USA Day 1

USA TRAVAGANZA (DAY ONE)- SAN FRANCISCO, California

Stopover at Tokyo, Narita airport.

i was really excited when i found Shiroi Koibito at Narita.
it's located at a little corner near the duty free cosmetics.


up on the plane having dinner. (it was barely 2 hours after we had our sushi meal and still feeling quite full when the food came)


we were extremely well fed!


first glimpse of USA, we're finally reaching after a total of 17 hours flight!
the view is very different from the Asian countries i've visited.
it's very moutainous.


San Francisco!

Finally stepped out of the plane and my whole body was aching!!
but very happy that we've finally arrived.

BART station.
BART is short for Bay Area Rapid Transit and we are taking this train to our hotel at Powell, the main shopping area in San Fran.

Buying BART tickets.
Cost is USD5.35 each to Powell station (our destination)
it takes about half an hour ride to reach there.


BART tickets!


still lingering around the station which is right outside one of the airport terminals.


Here comes the BART which is very similar to our MRT trains.
but very noisy inside.


Look at the cutesy houses!
This is their residential area.


San Francisco is a popular international tourist destination renowned for its steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of Victorian and modern architecture, and famous landmarks.
The city is also known for its diverse, cosmopolitan population, including large and long-established Asian American and LGBT communities.

we actually blend very well here because there are lots of Asians around. it's like another multi-racial city.


The first glimpse of the cable car which i will talk more of it later as i took more pics of it on the 2nd day of the trip.


We reached our hotel which is about 3 blocks away from Union Square, around 10 minutes walk from Powell BART station.

This is the worst and smallest hotel of the trip.
The floors are creaky and it has a very weird smell which i do not like.
Worst still, we experienced a very unusual heat wave when we went there for the first 2 days, weather was hotter than Singapore!
and the hotel did not have air-con in the room! (cuz actually they don't need to as the weather is usually very cold in SF even in summer) but due to the heat wave, it's really hot.

anyway, the above picture is the hotel's historic elevator.
thats the only thing in this hotel that fascinates me.

you have to slide open the glass door and then slide open the metal gate and shut both tightly to get the elevator moving.

it's very slow but i like it!
it looks like a giant birdcage inside.




How Victoria's Secret looks like inside.
This is the lingerie section, there's the fragrance and VS PINK section and also another level upstairs that has tops/bottoms.


all the stores which i see online seem to pop up everywhere here!
and some of them are HUGE!!!




The public toilet in the middle of the streets.


The OLD NAVY is GIGANTIC!
and is 3 storeys high!

1st storey has all the women's stuff.
2nd storey, the men's.
3rd storey, the boys/girls/maternity and baby stuff.


inside old navy.

the kids level is decorated with moving toys.

still in ON's kids section.
anyway we didn't buy anything at all on our first day in Old Navy, nothing caught our eyes probably because the sales were not very attractive yet. :P


Grilled chicken kebab with lime cilantro rice. (very tender and juicy chicken and the rice is really fragrant)
Our very first meal in San Fran at a food court at the basement of Westfield's shopping mall.
We particularly loved this food court alot of the variety of food it has and there's this particular store which has really good seafood which i will show you guys in my later post when we come back here again.


Look at the signboard carried by someone outside.


I was overwhelmed the the size of Forever21, it was the first building that greeted me the minute i walked out from Powell BART station.
It's so huge!


The store was really big and very messy, just like Singapore's Forever21 and it was a chore browsing through the stuff.
I bought only a pair of shoes from here.


Trying out this cami in American Eagles' fitting room which i eventually bought.

the fitting rooms in the stores are all locked up even when vacant, we have to ask the sales assistants to open them up before we could go in for fittings.

Aerie had undies for sale at 8 for USD25.

Abercrombie & Fitch, on the contrary wasn't as huge as F21 and Old Navy but still very prominent.



It's almost 8pm and still not dark yet!
The sun sets later during summer.


the sales section in Urban Outfitters.
Did some men just had a terrible fight here or what?!
Looks like warzone.




Pizza shop by the streets.


Actually restaurants are in abundance around Union Square area, you won't starve here.


Lots and lots of droolicious cheesecakes in CHEESECAKE FACTORY!!


The infamous CHEESECAKE FACTORY located at Macy's, just walk in the entrance and you won't miss an elevator that takes you right up to Cheesecake Factory.

The queue was horrendously long even at 9pm.


They gave us a pager which would light up and vibrate once there's an available table for us.
i think it's a pretty good idea so that people won't be crowding around the counter and bug the staff.


finally, after about half an hour's wait.


Cheese spinach as recommended by Sueann!
I heart cheese and spinach is my favourite veggie, what an awesome combination!
It's really yummy!



Pasta!
Serving is HUGE, enough for 3 hungry people!




Godiva chocolate cheesecake!!!
I'm a big fan of chocolates so this is definitely my first choice among all the different cheesecakes they have.


It is really rich and has a very smooth texture


we went back to our hotel feeling happy and bloated.

even though it was quite hot in the room despite the noisy fan above us, i climbed out of bed and shut the windows tight.

next update: Fisherman's Wharf and Alcatraz, stay tuned.