I left my heart in San Francisco

One of the upside of being single and having no commitment is to be able to pick up and escape from the city on a whim. This past weekend, I took advantage of the very few perks left to a single girl and booked a last minute trip to San Francisco on a Friday morning at work for the immediate weekend. I was lucky that my mom was available to come away with me. On Friday after work, I went home and threw a few items into my traveling bag and off I went to Richmond for a few hours of sleep at my parents’ before catching the 7:30 Saturday morning flight to SF.

Day 1

We arrived at our hotel in SF at around 10 am and lucky enough, the kind gentleman at the Grand Hyatt gave us an early check-in so that we can freshen up before embarking on our adventures. I highly recommend the hotel with its convenient location at the corner of Union Square (on Stockton and Post). The beds had potential to surpass the heavenly beds from the Westin only if they had used sheets of higher thread-counts (said the sheet snob - haha).

We strolled to Chinatown on the sunny Saturday and took in the sights of what was considered stereotypical Chinese to North American. We stopped off for lunch at a dim sum restaurant with cheesy décor and awful food. Disappointed by the food, we ate little and left the “Jackie Chan Hollywood movie set design” décor restaurant. As we made our way along Chinatown, we saw a line-up outside a Chinese bakery - Golden Gate Bakery. Out of curiosity, we joined the line-up and ended up tasting the best egg/custard tarts ever (the line-up was well worth it).

We continued our stroll on that fine day to Italy town in North Beach and decided to enjoy Italian coffee to wash down that yummy custard tart. The trees lining the street reminded me of the trees in Rome. After coffee, we continued our stroll all the way down to the Fisherman’s Wharf where we checked out the seafood stands and the view of Alcatraz. Despite still being full from lunch, I couldn't resist an In-and-Out burger and shared one with my mom. Yumm....

We found the Steve & Barry store around the corner - what luck: the store just opened this month. Steve & Barry is a store that carries budget fashion line by Sarah Jessica Parker, Amanda Bynes and just last week, Venus Williams. A fan of budget clothing, I was disappointed in the quality and style of the Bitten line by SJP - let's say they could lower the price further for what they offered.

Cold and tired from all the walking, we decided to go back to Union Square and decided to catch the cable car instead of walking back. The wait for the cable car was almost an hour long and it was freezing cold by then. As cheesy and as touristy as it seemed, the cable car was still a fun ride (yes, I am a big fan of cheesy touristy activity).

My mom decided to head back to the hotel which by then was around 7 pm but I couldn't resist checking out the shopping scene which was taunting me with all the Sale signs. I browsed around for another couple of hours before getting take-outs from Cheesecake Factory and finally called it a day/night.

Day 2

Day 2 was shopping day. We pretty much shopped all day until we couldn't shop anymore. Despite being a shopaholic, I do reach a certain point where I can't shop anymore. We had early dinner at Roy's - fusion Hawaiian chain restaurant which was introduced to me by my cousin M when we were in OC last year. The chocolate souffle was a nice end to a delightful dinner.

Day 3

Time to head back home. We were chauffeured to the airport by the house towncar - an upgrade from a taxicab. As always, our flight was delayed which gave us a chance to take our time with lunch. As I was eating my lunch, I looked up and saw a very stylish hunk in skinny jeans carrying two Gucci bags walked by. Lo and behold - the hunk was the divine Mr. Lenny Kravitz. That was the moment where I left my heart in San Francisco - my duct-taped heart was left with Mr. Kravitz, of course unbeknownst to him. Ahhh.....