Sorry for the delayed blog entry! i've been so busy at work that i haven't had time to blog about me and walter's trip to san francisco! it was my first real vacation ever, and i had so much fun! since i never post up facebook albums, i'll post a few of my favorite pics here on my blog!
here is us at 5am waiting for the air tran to get to jfk. we are very tired.
first thing we did was go to in-n-out! my first time! it was quite tasty!
so then we drove to santa cruz and i got to see the pacific ocean for the time! it was so beautiful! the water is so blue and clean! no pebbles, no shells, no floating seaweed! couldn't believe!
(walter's attempt at jumping pics are so sad. he just looks like's levitating in the air. it's such a contrast next to my obvious excitement. haha!)
here are walter's friends from dartmouth: nannan and harry. this is nannan's first time eating funnel cake. i'm glad i was able to be part of his first time, considering i am a funnel cake monger. =)
we then drove down to carmel. this is where i truly fell in love with the pacific ocean. it was the most beautiful place i've ever laid eyes on. too bad my picture barely captures the magnificence of God's beauty.
(for you golf lovers, in the background, you can see pebble beach.
the next day, we had a day of wine tasting in napa. on the drive to one of the places we went to, Kuletto's, we saw oprah's house on top of a mountain! how cool is that??
walter and i went on a duck tour of SF. in case you don't know what a duck tour is - it's a vehicle that can travel on land AND water! so part of our tour was driving around SF, and then we traveled in the water!
i got to drive the duck boat while we were in the water! it was fun, but a little stressful! =)
on tues, walter and i took the trolley to fisherman's wharf.
animal-shaped bread at boudin bakery! (yes, i bought one and at
e it. i felt bad eating him...)
Best 2 lb crab i ever ate. soooooooo tasty!
we then went to alcatraz for the audio tour. it was pretty cool, but kind of creepy since u hear the actual former jail ppl narrating what it was like. =(
(had the cut
est and tastiest mini donuts from brian's recommendation. thanks brian!)
on wed, we went to mama's for brunch. (thanks joanne and grace for the suggestion!) it was AMAZING. soooo tasty. the first thing i ate was a chocolate drizzle coffee crumb cake. it was all warm and soft. so delicious!
on thurs, walter and i did
more sightseeing - chinatown, grace 
cathedral, etc. we had to walk up one of sf's notoriously steep hills. i thought i was slowly dying. i had to take breaks every few steps. look at how steep it is! sometimes, they build staircases into the sidewalk bc it's just easier to walk up steps than to walk up the hill!we then went all the way to the land's end, went to see the cliffs and ancient bathhouse ruins. very cool, but pretty dangerous. apparently lots of ppl have died from falling off the cliffs and drowning. i've never seen the ocean look so angry. i felt like i could've been an extra on Lost. haha.
on friday, we went to the mission, and went to Ike's Place. (saw it on Man vs Food.) it was the BEST sandwich i've ever eaten in my life, hands down. everyone needs to go here.
We then went to Bi-Rite Creamery based on grace cho's recommendation. i think walter was skeptical about how good the salted caramel ice cream would be, but it was surprisingly good!
later that day, we went to a bunch of places like lombard street, the full house houses, twin peaks. my fave pic was when walter and i tried to re-enact the opening scene for Full House when the tanner family runs down the hill. haha! =D (thanks harry for being a good sport about taking such cheesy pics for us! and thanks walter for agreeing to be part of this embarrassing reenactment!)on friday, walter and i biked across the golden gate bridge. it was super tiring, but worth it! totally a once in a lifetime thing, but i will never do it again. our poor butts were so sore for days.
(the bridge is REALLY windy! walter hasn't cut his hair in 4 months in this pic. haha! in the 2nd pic, we're resting in sausolite! we made it to the other side!)
on our last day, we went to a giants vs cardinals game. got to see albert pujols! (jen was so proud!) these are walter's dartmouth friends again: nannan, brian, harry.
and finally, here we are - devastated to come back to ny. when the pilot said, "welcome to ny!" we both whimpered with sadness.
some thoughts i had while i was in sf:
1. sf is a missionary's land of surplus. there are sooooooo many homeless people. there's one every 5 feet. i was shocked at how many there are compared to nyc! i thought we had a lot, but man, i guess i was totally wrong. interestingly, i did see a bunch of times where ppl would talk to them about God and stuff. so like i said - it's a missionary's land of opportunity.
2. boys love sportscenter and espn and can watch the same game over and over in the highlights, and talk about it forever, and yet, it will never die or get beaten to death. dang... i've never had to sit through so much espn in my entire life. i missed my girly shows!
3. i think bc sf was the original chinatown in history, there are a LOT of asian ppl. i got really sad bc everywhere we went, the low-wage employees were asian ppl. many of them were older asian employees. i guess, being from ny, i'm used to seeing spanish people being the minorities who would work these low-paying jobs. but seeing asian ppl really struck a sad chord in me. made me think that it could be someone like my own parents doing this kind of stuff.
4. overall- i had a GREAT time in sf! it was so fun and relaxing! thanks harry for taking care of us and driving us everywhere! nannan/crane - thanks for cooking for us! u guys are pretty awesome! i can't wait to go on my next vacation! i think i officially now have the travel bug. =D
hope u guys had fun looking at my pics! =)
