The Final Trip Favorites!

It's family feedback once again. Gab and Migo's favorites have not changed. Gambit has changed and extended his highlights. I might also add my own favorites ...

Gambit's Highlights:

1 - Yosemite! (I sort of knew this was going to be #1 ... )

2 - California Adventure's 'It's Tough Being a Bug'

3 - Monterey Bay Aquarium

4 - CA-17 drive (winding highway between San Jose and San Francisco)

5 - Tomorrowland's 'Star Tours'

6 - Clam Chowder soup

7 - Outlet Shopping (still uncharacteristically a highlight! I can only attribute it to his Timberland finds.)

Gab's Top 5:

1 - Medieval Times

2 - Legoland's Volvo Driving School

3 - Tomorrowland's Autopia

4 - Tomorrowland's Star Tours

5 - Monterey Bay Aquarium

Migo's favorites:

1 - all the hotels

2 - road trips

3 - bus rides (organised tours)

My Highlights:

1 - Yosemite!

2 - Road trippin'

3 - Outlet Shopping of course!

4 - Eating pancakes at iHOP (International House of Pancakes) for lunch or dinner

5 - Visiting the Infinity Loop (Apple HQ)

6 - Finding Stone Temple Pilot's Core CD at Barnes and Noble

7 - California Adventure's 'It's Tough Being a Bug'

Seeing 'home' with fresh eyes!

Our second attempt to board the V Australia flight to Sydney was uneventful, thank God! We were reunited with our missing luggage. The thought of losing that large suitcase with all our shopping drove me bonkers! Gab too was upset because it had his and Migo's new Lego sets.

So, all is well that ends well. I must say that a trip overseas gives you fresh eyes to appreciate what you take for granted at home. It was a full-on trip that I would love to do all over again (except for the missing flight and missing luggage part!)

Day 17 - the trip back home ... NOT!

Our third drama episode begins ...

The day we were going to fly out of San Francisco was another stormy day. Don't get me wrong. Rain is always good. But not on my holidays please!

A 20 minute taxi ride to the airport easily became one hour in rain traffic (a major road was unpassable).

A rundown of events:

- the Virgin America plane that was meant to take us to LA was stuck in San Diego;

- the staff could not tell us when the plane will arrive because of the unpredictability of bad weather;

- we finally boarded our original 7:30pm flight at 10:30pm;

- just missed our 11:45pm V Australia flight to Sydney;

- missing one of two checked-in suitcases (i refuse to call it 'lost');

- Virgin staff arranged for our hotel accommodation of what's left of the night;

- finally went to bed at 3:00am!

Kudos to Migo and Gab for behaving like grown-ups during the entire drama. Gab just turned ten (this whole trip was a birthday present) and wanted to know what was going on. He tried to listen in on our conversations with airport staff. Migo kept saying "go back to the hotel", not fully comprehending our situation. He just wanted to go to bed, the poor boy!

Handcarry items that saved us: change of clothes, pack of chewy Chips Ahoy! (we were so hungry at 3am), children's paracetamol/panadol, shopping receipts in case we do not recover our missing luggage for Insurance claim, mobile phone chargers, and toothbrush. Hotels do not stock rooms with toothbrush anymore!

Exhausted and irritable, I easily could forget all the many good things and good people in this trip. This open journal will actually help me remember ...

Day 16 - San Francisco in One Day

Itinerary: San Francisco City Tour

By this time, I had a feeling that my party of three boys were experiencing 'holiday overload'. Hence, I had to find a way to see SFo in a short amount of time with as little walking as possible.

There are numerous city tours on offer. A one to two hour tour could only take you around downtown SFo, not enough for my liking. A 'hop-on hop-off' tour is attractive but involves walking. Finally, I found Grayline's 3.5 hour City Tour which had the right elements and included my minimum requirement - a trip to Twin Peaks. You haven't done SFo if you don't do Twin Peaks.

Twin Peaks afford a 360 degree view of beautiful San Francisco.

The tour will take you to the Golden Gate Bridge at both ends, a glimpse of the Presidio and the crooked street, around the Golden Gate Park, Union Square, China Town and many more. The tour could extend longer than the allowed time during traffic. So don't arrange anything close to the end of the 3.5 hours. You might not make it.

Outside of the tour, do try to walk the Golden Gate Bridge even for a few yards. It is such a magnificent display of structural engineering, not to mention that it has my favorite color.

Trivia: a team of painters paint the bridge from one end to the other year round. By the time they finish painting its length, it is time to start over again.

Day 15 - Exploring Pier 39

Itinerary: Pier 39 & Fisherman's Wharf - a walking tour

'San Francisco is to Pier 39, as Sydney is to Darling Harbour.'

Start your day by walking to America's 2nd most crooked street along Lombard Street (Wall Street being the crookedest!). This way, the legs are still fresh and there is energy to battle the uphill walk. Note that to capture the zigzag in your photos, you actually need to have a number of cars traversing the eight sharp turns or 'switchbacks'. This is sure to be not an issue, as this part of Lombard Street is a tourist magnet.

Proceed to Pier 39 and spend the day browsing the nooks and crannies of shops and restaurants.

Things we did (not in order):

- browse books/CDs at the Barnes and Noble Warehouse at Taylor Street

- visit Boudin Bakery

- enjoy Dungeness Crab at Tarantino's

- have more Clam Chowder soup … We do not know when we can have clam chowder again!

- Lunch at Bubba Gump restaurant. We enjoyed reading the Forrest Gump news.

- shop at Hard Rock Cafe

- ice cream break at "Cold Stone Creamery" found at Anchorage Square

- take a 1-hour Bay Cruise (probably do this on a different day)

- we had no time for the Wax Museum and Ripley's Believe it or Not! Museum

- we didn't need to visit Aquarium of the Bay after Monterey

- there are ships and submarines to discover

Finally, view the ever-popular, boisterous and fat sea lions on Pier 39. Find younger ones

playfully nosing one another. Amuse yourself watching some of the sea lions perched half on and half off their floating platforms. Watch them from a vantage second floor view for a good 20 minutes. It is astounding to see so many of them!

Photos - the Dungeness Crab, Bubba Gump dish (with the Gump news used as plate), sea lions galore!

Day 14 - Majestic Yosemite

Itinerary: 1-day organised tour to Yosemite National Park

If you are in the Bay area, the second must-see (next to Twin Peaks) is the Yosemite National Park. I have seen my share of magical vistas. Yet Yosemite had such a massive impact on me 15 years ago, I really needed to share it with Gambit.

I am glad I did. His words - "I am awe-struck"!

As soon as we reached SFo, I thought that we should immediately take a bus tour to Yosemite the following day. No one was sick and the weather was fine, I wanted to strike while the iron was hot. I did not pre-book this tour fearing that the 6:45am start will not bode well with the boys (husband included). I announced the early start of the next event, willed them to agree, held my breath, and was rewarded with assent! We were car-less at this point. One does not need a car in SFo; parking fees are exorbitant for one, and there are numerous transport options available.

Using the hotel guest services, I booked Grayline's "Yosemite in a day by Motorcoach". Booking via the hotel could entitle you to a $5 discount/person off the brochure price. So do compare with current online prices and take the cheaper price, of course. Hotel pickup is included so all you have to do is drag yourself out of bed. This is difficult if you have been used to 10:00am starts to your touristy days. Other tours have 13-passenger mini-vans. This minibus will actually take you to the Giant Sequoias (this gives me a reason to go back when the kids are older). But I thought that with small children, there is safety in numbers (not many people are happy to see kids touring with them).

Pleasantly, there were only about 15 people in our group. This tour is narrated live by our very well-rounded driver, Danny. I must say that an amusing and smart tour guide can make a difference. Danny even shared some local insight about the sub-prime crisis, pointing out developments in the Central Valley that were left unfinished. We crossed the Bay Bridge in thick San Francisco fog giving us no joy for not seeing any views beyond a few meters ahead.

We travelled for 4 hours before reaching Yosemite.

There you will behold El Capitan, Half Dome, Yosemite Waterfalls, and Bridalveil Falls. The height and spectacle of these natural wonders will leave you feeling small and enthralled. It is truly ... inspiring in its majesty. We were blessed with a flowing waterfall as Yosemite has been in drought for awhile now. I guess the rains of the previous days helped.