Fri., 1st
April
The longest
April Fool’s Day so far! Jessica drove us to the airport and checked in for the
flight LX038 1:15 pm to SFO. The aircraft was an Airbus A340 with 2-4-2
seatings. Unfortunately, the seats are pretty small with no foot rest and the
gangways are quite narrow as we noticed when pulling our luggage along the way,
which kept on hitting the side of the seats. Later, during the flights anyone
passing through the aisle would not do so without missing my left shoulders.
This disturbed or woke me up every few minutes.
Quality of
food was okay, nothing special. Unfortunately for a transatlantic flight the
meals were quite meagre which left me hungry quite frequently, i.e. 1 lunch, 1
snack of sandwich and 1 snack of small pizza.
Nothing comparable to Singapore Airlines or Malaysia Airlines.
The flight
itself was pretty smooth though we had a couple of turbulence flying over North
Atlantic. We passed over Ireland, Iceland and later Greenland, over which we
saw wonderful landscape of mountains of ice and snow, lakes and icebergs. We
flew further over Baffinland, Hudson Bay onto mainland Canada, passing over
Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary and the Rockies into the US. Landed at 2:30 pm at
SFO ...........on April 1.......not 2 hours 15 minutes after we left Zurich,
but 11 ½ hours or so .
No hassle
at all at the immigrations and the customs. All went through smoothly. Took the
Supershuttle shared van (pre-booked via internet at USD 17.00 per person) to
downtown SF. Finally checked in at Queen Anne Hotel, Sutter Street / Octavia, around
5:30 p.m.
Went for a
stroll in Japan Town, which is about 3 or blocks away. We had dinner at one of
the many Japanese restaurants in the neighbourhood. Got back to hotel and went
to bed pretty early.
Sat., 2nd
April
Woke up
very early around 4 am – biological time
confusion, as it was already 1 pm CET. Made coffee , read and surfed on the wifi.
As agreed met Abang G at 7:30
at the hotel lobby and had simple
breakfast with him. Later he showed us around of the hotel backoffice. Outside,
the weather was cloudy, but dry.
Abang G
drove us to visit his retirement home at Rossmoor, Walnut Creek, about 25 miles
to the northeast of San Francisco. The place is quite an affluent region of
California. He showed us around the settlement and it related amenities.
Visited the community flea market and saw the community projects involved, i.e.
totem pole project headed by Abang G. No doubt, it’s a nice place to live in.
Finally
visited his own home and got to know his partner Arlin. After spending a while at their home, Arlin
drove us to Muir Woods. On the way we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. A meal
of salad and steak in taco shell. Muir
Woods is an oasis of tranquillity just outside SF. Full of huge redwoods with
lots of hiking paths. Pretty streams flow through the park. Abang G paid the
entrance USD 5.—per person.
The weather
started to get better and better. Apparently it was raining quite a lot for the
past couple of weeks. We later continued our journey to Sausalito, perhaps the
bohemian quarter of SF. Saw many art galleries while strolling through the
streets. Stopped at one of the
cafés.
Drove to
the Golden Gate north shore and had a wonderful view of the bridge on a
wonderful clear day. Considering it was a Saturday, we were lucky to find a
parking space on the road side. Continued on, crossing the bridge, the toll
costs USD 6.00, to downtown SF. They were eager to show us the most crooked
street, Lombard Street. So, we drove up the very steep hill and down along the street.
We moved on
to see Coit Tower, which has a lot of wonderful wall murals painted by the
artists during the Depressions of the 30’s. It has a pretty park and many
wonderful views over the city.
Just before
sundown we drove through Castro, the capital of the gay republic, and further
on to the Twin Peaks. It was a pretty windy place high up above the city. From
the vantage point, it was a fantastic view of the city just about to light up.
Had dinner
at a downtown diner called Lucky Penny.
Initially we thought it was a casino, but this is California, there‘s
none around. Pretty big portions we got. One portion is enough for both of us
to share.
Sun., 3rd
April
Checked out
pretty early. Hotel bill was for USD 99.00 per night – pretty cheap, as we got
a reduced rate from Abang G. Actual rate is above USD 230 or so. Left our
luggage at the hotel and walked down to Van Ness Street and took bus 47 to
North Point near the piers. Costed us USD 2.00 per person.
Took a walk
around the Fisherman’s Wharf. Had breakfast at Bistro Boudin, of eggs scramble
and French toasts plus fruit juice. Strolled further along Jefferson Street
towards Ghirardelli Square, stopping along the way, browsing at the clothing
shops along the way.
We had
wanted to take the Powell Line cable car from thereon, but the queue of people
looked discouragingly long. So, we walked up the very steep hill to Lombard
Street and hopped on the cable car there and rode to Union Square.
After
staying a while at the square, we searched for Alamo Car Rental office nearby
to enquire whether we could get the car without voucher as I had left this at
the hotel and forgotten to bring it along. As the response was negative, we
took the number 2 bus from Sutter Street / Mason back to the hotel.
After getting our luggage, got on a cab back
to Alamo office on Bush Street/ Mason.
Costs us USD 6.00 but the driver was perplexed when Brigitte gave him
USD 9.00 – a fantastic 50% tipping! Presented the voucher to the Alamo and the
guy at the counter naturally tried to sell us a bigger car than the one we
pre-booked and pre-paid, arguing that we needed a car with bigger trunk and
higher capacity. He also tried to sell additional insurance. This is America
.......... they tried to do business and earn anything from you! After all,
everyone is trying to improve their daily income, desperately during this hard
time.
Finally,
drove out of SF at around 4:30 pm arriving 2 hours later at Margrit’s place in
Folsom. We arrived there on a warm sunny afernoon. Chatted with her and later
joined by Patrick and Angela (his girlfriend).
We joined them for dinner of chicken soup with noodles. We exchange stories on familiar matter into
the night. Finally went to bed at around
11.00 pm or so.
Mon., 4th April
Didn’t
sleep well the night before and woke up with backache. The bed was too soft for
my weight. I practically sank in the GI spring bed and woke up with a crooked
back.
After
breakfast at Margrit’s place, went down for a walk along the American River
near Folsom Old Town. The day was wonderfully sunny. We crossed the river on Folsom
Truss Bridge, running parallel to the Rainbow Bridge. Later we had lunch at one
of the La Bou’s diner in Folsom.
We drove
down to Sacramento. Parked somewhere
near Crocker Museum. What a shame the museum is closed on Mondays. So, we went
down to the Old Sacremento – the old part of town. It still has a lot of the charms of western
town, complete with an old school building, a Wells Fargo office, an old
railroad station and the old Delta King riverboat on the Sacremento River. We
strolled along the main road, doing some souvenirs shopping. Later Brigitte & Margrit had a treat of ice
cream at the old railroad station. Towards the evening we drove back to Folsom.
Stopped at the Outlets centre as Brigitte was looking for a windbreaker. Didn’t
find anything suitable for her. Instead, I found a shirt at Tommy Hilfinger –
pretty cheap at USD 25.00.
Went to pick
up Patrick and had dinner at Nugget supermarket, somewhere near Eldorado Hills.
Dinner is a multitude of choices of self-helped food from the supermarket.
Naturally, we had too much of everything. As the place has wi-fi, we managed to
exchange our Facebook invitations and acceptances.
Tue., 5th
April
It was a kind of a rest day. No fixed plan. But
in the end, it turned up as a shopping day!
After late
breakfast we went down to Target departmental store. Brigitte bought jacket for
USD 19.00 and I bought a Levi’s jeans for USD 20.00, plus an audio auxiliary input
cable for USD 13.00. Moved on to the next shopping complex nearby. I went to Borders bookstore while Brigitte &
Margrit continued browsing clothing articles. She finally bought a t-shirt and
a knitted jacket, USD 10.—and USD 29.-- respectively . I bought “The Ascent of
Money – Niall Ferguson”. It appears that books are relatively expensive
compared to clothes and foodstuff.
Had lunch
at another La Bou and returned to Margrit’s place. Spent the rest of the
afternoon not doing much, i.e. took a nap and started this diary.
Before
joining Patrick and Tom for dinner, we stopped at a petrol station to refill
our car’s tank for 8.23 gallons for USD 32.00, i.e. 1 gallon = 3.78 litres,
making a price of USD 1.07 per litre. Pretty cheap compared to the price in
Europe – especially during the Libyan crisis. Had dinner of American style hamburgers
at Brewer, a pub style restaurant. Yet again, mammoth portions was duly served.
Wed. 6th
April
After
breakfast of homemade waffle pan cake, bid a sad goodbye to Margrit. Started
our jouney towards South Lake Tahoe at
10.00 am, stopping at several places of along the way and taking photos of the
beautiful landscapes of the High Sierra. Finally reaching South Lake Tahoe at
around 12:00 midday. Detoured to a sports clothing “factory outlet” centre.
Brigitte bought a pair of training suit at Adidas. We lunched at a nearby Thai restaurant
for a set menu of USD 6.85 per person. Portion-wise was just right as well as
the price.
Continued
our journey along Lake Tahoe passing Stateline, Nevada and stopping at Zephyr
Cove – on the lake shore. The cove has
many wonderful views of the lake. The shores are still partially snow-covered.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t spend much time here as the wind was very strong and
the chill factor was too high for us to bear too long.
Continued
our journey to descending to Carson City, Nevada. And drove through the town looking for accommodation
possibilities. Finally, stopped at Carson Station and checked in the Best
Western for USD 58.—w.bf.
Had - yet
another big – dinner at S’B-ghetti . The starters looked as if it was meant to
be for a table of four and the main dish was for two persons. Though the food was okay, the cappuccino was
horrible.
Booked a room
at Best Western Plus Frontier at Lone Pine via Skype.
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Thu., Apr.
7th
Despite of
weather forecast of severe weather, no snowfall in Carson City – temperature just
about 0 deg. C. Checked out at around 8:30 and went straight to Heidi Cafe, a
pseudo Swiss diner, to have breakfast. Shared
a portion of the typical egg scramble treat and toast plus boiled potatoes.
Departed
from Carson City towards Lone Pine at around 9:30 am and it began to snow
lightly. We passed through wonderful somewhat arid mountainous landscapes.
Somewhat covered with snow but nevertheless colourful. The road led us through high valleys and plateaus,
reaching as high as 2,500 m above sea level. We saw Mono Lake in the somewhat foggy weather
and we had to pass by the ghost town of Bodie as it was closed due wintry
weather.
Reached the
village of Bridgeport for a petrol refill at Shell. The price was horrendously
high at USD 4.99 a gallon. Later we stopped at Bishop for a sandwich at the
Mahogany Smokehouse and had coffee at Starbuck.
Continued
our journey reaching Lone Pine at around 4:00 pm and checking in at Best
Western Plus Frontier – room no. 119. Reserved a room for our next day stop at
Furnace Creek Ranch in the Death Valley, costing us a whopping USD 195.00. So
far the most expensive lodging we had in USA. Rested a while in our room before
going downtown to have dinner at Seasons, supposed to be the best restaurant in
town. We had a meal of steak.
