It goes without saying that everything in NY is still frozen. We visited the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) today, and we felt as frozen as the exhibits feel fossilised.
Even though the girls slept in, it was not enough, so everyone slept in the subway on the way there. The AMNH has an awesome collection of dinosaurs and an excellent astronomy/space centre.
The Space section put on a panoramic show on the Big Bang. They also has some cool real live space objects like this meteorite.
The dinosaur section had all the original fossils such as T Rex, Triceratops and others.
We saw signs pointing to a Whale exhibition provided by Te Papa, unfortunately this one was closed. So all we got was this shot of the acknowledgement.
Catherine wanted to visit Central Park, so after AMNH, we crossed the street into Central Park. Did I mention that everything was frozen? Well, all the lakes in the park were frozen too. But no skating allowed. The poor ducks living there had to lift their legs to defrost after a few steps of walking on the ice.
We were planning to visit the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) after this, but we ran out of time. And it was time to send Catherine and Melissa on to dinner and Lion King in Times Square.
The rest of us took off home. Catherine reported later that evening that Lion King was the best show she has seen.
8th Jan 2014 Wed
We visited the 9/11 memorial this morning at the old Ground Zero, all within a 15 min walk from our apartment. It is free, but you have to pay $2 booking fee for each ticket. They do a security metal scan before letting you in.
The top part of the memorial pool is a waterfall. Because of the freezing temperature, this feature was not on. Otherwise, it would be a vertical ice skating rink.
The names of all the poor folks who died in the buildings, the passengers in the planes and the rescue workers were all stamped into the metal rostrum running the entire square of the two pools. A rose is placed there on the person's birthday.
Along the exit, there is a souvenir shop. I saw this book that recognised the doggie heros of 9/11.
In the afternoon, we went for a belated visit to MOMA. Again I liked the Impressionist best. I had trouble recognising some of the exhibits as art. Still it was a worthwhile visit. But of the four museums, the Met and AMNH are just head and shoulders above everything else.
Melissa and Tessa were booked to see Book of Mormons on Broadway and the adults were booked for Cuff Me.
Cuff Me is a parody of the book 50 Shades of Gray. I don't know how the producers got away with it, but the show was in a synagogue!
We had a lovely Italian dinner at this small restaurant on 49th, Cieli, before our shows on 49th and 47th.
Coincidentally, both shows finished at the same time, so we caught up with the girls and went home together. Again, everyone reported that both shows were great and had us all in stitches.
9th Jan 2014 Thurs
Today was packing day for our flight to San Francisco tomorrow. Simon took us to Flushing, which is Chinatown in Queens, for yum char. The food was great, and this place appeared even more busy than Chinatown in Manhattan.
After that WT and Catherine bought some pastries from Paris Bakery for tomorrow's breakfast and flight.
Gaik Kim and Maggie came over with take-out dinner from New Malaysia to save us cooking. Awesome Malaysian food. Thanks, guys,for feeding us today.
I did a weigh-in on all the 5 bags and without exception, all were around 55 lbs. Delta charges $25 per bag, but if the bag was over 51 to 70 lbs, the fee was $100.
So I suggested we started another bag and pay $25 for the bag rather than 5 X $100 for each extra heavy bag. We added 2 new check-in bags in NY bringing the total to 6 bags.
10th Jan 2014 Fri
It was raining this morning. That is a good sign because rain means no ice Simon picked us up in a couple of vans. We were in JFK nice and early. All the flights were on time. Check-in and bag drop off was done with most efficiently. I am very impressed with JFK.
We'd paid the trolley dispenser $5 for each of the two trolleys. So Catherine and Tessa went to return the trolleys to get our deposit back. They returned empty handed after valiantly trying to get money out of the trolley dispenser. It appears $5 was the rental fee!
My friend See Hack, whom we are meeting, in San Francisco told us later that this was a recent introduction for all domestic flights, and out-going international flights. No charge for incoming international flights, presumably to keep everyone unaware so that you get suckered when you leave the country.
The change in temperature between NY and SF was 25C. It was really pleasant wearing only one layer of clothing. Trips to the bathroom are no longer like ski-field bathroom trips.
SF traffic was heavy at 5 pm, so it took 1.15 hours for us to get to our apartment in Green Street. It was a one bedroom apartment in North Beach.
Tessa and I went out for a walk to get some milk and eggs. We are in an excellent location. Right in the middle of Italy and a block from Chinatown. There are many restaurants, clubs and pubs just around the corner from us, not to mention lots of quirky shops.
11th Jan 2014 Saturday
I woke up at my usual time (7 am) to buy our city passes from Alcatraz Cruises on Pier 33. If you buy the City pass from Alcatraz cruises, you may swap one of the boat cruises in the pass for the Alcatraz Cruise, which was what I did. The pass also included a 7-day Muni bus and cable car ticket. This is a significant saving because a single bus trip is $2, and the well known SF cable car is $6, not to mention the convenience. Only trick is to make sure the girls carry this on them all the time.
The walk from Green St. to Pier 33 took me over Telegraph Hill (highest point in SF City), past Coit Tower (best panoramic view of City, but closed for renovation). Then down a long flight of stairs to the Embrocadero. I think the bus pass is going to come in handy because I don't fancy this walk back on an empty stomach.
Bought the pass, booked our Alcatraz cruise for Monday, and Google Map helped me catch the bus back to North Beach. The girls were just getting up at 9am when I got back.
While waiting for See Hack and Han to pick us up, I took everyone for a walk to Little Italy, Chinatown and up to Telegraph Hill.
Han and See Hack arrived in their 7 seater Lexus SUV, it was a perfect fit. He took us through a few fancy suburbs and the Golden Gate park, ending up at the Golden Gate visitor centre.
After lunch, we went to Stanford University. We had a good look around the large and beautiful campus. If you imagine an ideal showcase university campus, then you are imagining the Stanford campus.
Then it was time to hit the University shop for some merchandise. This Uni shop puts all the shops on Lambton Quay and Willis Street to shame. Books, clothes, computers, Kate Spade laptop bags and iPhone cases, cafe are all there.
Then it was off to CostCo. A huge wholesale quantity sized variety store. Everything here is oversized, and on per unit basis, cheap. I bought some excellent Argentinian and German wine and prosciutto for local consumption.
Catherine asked me to show her where the suitcases were in CostCo, and she bought a 28-in spinner suit case. This is not a good sign and a shopping OD early warning. Other clues to this were questions like where is the Westfield mall, and when are we going to Union Square.
Melissa has heard so much about WalMart but never been to one, so it was WalMart next. More things were bought here, mainly chocolate.
Then See Hack took us for an excellent meal at Romano Macaroni Grill, where their elder son Sean joined us for dinner. We had a really good Mendoza Melbec, and I also tasted their excellent house chianti. The quantities were again too much for us, but take-out containers were readily available.
After a cup of tea at Han and See Hack's lovely house, and a few songs on his super hifi system, it was time to take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport, nothing to do with our friend from Springfield) train home. It was late and even with google map we had trouble finding the bus stop on Market St. for the last leg back to North Beach. We did in the end with some help from a passer-by and WT asking around. Melissa forgot her bus pass, but we entered the rearmost door, so we avoided paying the $2, this time.
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