We're back from San Francisco. I got back at 1am on early Tuesday morning, while Yeesin got back on Weds night... Ahh... back to the umm... Excitement of good old Kansas again! San Francisco is a GREAT place to visit, especially without the stress of renting a car and looking for parking... We stayed downtown around the Nob Hill area, just 3 blocks south of Chinatown, and 3 blocks North of Union Square (The place where we got highjacked by H&M, Gap, et al.). North Beach & Pier 39 is just a cable car ride away too!
Only downside? lots of walking if you don't want to wait for the cable car, or if the cable cars breakdown entirely!! (Yep. it happened twice when we were there)
For those that are curious, we didn't do too much damage to our checkbook shopping... Turns out H&M didn't have as many deals as we thought. Now just shopping / eating in Chinatown alone... thats another question! Remember the 2nd thing we did on our last post? Well, the first thing we did was walk to Penang Garden in Chinatown.... Now, that was MY moment of rapture, as I feasted on a delicious bowl of Fish-Head-Noodles... Hmmmm.... In the following next couple of days, we'd return back to this place again and again to eat more Malaysian stuff... In general, not exactly authentic... but we can't complain!
Ahh... The fresh smell of stinking garbage in the morning!! You know, that fishy smell, mixed with old-newspaper!!?? Yep, Chinatown on Sunday Mornings smells just like the local pasar-pagi back in Malaysia!! The crowd too! Nothing like a sea of people everywhere you look! Woe is the hapless driver who tries to navigate Chinatown on the weekends! Our Sunday Chinatown excursion started with a Really Affordable Dim Sum with Yeesin's Uncle and Family (Barely 8 bucks a person!!) But I digress... The rest of our cash went fast enough... I bag of lychees, 2 boxes of loh-hon-kor, some asian placemats, the list goes on... Our cash was in the safe possesion of the cashiers at Chinatown.... ;)
BTW, Gordon and Lynda were also kind enough to hang out with us at the bar at the top of the hotel! They graciously came up to us even tho it was Sunday nite... A couple of drinks later, we then ajorned to the local late-night chinese diner for some porridge and ew-char-kuey! Unfortunately, I decided to order wan-tan-mee, which didn't really turn out the way that I expected. Nevertheless, I still had YS's porridge to eat, so I wasn't really complaining... Ahh... the memories of good chinese food!!! *Sigh* its back to the grind again....
Yes. Its that time of the year again, long evenings sipping lemonade at the yard, hailing the ice-cream van by the park for $1.50 popsicles, and of course, when Benj has to get his hair cut... Nothing more invigorating as a Sunday afternoon chasing our Benji around with a shaver!. As with all haircutting sessions with Benj, he almost always has a sixth sense for deception on our part. Be it our sneaky tone of voice... "Come here boy...Come on here, we've got a present for you...."... or that shaver that we trying to hide (unsuccesfully) behind our bodies, trying to corral him while he tries to sneak himself underneath the nearest chair in sight.
Or, perhaps its the fact that any haircut involving 1 person holding you down, while the other tries to shave your crotch, inherently evokes some sense of concern on your part... Or just the day before, you had the neighborhood doggy-girls complementing your long locks of blond/gray hair... I hate to put words in Benj's mouth, but I really think any haircut that makes you look like a cross between a Gremlin and a teddy bear would be a cause for concern, as well as put a damper on your social life!
