Living At San Francisco

Friday 14th July Sat 7am (San Francisco Time)
Funny that I usually would take so long to wakeup at 730am in the morning, but here, i’m bright awake. It’s like taking a short afternoon nap.

7.30am
The wonders of technology. I felt still so close when I could connect to the internet and feel the presence of friends back home. =) Did some packing and reorganized some stuff between my backpack and luggage.

9.00am
Called Sylvia to inform her that I’ve reached USA!! =)

9.30am
Had breakfast. Was about to have egg and toast, when I introduced to Lisa my way of eating bak kwa bread =p So we ended up having bak kwa bread with orange juice, topping it off with strawberries. =)

10am
Ian went for a hair cut while Liza brought the dogs out for “maintenance” (to have their nails cut). The gardener came in to tend the garden. As for me, I decided to just stay in and relax. =)

We’ll be going for a brunch with some of Ian’s colleagues. Thereafter, Ian and Liza will be bringing me around to the lesser known areas of San Francisco. Afterall, Liza could guess what the city tour on Friday afternoon will entail. So here I am, allowing them to just bring me around anywhere. =) Will update more later! =)

12pm
We are on our way to San Antonia. Pretty nice town with identical houses throughout the “circle”. Brunch was typical western food (crossiant, egg, sausage, cakes). Lunch with a group of lawyers from Intel. It was an interesting mix of people from different countries. There were 3 ladies from Lebanon. Interesting!

3pm

After brunch, We came back to relax for a while.. but Liza and I didn’t really relaxed. We took the dogs out for a walk. I really enjoy the weather, the scenery! People here take so much pride in their homes and surroundings you could see the efforts put in to decorate the area.

4pm

Headed off to Golden Gate Beach and Cliff House and that old pool.. I was absorbing in all the wonders of the scenary. There's so much space everywhere and across the horizon are mountains and trees. Houses clustering together. It's very much like when you are up on some highways in Malaysia or the Philippines. But the big main difference is the weather. Yeah, I know that this is summer time. 18 degrees and bright sun. How I enjoy the cool wind blowing onto my face.

Yet, much as I enjoy taking in the scenic view everywhere, I began to doze off. Jet lag maybe. Then Lisa, who was driving, suddenly asked "Petrine, are we losing you?". You know, it's like when you are in class and dozing off and a teacher suddenly caught you with a question and after that you become wide awake again. So there I was shaken back to awakeness. We were reaching San Francisco.

4.30pm

The beach was great! And the weather too. I really can never have enough of standing there and being absorbed into the cool weather. Seagulls in the air, big ravens on the beach, and the never ending horizon and sky. WOW!!! You could never capture the whole image on camera!! At the far back of the picture with the ravens, you see a little white house, it's called the Cliff House.
That's Ian and Liza, my cousin and my cousin-in-law. =)

5.00pm

It's cold weather here with the fog and the strong wind. We drove up the mountain, passed the Cliff House, to this famous Sutra Baths.

I was a little disappointed because the pool wasn't as big as I expected it to be. It was supposed to be 7 big magnificent pools built for the rich in the 1800s. Oh well, perhaps it's all in ruins now, that's why it isn't as magnificient as it should be.

Here's a close up of one of the pools as we got down the hill. Lisa and I entered into part of the Sutra Baths. Ok, this is just like a tiny part of the whole place. So yes, it is big. Unfortunately, it's magnificence is now gone. We entered a cave near the Sutra Baths.

And at the end of the cave, here's what we got.

Points to ponder: Man's creation which was one so grandious is now reduced to such a dilapidated state. On the other hand, God's creation remains awesome throughout the ages.

This trail up and into the woods leads to a westerly view of the Golden Gate bridge. But unfortunately we didn't carry on with the hike because the weather's too foggy and we reckon that even if we do reach the end of the trail, we will not be able to see the Golden Gate bridge.

5.30pm

Headed for Haight Road which I'll tell you more about later. Gotta rush for my assignment now :p So here's leaving you with some flora and fauna by the sea =)

If God were to take care of all these, the flowers and the birds, can you imagine how much more He would care for and provide for us? =)