Holiday Time in San Francisco

On Sat (24th Jan) we checked out and left SLC for the airport early to ensure we have adequate time for airport immigration clearance. We shouldn't have bothered - there was a delay, and we were not surprised - we were getting used to such problems at US airports. Our 10.30 am flight was delayed til 12.00 noon but finally got off only at 1.00 pm and had us arriving at SFO airport at 3.30 pm. We quickly collected our rental car and headed straight for the Grosvenor Suites - the service apartment we were staying in.

The Grosvenor Suites is rather old, but it is very centrally located at 790 Pine Street, Nob Hill area - two blocks from Chinatown to the west, three blocks to Union Square to the south, next to the cable car line on Powell Street. The suites are big - one double-bed room, one sitting room with sofa bed, kitchenette with dining table, all for under US$100.......good value for money. We got Suite 1909 this time - right on the top floor with a balcony and wide windows looking out on two sides giving us a great view of the city and the bay.

We spent three wonderful days in San Francisco - shopping, dining, seeing the sights and best of all, was able to spent time with our elder son, Kenny who was on vacation from his work in Sydney and had been visiting Los Angeles and SFO the last two weeks.

We had a great time:

- shopping at the Westfield Mall with great outlets like Bloomingdale, Borders, a great foodcourt, restaurants, supermarket, cinemas - you can spent the whole day there and not feel bored.

- dining at Fisherman Wharf ( tasted their 'must-try' dungaree crabs and clam chowder served in sourdough breadbowls) Yummy!

- taking a ride on the famous cable car

- driving around and seeing Twin Peaks (great view of the city from there), Chinatown (lots of firecrackers going off for LNY), Golden Gate Park, Pacific Heights, etc....

We found a great Singapore restaurant at the Westfield Mall (Market Street, opposite Union Square) called 'Straits' - owned by Chris Yeo from Singapore. He had made a name for himself with his Straits restaurants in SFO ( several outlets) and recently was invited by famous US hip hop rapper Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges to open a US$24 million Straits restaurant in Atlanta. After trying out several items on his menu, its no wonder to us how he had been able to succeed so well.

We had:

- Chicken and Beef Satay (big chunks of meat, nice peanut sauce), $12

- 'Chow Kway Teow' (nicely fried, plenty of sprouts, fish cakes, lap cheong and prawns), $14

- Rack of Lamb ( served in a nice creamy laksa sauce), $26

- Seabass baked with rice wine ( nicely garnished with shitake mushrooms, dried longans), $25

We thoroughly enjoyed the dinner and told ourselves - 'must record on the blog so that we can be reminded of it for the next trip to San Francisco'. A good fitting last meal in San Francisco this trip.

The next day, we started out early for the airport at 8.30 am (Tuesday, Jan 27th) and after some 24 hours touched down at Changi T3 at 1.30 am, Thursday, Jan. 29th.

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