THE CANADA/USA TRIP - Chapter Three: L.A. - 3

Day 17 (April 14) - Bye L.A. - Hello San Francisco!

Today was the day that we would be traveling to San Francisco.
We started the day off by doing some heavy-duty shopping at the Anaheim Target.
I like pronouncing it TAR- Ge't/(Jay). :)


Boy -- did I hit the mother load!
I bought like 6 shirts, a couple of shorts, shades and a hat.
Even outshopped -- the Rosinator!

Ah lub ya Targe't!



I even bumped into my olde Ateneo Teammate Ryan Pamintuan.
Of all places!


It turns out that he was moving back his entire family to Manila that very same day.
I think he bought a LCD TV coz' you can get em' really cheap over at Targe't.
Nice to see ya Ry!


And then we were off to SFO!

The last time I took the I-5 LA to SFO route was when I was still based in Canada.
It's a pretty cool drive.

You go over the mountains surrounding LA. which then opens up to the Central California Valley.



The interstate gets kinda monotonous after that.
Just endless miles of road.
It still get dramatic though.

There's dust storms.


And halfway through, you pass one of my fave places.
HARRIS RANCH!!

Oooohh.. the stench!
Hehehehehe!

I've never seen so many cattle in one place!!
Cattle as far as the eye can see!

FROM WIKI:
At over 800 acres (320 ha) and with a population of over 100,000 cattle and hundreds harvested daily, the ranch is the largest on the West Coast.
It is also among the largest (when including density), in the United States.
Known to travelers for a "ripe, tangy odor",the ranch is nicknamed "Cowschwitz". It supplies the hamburger meat for the In-N-Out chain, and also distributes through grocery stores nationwide.






We took I-580 into San Francisco.

So we got to see the Altamont Pass Wind Farm.

From WIKI:
The Altamont Pass Wind Farm located in the Altamont Pass of the Diablo Range in Central California. It is a one of the earliest wind farms in the United States. The wind farm is composed of over 4900 relatively small wind turbines of various types, making it at one time the largest farm in the world in terms of capacity. Altamont Pass is still the largest concentration of wind turbines in the world, with a capacity of 576 megawatts (MW), producing about 125 MW on average and 1.1 terawatt-hours (TWh) yearly. They were installed after the 1970s energy crisis in response to favorable tax policies for investors.


So many windmills!





And then after a long 6 hour drive, we reached our rendezvous point with the Castillos.
The TANFORAN Mall at South San Francisco.

Guess what was in the food court?


Of course we ordered Palabok Fiesta and Chicken Joy!


HELLO SAN FRANCISCO!

THE CANADA/USA TRIP - Chapter Four: San Francisco - 1

Day 18 (April 15) - Dad (Lolo Johnny) and Mom's (Lola Luz) 48th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

Happy Anni Dad and Mom!


This year we celebrated it with the Castillo Fam sporting suits and formal attire at St. Veronica's Church in South City.

Check it out!


Zachy and Cara with Nikki and RaffyWe had a nice, simple mass and ceremony followed by a family lunch over at the Doubletree Hotel near Burlingame.


The Castillo Fam

The young waiters. They both received nice tips after!


TULOG


We drove around the Bay Area after the Anni Celebration to take in some of the San Francisco Sights.

Rose used to live in San Francisco when she was younger. She came back to live/work in San Fran again after college graduation.
While I used to visit my SFO relatives when we were kids and would jaunt down often from Vancouver to visit Rosabel when she came back to work.

There was one problem though with the touring.

IT WAS TOO WINDY AND COLD TO GET OUT OF THE CAR!!!

The temperature in Canada was colder.
But the SFO wind just magnified everything.
It was like being in a super cold room with an electric fan pointed to you set at 10 (from a max of 3).

YUCK.


Curse you wind!!


NO WAY AM I GETTING OUTTA HERE DAD!



Anywayz, we headed for my fave highway -Highway 1.
We took the Sharp Park Rd coming over from San Bruno and stopped to take a picture of the Pacific Ocean.


And then landed at Rockaway Beach near Pacifica.


We turned the car around at Pacifica and headed north up Highway 1 towards San Francisco.
The winds were so strong that they closed the Great Highway facing the beach as the sand was blowing hard onto the road.

Everyone had to take the parallel side street.


We then stopped at the CLIFF HOUSE.
Everyone was so tired by then and sleeping in the car.


Wind. wind. wind.

A Coast Guard Boat actually went out to sea while I was taking the vid!
Hope it didn't tip over.
It's somewhere in there.






Woohoo! Made it!
The Golden Gate Bridge!


After dinner, we visited Tito Luis, Tita Chibu and Paolo Cui at their house in Pacifica.
It was so nice to see them!
Haven't seen them in a long time!

They're very happy and doing really well.


Complete Photo Album here.

THE CANADA/USA TRIP - Chapter Four: San Francisco - 2

Day 19 (April 16) - SHOPPING DAY

We finally got around to putting aside a whole day to shop.
Poor Rosabel. This was probably the first day we dedicated to full-fledged shopping during the whole trip.
There was only one problem...
I was the one who ended up buying the most stuff.
I ended up buying like 4 pairs of shoes over at Nordstrom Rack!
Hahahahahaha.

Thanks to Jim and Aurie Piguing for their hospitality. They generously sheltered the entire Castillo brood during our SFO stay. :)
Good thing we were able to fit!
We must have had over 20 pieces of luggage!

The Psychedelic Pouring Drinks.

Somewhere in the middle of the day, Zachy and I managed to go to Chuck E. Cheese.

We also hit the nearby main store/factory of See's Candies to get our Wonka fix.
I wonder if they have any Oompa Loompas at See's. Hmmmmm.

Look for that Golden Ticket Zo!

We capped off our day by having a nice salu-salo with Mom and Dad over at Tito Willie and Tita Gloria's house at Daly City.

The food was super yummy!

Day 20 (April 17) - THE HOMESTRETCH

Our final day for our glorious Canada/USA Trip started off on a low note.

Cara was already starting to feel bad around 2 days ago.

And on our last day - the cold and windy San Fran weather finally got to her. :(
She had a really bad cold, had a hard time breathing and her temperature was climbing when she woke up.

We were really concerned about poor Cara.
Especially since we were going to take a 15 hour plane ride back home to Manila that evening.
We had to make sure that she could take it and make any needed adjustments if ever she couldn't. So we took a trip to the emergency room at the San Mateo Medical Center.


Thanks Tito Jim for taking care of us

Cara got some medication, nebulization and some much needed rest.
The doctor advised us that she was ok to travel back as long as we gave her medicine and that she got a lot of rest.


Kawawa Cara. :(

We were supposed to spend the day touring San Francisco with our cousin Raymond Noel.
Rosabel was sooo looking forward to going around and seeing the SFO sights and sounds.
But unfortunately due to the situation, she had to stay in the house to take care of Cara.

We wanted to stay home with her and Cara too but Rosabel wanted to make sure that Zachy got to see San Francisco. Especially Fisherman's Wharf , Golden Gate, The Cable Cars etc...

So with the SUPER help of Ray, we went out on a 4 hour mission to see as many SFO landmarks that we could.

My mission on the other hand was to photo/video - document as much as possible so Rose could see it in pictures at least.



We zoomed down the 280 down to The Embarcadero where you land right at the place where Barry Bonds used to hit his "Cream and Clear"home runs.
AT&T Park.

As you drive up further north, The Bay Bridge starts to appear.

And then you come across, Cupid's Span -- the place where Tony Bennett "left his heart".
Cute!

A few minutes later and after getting a good parking space, we finally land the customary "I've Been To San Francisco" photo pic.
I think I have like 6 of these from when I was small and traveling with the fam.
It's Zachy's turn now.


As we walked towards Pier 39, we passed the famous Boudin Bakery where they were making Crocodile Bread? :)

Yeyeye!
ALCATRAZ!

I really dig the Seal Area in Pier 39.
There were no seals here when we first used to visit as kids.
But slowly and surely, they took over the place after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.
Now there are no more boats... just seals.

It's really nice to see them up close and personal.
There weren't so many seals this time around. That place can really get packed in winter.
Up to 900 seals!

Strollin' down the Pier 39 Boardwalk.

That's one huge Cruise Ship!

Click!
Got it!
CABLE CAR Photo!
Done!

Get out of the way Zachy! :)

OOOOHHH.

What I would have done to get some Ghirardelli with Rosabel.
:(
Sniff Sniff


Here's Ray posing with the Zachster.

The next stop on our "Tornado Tour" was one of Rosabel's faves.
Lombard St.
Just getting there is the fun part.

Look how steep it gets going up!
Drive Ray! Drive that mutha!




Yes!
We made it!
It really is a beautiful street.

And of course, our tour would not be complete without the Super SFO Grandaddy attraction - The Golden Gate Bridge.

Man that thing is so huge.
I-Spectacular!

Check out the cross-section of one of the main cables.
It's made up of thousands of smaller cables inside.

Thanks Ray for driving us around San Francisco!
It was real nice to see ya bro!!
Yeah yeah... The Lakers are champs.
But Boston's gonna get them this year!

I think that ranks as as your Fastest SFO tour huh?
Heheheheheheehe!

We headed back to San Bruno to check on the girls.

Look who just flew in from NYC!
Bernie!

Rosabel managed to do some more last-minute shopping with the Bernster while I packed what was left to be packed.

Afterwards, we headed over to the airport where the Castillos gave us a nice send-off and farewell.

The rest of the family went home a few days later.


(Complete San Francisco Photo Album - Part 2 here.)

BYE BYE VANCOUVER!!
BYE BYE LAS VEGAS!!
BYE BYE L.A.!!
BYE BYE SAN FRANCISCO!!
BYE BYE CANADA!!
BYE BYE U.S.A!!

WE HAD THE BESTEST, MOST AWESOME, SPECTACULAR, STUPENDOUS, DELIGHTFUL, MAGNIFICENT, MARVELOUS, FANTASTIC, FABULOUS TIME OF OUR LIVES!!!
Love,
Gab, Rose, Zachy and Cara.

HELLO PHILIPPINES!!!!!

ZZZZZZZZZZZ.....................

Ticklin' The Jackson

kooochi koochi kooo!

The Drug Dealer

JOKE!

The Hog Dealer yo.

MINI SCHNAUZER sings Enigma - Sadness

YouTube - my schnauzer can sings song..

Now we're inspired to train Jackson to sing... heheheheehe.

Jackson! Jackson! Here boy....