[San Francisco] Cityscapes

Week 1
Day 6 (Nov 25th, Tuesday)
Day 4 in San Francisco - From Union Square to Moscone Center and back

This was our last day in San Francisco. The night before, we had to park our car very very far away because there was no more parking space near our hotel. It was very far, but still walkable, less than two miles to and fro. In the morning, both of us walked to get the car. The cool crisp air made this a refreshing walk, with both of us appreciating the time we had together alone very much.

At Union Square area, outside Macy's.

Christmas window display at Macy's... oh I miss the Christmassy feel there...

This is Barney's New York, a pricier departmental store compared to Macy's.

Emporio Armani! We're at the intersection of Market and Grant now.

Bus stop. The shopping district on a working Tuesday morning is quiet, compared to the crowd at night.

Drunk little baby angels!! This reminds me of the three singing cupids in Night at the Museum 2.

California Pizza Kitchen. Is the pizza great? Khoon Hau says they've opened a branch at Suria KLCC. This is part of the financial district, this explains why there's more cars on the road here.

Suddenly a small gated garden appeared out of nowhere in the middle of town. Too bad we couldn't stay!!

We've reached the SoMA (South of Market) district. Fire engine in front of SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), which is that brown building there on 3rd Street. It houses 20th century art, among which are collections by Jackson Pollock and Frida Kahlo.

W Hotel San Francisco. See that giant man structure sleeping on the roof of the hotel? You can book your hotel online through HotelsCombined.com. This site auto-compiles the list of available hotels at your travel destination and then you can refine your search according to distance from San Francisco city center.

'A Christmas Carol' by the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Bands! *Gasp! I hope it's not about Mr. Scrooge and the Gay Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future!!

A Keith Haring sculpture

Moscone Center - the largest convention and exhibition hall in San Francisco. Leo says this part of San Francisco looks like Singapore with its clean, modern and simplistic-looking buildings and streets.

To me, this guy represents the essence of the San Francisco metropolitan - casual, light, rugged, handsome. I thought he, this very scene, fell right out from a magazine page. :-)

The average blue-collar American hard at work.

Autumn trees and red brick...

Finally, we reached the place where we parked the car, near the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel at SoMA district. Again, it is just so convenient when you can book your accomodation at your fingertips - HotelsCombined.com

Guess what?

We were greeted with dismay at the sight of a white/green colored paper sticking out from under the wiper. We had been summoned!!! Imagine how our faces fell when we saw the summons. We didn't see the street sign that no parking was allowed from 2-6a.m. for street cleaning!! Anyone knows that the U.S. traffic fine is costly, especially after converting to RM. I think it cost around USD35 or more. What the... we could have spent the whole lot on food and now we just had to pay up... so sad... left San Francisco with burnt pockets :-(

Drove the car back to our Hotel 480. Some of the beautiful old buildings that we passed by... they even had fire escape, just like in the movies.

After the 1906 fire and earthquake, the reconstructed buildings were built with standpipes to allow firemen to connect the water hoses in event of a fire.