KEEP CALM AND READ ON

Bh and I went for a short getaway last last weekend I love such getaways… it’s like a non peak period.. I don’t have to ‘report’ to anyone… we can do anything we want… (BH just need to take leave tt’s all) I can NEVER do this when I’m in SG… I treasure such getaways so much and i wonder.. how many of these times will I have before I got 2 go home ..

anyways, BH and I drove to this airport off site parking – Seatac Park… parked our car there then took their shuttle to the airport.. it was really convenient and inexpensive abt US$28 for 4D, 3N ( compared to taking a cab for 2 of us)

This time we took Virgin America.. wah… really impressed by the flight… the in-flight entertainment is good!!! (Note: Need to pay $2 for earphones. Bring your own!!) Drinks are FREE but no snacks… The plane looks, smells and feels clean and new! 1st time I enjoyed my domestic flight 🙂 By the time we reach SFO, it was abt 8pm.. we wanna tk BART initially to the hotel BUT Bh figured out tt it might nt be safe… so we took a cab. Cab from SFO airport to Downtown SFO cost abt $42 (with tips).. Check in to Hotel Intercontinential and you might wanna read my previous entry on reviews on the hotel

1st day:
woke up bright and early… walked a distance to pick up our rental car… so that we cld go to the factory outlet… okok… like… seattle also have outlets BUT this particular outlet in SFO have GUCCI outlet!!! So we headed to vacaville Premium Outlet

Are u thinking that I must have spent a BOMB there??? well…… u r sooooooo wrong!!! in fact, i didn’t spend a single cent at Gucci coz i didnt see anything that I really really like… BH was like ‘ drive so far here.. u shld get something..’ BUT i just didn’t…

So we headed back to SFO … seriously, I am sooooooo bad with directions… BH wanted to drive thru’ the GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE but i just can’t find it on our GPS.. he was driving and was clearly very frustrated with me.. he was soooooo agitated that when he stopped the car ( at a safe spot to check the directions himself) i was soooooooooo afraid tt he’s gonna roll me into a ball and dump me into the sea… geeez…. so i zipped my mouth and act invisible :X anyhow, we got our directions correct *finally* and crossed the bridge.. Btw, if u wanna travel on the Golden Gate Bridge it’s call US101, need to pay $6 toll!

Below are some pics taken at Golden Gate Bridge park… we were blessed with fantastic weather… though it’s sunny, it’s still really really cold… coz of the wind… grrrrrr….

After which we left the bridge, headed to return the car and went to Pier 39 for the sealions… they are super stinky!!! the kinda stingy smell… yucks… wanna stay there for a longer time.. the smell just puts me off! eeks… we left to have delicious dinner at Crab House at Pier 39

Food was great!! looking at the pics makes me soooooo hungry!! ops.. i didnt take pic of the Tiramishu cake… It was the bestest Tiramishu that I had ever tasted… yummy!!!

we didn’t really have time to admire the views from the resturant or to be ‘romantic’ as we were rushing for our Alcatraz tour on Pier 33…( looking back, it’s so shocking tt we managed to do alot of things on Day 1)

Alcatraz – interesting place… but i kinda feel creepy and scared the moment I entered the place… full of prison cells… we were walking ard the prison with a audio guide… and it was quite crowded… got to know alot of stories via the audio guide and posters on the wall… maybe i’m just not familiar with all these notorious prisoners… most of the time i was like “???” so I got to read up more on this place

Bh and I were super under-dressed… it was awfully cold as the night creeps in… I was so glad to be back in the hotel at night… and we were dead tired

Day 2:
We went sightseeing downdown and this includes the cable car… bought a 1 day pass for US$11, u can take the cable car unlimited times. The wait for the cable car was horribly long…. alot of tourists!! everyone was rushing to sit at the open air front part of the cable car.. heh… it’s really cool to stand on te cable car BUT it’s something tt mum will say NO to!!! haha

I was pretty excited when i saw a ‘Japanese Sweets’ store… love those jap cakes and all.. and we bought some… yummy!!! 🙂

Took the cable car and headed to chinatown , definitely more lively than the seattle’s one.. in fact, it was super crowded as there’s “Mid autum festival pasar malam” haha… bought moon cakes, wife biscults and 4 bottles of XO sauce for like $23!

The day ended pretty fast… had dinner at the downtown Jap resturamt and went to Lombard Street

So that’s for Day 2

Day 3:
Going home to seattle…

took BART to the airport – only US$8.10, takes abt 35mins to reach airport

We forgt to check in the XO sauce… and BH who was carrying it got “detected” … in the end, he was escorted by the officer to check in the bag.. scary sia….

flight reach seattle in the afternoon and we went grocery shopping ..

tt’s all for our trip.. wondering when’s the next… haha…

1 last pic of us to rem the trip 🙂

Hotel rating: 4 stars
Price we paid: Not sure.. booked the package with air tix from expedia
OUR rating: 5 stars

I was telling myself that IF i didn’t blog about this hotel.. it will be so unjustifiable for the excellent service we received… so here am i.. blogging abt it 🙂

Bh and I stayed in this hotel from 17 Sept to 20 Sept ( 3 nights) . The first night we arrived, it was kinda late, we only managed to reach the hotel and check in at 8.30pm. So we were given a room on the 14th floor. We asked if there were any higher levels.. the guy at the front desk said no. We went to check the room out.

Room at 1419 – had a huge 42″ TV.. wow! the view was YUCKS though rooms ending with -19 had full length windows from celling to floor. We were very disapted with the room… and coz Bh told them it was our 1 yr anniversary, we had 2 stalks of almost dead white roses on the bed.. i was like ” ermm.. is it supposed to be romantic?” anyhow, BH called the front desk, there’s no pick-up (prob bz) so he left a messenge. After 15 mins, front desk did not return call. So we went down to them and spoke to the same guy who gave us our keys. He told us that there were NO rooms on higher floors ( I think it’s ridiculous!! i mean the hotel is so HUGE and it’s not even the peak period!) BUT he took down our request and phone no. and assured us that he wld check and call us tml IF there’s a available room! wah.. the service is definitely much better than MArriot Vancouver

So we reluctantly went back to our room and just thought that we shld let it rest….. suddenly, a phone call came.. it was from the manager on duty at the Front desk!!! ;p She told us that she had a couple of other rooms at high floors and will come up to our room and bring us to it!!!! We were soooooo thrilled by her service… i mean… we are not any V.I.Ps!!!

This manager ( we didn’t see her name.. wasted~~~) , a japanese lady brought us to view 2 other rooms on the 32 and the 33 floor. We choose the room on the 33 floor – she told us it’s a exclusive level.. haha… This room have nice water view… 🙂 We moved our stuff and once in the room, we saw fireworks at the pier! we were surprised!! There’s no special events we know of… haha

Did we pay extra for the room?? NO!! we didn’t! heh… it was supposed to be $60 MORE /night!!

Conclusion: GREAT customer service! Nice hotel room! we’ll definitley choose this hotel again!! Thank you Japanese Manager who was on duty on 17 Sept 09, 9.30pm 🙂