack's response.  We were contemplating whether we should ask subsequent questions :D Of course, it didn't come close to what we had playing in our mind.  They just like to play Batman and Superman.  It was just a case of "Kids Say the Darndest Thing" :D

Em was red from all of the amusement :D

Back at Ferry Building.

Off for dinner

Before calling it a day, we had dinner at a French restaurant.  And it was a restaurant next door to the Spanish restaurant where I had paella for lunch with Zack 4 years ago.  Imagine that.  Oh man, the mussels that I had are coming back in my head.  And those were really good mussels :)

I'm sorry for disappointing those readers who are looking for pictures of other places in SF.  They did ask me where else I wanted to do/go.  I couldn't think of any at the time.  In my previous visits, I had been to Painted Ladies, Alcatraz, the beautiful Palace of Fine Arts, Coit Tower, Chinatown, in a car on Lombard Street and crossed the Golden Gate bridge, took a cable car ride, among others.  Sure, there are still other places I haven't covered, but that's an excuse to come back right ;)

Okay, next up is Boulder/Denver...

"By the way, thanks Gene and Emily, for the great hospitality and generosity, including the 600 miles worth of road trip throughout my stay. I hope to come back and meet the new addition in the family.
And it was great seeing you too Josh! --- zarin"