On Baby A's birthday, the c-section surgery went as planned. I walked into the OR around 9:30am and was pushed out around 2 hours later. W was instructed to wait outside while the team was getting me prepared for anesthesia. He then got invited to come in and sat next to me while the team worked on getting Baby A out of me 😂. W was a good DJ and Baby A was born while Taylor Swift's Shake It Off was being played. So...did I feel any pain during this life-changing surgery? No, I didn't. I had a spinal block. I never felt any type of pain during the surgery. Getting the anesthesia injected - however - was the most uncomfortable part of the surgery. There was a lot of pressure. I felt my back being pulled or pushed, or something. It just felt very uncomfortable, not painful, but very uncomfortable. It was also hard to try leaning toward the source of that uncomfortableness. Learning to relax while being uncomfortable was a very hard thing to do. But it was necessary. Once it...
Hubby and I spent our anniversary in San Francisco this year. It was kind of a "convenient" type of anniversary travel since hubby had a conference to attend to for work. It was nice that more than half of the trip's expenses were paid by the company because of the conference. I paid for my plane tickets, meals, and leisure stuff. Hotel was a big ticket (hundreds per night!) for this trip so we're very glad that was taken care of by the company - yay! This post is very long. So go get a cup of tea or something 😜.
2/11
We had an 8am flight from Denver to SFO. Since we don't live in Denver, it was a hurdle to get up - very early - and drive down to Denver Int'l Airport. I think we got up around 5am and left the house at around 5:30am? For the furry ones, Duke was taken to the sitter the night before while we also arranged for a friend to come check on BeiBei and Lulu daily (and clean the litter cuz they get picky). Since the furry ones were taken care of and we had already moved the luggage down by the garage the night before, it was very quick for us to get ready in the morning. The drive from Windsor to Denver wasn't too far, but it still took a good 1 hour and maybe 20 minutes. There was this weird fog that kept coming onto the windshield and we had to stop on the side of the road just to grab a towel from the back to manually wipe the windshield. We tried the heater, the air conditioning, the fog kept coming back. If anyone knows an effective way to quickly clear up fog while driving please let us know!
We parked our car at a self-parking parking lot ("The Parking Spot") that offers free shuttle service to the airport. We were running kinda short on time by the time we got to the parking lot. Got lucky a free shuttle was already waiting by the "row" that we parked at so we just jumped right onto the shuttle. We got to the airport just close to 7:15 and rushed to the counter to check the bag, then took the airport's passenger train to get to our terminal, then to our gate. We bought some breakfast sandwiches from Einstein Bagel and it was time to board the plane.
Then, we went to meet up with our friend Kevin by Pier 39. Kevin is actually not just a friend but also our Reverend for our wedding. We had lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp and took a boat tour in the afternoon.Lunch was great! I think having the company was better than the actual taste of the food. It was just good times with Kevin 😆
While on the boat tour, we saw those sea lions like last time! Definitely a lot fewer than when we last saw them (they covered the entire deck, not just "one block" of the deck as seen in the photo below). Maybe February was too cold for them?
The huge wind kept blowing onto us. It was hard to hold my phone/camera straight lol
The hotel also came with a gym. We went to see it but never used it...
Mr. L tried to pet a swan at Palace of Fine Arts.....in return, it tried to bite him 😎!!
2/11
Our second day in SFO began with breakfast at the lounge. Normally, breakfasts are extra. We got access to the lounge for free breakfast thanks to the gold membership hubby has with Marriott, which was one of his work benefits, yay again!
Hubby was at the conference all day, which was held at the hotel we were staying at. So my days during this trip were routine like: wake up, breakfast at lounge, back to the room for dissertation editing/internet surfing, head out to get lunch, tour downtown San Francisco / interesting places in the afternoon, back to the hotel to meet up with hubby, dinner with hubby and Michael (he works in downtown SFO so it was easy to meet up in the evening). I have to say - I honestly felt a bit odd that our friend met up with us for dinner every night because we haven't spoken with each other for years before this trip. I sometimes feel it's b/c he knew we have per diem for dinner so he tagged along...it was nice to meet up with an old friend once a while but it didn't feel nice when the person keeps suggesting where to eat and where to hang out especially after we said no to a few suggestions already. Especially, on the day of our anniversary. However, we're grateful for some pointers he provided and the rides he had offered during this trip.
So my lunch for Day 2 was this big, savory burrito from a food truck!! It was very good. Thanks, Yelpers!!
The afternoon activity was taking the free shuttle (PresidiGo) to visit Crissy Field. I had researched PresidiGo before the trip so it was easy to find the route again and wait at the bus stop for the first time. Even though I had visited SFO several times before, I've never used PresidiGo/free shuttle. It was a fun experience and I wish I had known it sooner so I could use this in my previous trips! The free shuttle was "trackable" by an app. It was convenient to use and I highly recommend it for visitors! The shuttle was clean and the routes were pretty easy to navigate (with the app).
The shuttle stops by the Transit Center/Visitor Center have "flags" so it was easy to spot them. There were no such "flags" outside of Presidio though. Again, using the app was easy to navigate the transit system and quick to locate the shuttle stops even outside of the Presidio area.
The free shuttle reminds me of a school bus haha!!
Crissy Field is - well, a field. Just grass and a walk path right along the beach. It was very windy. I think the cold I had got worse from that day (I even went to see a doctor days after we returned from the trip). I began coughing a lot at night and it went on for a whole week.
Dinner for this day was at this Sichuan style restaurant. The food was very good (my instinct about Chinese food in SFO Chinatown is that Chinese food there can't go bad, at least for someone who's lived in Utah for more than half of her life!!) This restaurant was so packed with people, we had to wait outside for about half an hour. While waiting, we saw some newspaper articles with pictures of President Obama with the restaurant owner. Can only say - wow! And everything was spicy!!
The restaurant was so packed! The waiter also poured tea using some super long gooseneck pot to do so. I think some diners ordered tea just to see the performance.
We got 水煮魚 (spicy fish), 辣子雞 (spicy chicken), 夫妻肺片(ox tongue & sliced beef in a chili sauce, served cold) and 海鮮豆腐煲(seafood pot with tofu). Everything was served with the color, RED!!
Then, we walked back to the hotel and visited the lounge (The View Lounge) on the 39th floor. What a view it was!
We got 6 cocktails, paid for 5 of them (1 on the house). It was a very relaxing night at The View.
2/13
Day 3 began with breakfast at the lounge again, with a slight headache from a few too many glasses of cocktails lol! I also brought my laptop with me to the lounge. Breakfast and dissertation at once, talk about productivity & efficiency on vacation! Actually, I really didn't want to bring my laptop with me - but I needed to work on the format edit request as soon as I could to resubmit the 127-page dissertation for format approval. It wasn't much of a choice. I just had to bring it with me to San Francisco. I worked until around 11. Many guests had already finished their breakfast long ago (the lounge stopped serving breakfast at 9:30 anyway, but people stayed for networking as many guests were also conference attendees). I was one of the few guests who wasn't wearing a "company badge" or a "conference tag."
The initial plan for this day was "Asian food for lunch, then walk to Japantown and shop at the Daiso there, then back to the hotel." Well, I did have Asian food for lunch (Gyudon [牛丼]) and tried to walk to Japantown. Let's talk about that day's lunch first. It was overall, good, satisfying, but the ginger that came with the Gyudon had a weird taste - almost sour like and I didn't like it. First time in my life I didn't finish the whole Gyudon. The "fake food" outside on the display reminded me of my time traveling in Japan - because most restaurants did have these food plates on display in Japan and they definitely drew me over to see what delicious offerings the restaurants had.
I thought the prices were good. Consider this sits in San Francisco, I think these are good options with good price tags.
I hate to say this - but from about 3 blocks out from the restaurant where I had the Gyudon, I began noticing a weird feeling, I didn't feel safe. All in all, I actually didn't feel comfortable walking down the street anymore. No one did anything to me. I just saw people wandering the street while high, like really, they were not themselves. I didn't know them, but I could tell some were hallucinating, shouting to invisible people. I walked past a couple streets where I was the only pedestrian/traveler and maybe 40, 50 homeless people shouting and drinking/drunk on the sidewalks. So I eventually stopped heading West and went back toward the direction of the hotel/tourist area. Then I stopped at a Uniqlo and shopped there instead 😂! I still visited a Daiso Store on Market Street. The store was small, but efficient and had what I was looking for - Japanese drinks, plates, kitchen stuff, and stationary things. I was a happy customer! I just wish there's a Daiso in Fort Collins/Loveland/Windsor area! I love Daiso!
Since I didn't go to Japantown in the afternoon, I only shopped at Uniqlo and took an easy walk around downtown. Here are some pictures I took while taking my stroll.
This guy nailed it. He definitely moved like Michael Jackson.
After hubby finished his conference meetings, we met up with Michael and walked to a Taiwanese restaurant (?) in Chinatown. We had the most expensive "Taiwanese street food" in life....the food tasted good but really, overpriced! If I remember it right, I think it was close to $100 for 3 people. We had "braised beef noodles" (牛肉麵), "stir fry sprouts" (looked like spinach, 炒豆苗), "braised pork over rice" (控肉飯), "fried tofu" (油豆腐), "steamed fish" (forgot the name of the fish, 某種蒸魚), and "shrimp omelette" (蝦仁煎). To top dinner off, we each got a glass of milk tea.
Then, we took a Lyft to go to a karaoke place in Japantown! So, I still went to Japantown that day haha! The "KTV" was everything hubby and I could look for in the states. The song list was up to date. In fact, most songs on the "new songs" and "most popular songs" lists were unrecognizable for us. We are old souls!! We sang old, like very old pop songs (e.g., "說愛你" by 蔡依林 and songs by 五月天) from Taiwan for around 4 hours then took a Lyft back to downtown/hotel.
2/14 wedding anniversary
Day 4 was our anniversary. For this reason I secretly wanted the evening to be ours only. However, our friend wanted to get together. The day began similarly to the previous days. Breakfast at the lounge. A couple of hours on the dissertation. Then, I walked to a small hair salon to get my bangs trimmed. The trim was $10 and the result was good, better than the ones I've had in Utah haha. I haven't had a haircut in Colorado yet. I actually normally only get haircuts in Japan since I tend to visit there once a year. If I visit Taiwan, then I'd get a haircut there too. There's something about Asian hair needing special attention for cuts/layers and styling....😂 I don't look that happy in this picture because I was not 100% happy with the trim but it was only $10 and I did it as walk-in without any appointment. I look forward to my next visit to a hair salon in Japan lol!
I stopped by a Sephora on the way back to the hotel. Honestly, I didn't need to purchase anything. I just wanted to see if I could still pick up my birthday freebies but wasn't very hopeful. My birthday is in December and it was already February when I walked into the store. I asked one of the employees if I could still pick up the present (after telling them I was out of the country during my birthday, which's true!) and to my surprise, the answer was yes!! So I got my beauty insider freebies and, you guessed it, happily became a customer of the store that day! Here's a shot of what I got.....and my birthday freebie box (GlAMGlOW Hello Sexy, moisturizer and a spot treatment / mud mask for blemishes) is on the left of the picture below.
Hubby finished his conference meetings early this day. So we met up at the hotel around 2pm and walked to a PresidiGo shuttle stop together. We missed the shuttle so we decided to have our late lunch at a burger place ("Ziggy's") across from the shuttle stop.
The burgers took a long time to come out. We just took the free time as our selfie moments lol. The kitchen actually had it ready and we saw our food waiting to be picked on the counter...and the waitress/waiter kept chatting until we shot themdeath starving glares and finally got our food. There's no way to know for sure, but hubby and I both felt we got food poisoned from the burgers/fries because we both had to run to the bathroom only about half an hour after having the food. We took the free shuttle to get to the Visitor Center station and then made a transfer to get to Baker Beach. I got a chai from the coffeeshop at the Visitor Center while waiting for our transfer shuttle. Hubby was still suffering from his frequent bathroom trips and nausea at that time.
We arrived Baker Beach around 4:50pm and took a walk on the beach for only 5 minutes. Okay, maybe 7 minutes. Really, it was definitely less than 10 minutes! It was soooooo windy and too cold! I was underdressed for the day because there was a lot of sunshine so I only wore a flannel shirt and a sleeveless top inside. A stranger took some pictures for us. Her partner/friend commented the stranger was very good at taking good shots with good angles. Well, we didn't quite agree but it's alright. Still good photos because the pictures captured our moments together on the beach. The first picture below was taken by the stranger lady. All others were by ourselves.
Dinner took forever to get started - mainly because our friend texted us last minute and really wanted us to meet up with him at his company and play foosball there. I insisted I didn't want to have an "extra activity" for the night because we already made plans. And Mr. L and I planned on doing KTV after dinner. It's also Valentine's Day and our anniversary. We told our friend about our plans, though our friend still wanted us to go by his workplace...👀 Finally, after about 45 mins or so of back and forth by texts, we texted back saying we were leaving to get a Lyft to get to Japantown. The friend then asked if he could bring friends to join.
So we met up with the friend in downtown, then took a Lyft to Japantown for dinner at a hot pot place. The hot pot restaurant was packed with diners. There was an option for the buffet. Our friend seemed very interested to do the buffet but Mr. L and I didn't really want to do a buffet... We weren't that hungry plus we were a bit concerned of the possible residues of potential food poisoning from that afternoon. We waited at the lobby of the restaurant for about 1 hour (it was that packed!) and finally sat down at a bar-like table. We ordered our individual hot pot through the a la carte menu and got one extra order of meat plate for hubby to share with our friend since the friend expressed much interests in wanting to do the buffet but couldn't because we didn't do the buffet (restaurant required everyone from the same party to get the buffet if one orders the buffet option). Thank goodness no one did the buffet option because we were all very full. Hubby and friend didn't finish their hot pot and vegetables, but did finish the meat.
Broth and sauces came first. Sauces (from left to right) were sesame sauce, some sort of spicy sauce, and soy sauce with scallions.
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We then walked across the street and back to the KTV place we were at less than 24 hours ago 😄. Our friend's friends showed up later and so Mr. L and I didn't sing as much as the night before (there were only 2 microphones and usually 1 person sings the whole song). One of our friend's friends was a talker. I don't mind someone trying to make friends or wants to express themselves but I think it's very rude to raise voice while someone was singing. I mean, we were at a KTV place....we all came to sing? Every time I got the mic and started singing, this friend's friend kept talking aloud to another friend's friend. They happened to sit right next to me and he kept raising his voice. I had the mic but this friend's friend's voice was louder than mine 👀 It was just like he was trying to have a conversation with people whenever I got the mic. I almost wanted to tell him to get another room - it's our anniversary celebration karaoke night not some chat room on loudspeakers. Yes, I wasn't happy about that. Mr. L noticed the raise of voice from this person too and brought it up to me almost immediately after we left the group. Enough of the not-so-great memories that night, one funny thing at the KTV was because our friend was single, so we sang all sorts of sad songs, including "分手快樂" (happy breakup).
Anyway, we got back to the hotel late - like around 2am and then we packed and packed for next day's flight.
2/15
The last day began with check out with one of the TVs in our room at around 9am (that bill, $1267! Company-paid, thank goodness😌). Breakfast got boring from maybe Day 3 because the menu never changed...so we opted to get Beard Papa's cream puffs as our breakfast. Hubby bought two cream puffs - we each had one at a lounge area near the hotel lobby, then headed to the airport at around 10:30am. By then, I was pretty excited to come home. I was ready to see my furry ones soon!!
The lounge area near the hotel lobby was very "spa-like" to me. It reminded me like a lobby at any spa/massage salon, I'm not sure why!
We got lunch at the airport and then got on the plane that departed at noon. Hubby slept through the entire plane ride and I drank by myself on the plane 😂. I had drink vouchers that I wanted to use because they were expiring soon. The plan was that hubby and I each get a drink (sparking wine) early on the three-hour plane ride. Well, hubby and I each ordered one with my free vouchers. Hubby fell asleep before the drinks came. Given, the drinks came rather late due to turbulence and I didn't want hubby to have residue of alcohol after we land - cuz he's the driver. So I drank them all hahahahaha!
While "up in the air," I checked my phone at a random moment and we happened to just flying across Utah, oh I miss my Utahns!
After we landed in Denver, we went to take the free shuttle to get back to our car and then headed straight to Johnstown, where Duke stayed with his sitter. We picked up Duke at around 7pm and got home by 7:30pm. Whew, a whole day went by that fast!
Day 3 began with breakfast at the lounge again, with a slight headache from a few too many glasses of cocktails lol! I also brought my laptop with me to the lounge. Breakfast and dissertation at once, talk about productivity & efficiency on vacation! Actually, I really didn't want to bring my laptop with me - but I needed to work on the format edit request as soon as I could to resubmit the 127-page dissertation for format approval. It wasn't much of a choice. I just had to bring it with me to San Francisco. I worked until around 11. Many guests had already finished their breakfast long ago (the lounge stopped serving breakfast at 9:30 anyway, but people stayed for networking as many guests were also conference attendees). I was one of the few guests who wasn't wearing a "company badge" or a "conference tag."
2/14 wedding anniversary
Day 4 was our anniversary. For this reason I secretly wanted the evening to be ours only. However, our friend wanted to get together. The day began similarly to the previous days. Breakfast at the lounge. A couple of hours on the dissertation. Then, I walked to a small hair salon to get my bangs trimmed. The trim was $10 and the result was good, better than the ones I've had in Utah haha. I haven't had a haircut in Colorado yet. I actually normally only get haircuts in Japan since I tend to visit there once a year. If I visit Taiwan, then I'd get a haircut there too. There's something about Asian hair needing special attention for cuts/layers and styling....😂 I don't look that happy in this picture because I was not 100% happy with the trim but it was only $10 and I did it as walk-in without any appointment. I look forward to my next visit to a hair salon in Japan lol!
I stopped by a Sephora on the way back to the hotel. Honestly, I didn't need to purchase anything. I just wanted to see if I could still pick up my birthday freebies but wasn't very hopeful. My birthday is in December and it was already February when I walked into the store. I asked one of the employees if I could still pick up the present (after telling them I was out of the country during my birthday, which's true!) and to my surprise, the answer was yes!! So I got my beauty insider freebies and, you guessed it, happily became a customer of the store that day! Here's a shot of what I got.....and my birthday freebie box (GlAMGlOW Hello Sexy, moisturizer and a spot treatment / mud mask for blemishes) is on the left of the picture below.
I got the Mushrooms and Swiss burger and hubby got something else - also a burger but I can't remember the name.
The burgers took a long time to come out. We just took the free time as our selfie moments lol. The kitchen actually had it ready and we saw our food waiting to be picked on the counter...and the waitress/waiter kept chatting until we shot them
We arrived Baker Beach around 4:50pm and took a walk on the beach for only 5 minutes. Okay, maybe 7 minutes. Really, it was definitely less than 10 minutes! It was soooooo windy and too cold! I was underdressed for the day because there was a lot of sunshine so I only wore a flannel shirt and a sleeveless top inside. A stranger took some pictures for us. Her partner/friend commented the stranger was very good at taking good shots with good angles. Well, we didn't quite agree but it's alright. Still good photos because the pictures captured our moments together on the beach. The first picture below was taken by the stranger lady. All others were by ourselves.
Baker Beach is a real "sand beach." It was a bit difficult to walk on the sand with our shoes. It was also, again, super windy!! Wind, wind, wind, that's like the most consistent weather of our entire trip there.
Don't be fooled by the sunshine, it was actually chilly!
So we met up with the friend in downtown, then took a Lyft to Japantown for dinner at a hot pot place. The hot pot restaurant was packed with diners. There was an option for the buffet. Our friend seemed very interested to do the buffet but Mr. L and I didn't really want to do a buffet... We weren't that hungry plus we were a bit concerned of the possible residues of potential food poisoning from that afternoon. We waited at the lobby of the restaurant for about 1 hour (it was that packed!) and finally sat down at a bar-like table. We ordered our individual hot pot through the a la carte menu and got one extra order of meat plate for hubby to share with our friend since the friend expressed much interests in wanting to do the buffet but couldn't because we didn't do the buffet (restaurant required everyone from the same party to get the buffet if one orders the buffet option). Thank goodness no one did the buffet option because we were all very full. Hubby and friend didn't finish their hot pot and vegetables, but did finish the meat.
Broth and sauces came first. Sauces (from left to right) were sesame sauce, some sort of spicy sauce, and soy sauce with scallions.
Meat plates came second. Thinly cut slices of beef and pork. The cutting machine was right in front of us and a waiter was there 90% of our two hour time there, just cutting the meat!!
Vegetables came a bit late. The pot was already beginning to boil. I like to cook veggies first then the meat so I waited for the veggies to get to the table then finally began cooking the food!
With Yelp's check-in, we also got a free side order of dumplings. To our surprise, the dumplings were very meaty. I only had one because I wanted to concentrate on my pork belly slices!
I love thinly sliced meat! The pork belly slices were so good! Because it was Valentine's Day, the owner gave us free ice cream as dessert. Thanks!
2/15
The last day began with check out with one of the TVs in our room at around 9am (that bill, $1267! Company-paid, thank goodness😌). Breakfast got boring from maybe Day 3 because the menu never changed...so we opted to get Beard Papa's cream puffs as our breakfast. Hubby bought two cream puffs - we each had one at a lounge area near the hotel lobby, then headed to the airport at around 10:30am. By then, I was pretty excited to come home. I was ready to see my furry ones soon!!The lounge area near the hotel lobby was very "spa-like" to me. It reminded me like a lobby at any spa/massage salon, I'm not sure why!
After we landed in Denver, we went to take the free shuttle to get back to our car and then headed straight to Johnstown, where Duke stayed with his sitter. We picked up Duke at around 7pm and got home by 7:30pm. Whew, a whole day went by that fast!
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