After weeks of planning, we were finally flying to America. The long flight was daunting, would tong tong survive the ordeal? The anticipation and excitement was great, America, the Land of the Free, here we came!
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| papa took photos of all the soft toys in the house as he knew Xun would surely miss them. |
At the airport in the wee hours of the morning... Checking out the koi pond and the dazzling Venus trap? hmmmm...
One of the kids' favourite tidbits...during the trip, we bought lotsa M&Ms, and they were chanting M&Ms all the time...
Reached San Franciso...ooooo, chilly winds blew and we suffered from massive jet lag. Tong fell asleep at 4pm and we managed to rouse him from his deep slumber when we headed to Chinatown for dinner. HOwever, he was sooo lethargic and whiny and he fell asleep on mama's hand while we ate morsels of the food listlessly. Ha, headed back to the hotel and slept at 6pm...only to wake up at 4am the next morning!
Westin St Francis at Union Sq. very nice room, great location. pity about the parking fees though. Exorbitant! usd 60 a day at the hotel. The prudent papa parked at Union Sq instead, capped at usd 32.
Tong was so sleep, he slept soundly through all the din and lights...
beautiful posh hotel
2nd day
had IHOP breakfast on one of our first days back in the States. nice place. the variety of pancakes available was simply mind-blowing ha! the girls sat together while the boys sat on the other side.
UP to no good in the car. Big Comfy Dodge SUV...sometimes you would want to sit beside each other, other times not. We separated you two eventually and created a pillow with jackets in the middle so you could lie on them, it created lots of quarrels between you two on where each should lie and which jacket one could use...sighhh.
but there were heartwarming moments, like when I took jie to the toilet, upon seeing us when we came out, the two of you would run towards each other and hugged tightly...
tong insisted he must wear his sunglasses whenever he stepped out in the sun..eh but he liked to wear them upside down...ha..kooky children...
our very first outlet shopping! Livermore Premium Outlets. Could beat the shopping experience in the States. papap got crazy, just thinking about the shopping now made him dizzy still heh.
3rd day
A trip to San Francisco would be incomplete without a ride on their old-school tram. interesting experience
just a preview of the roads in San Francisco. all long straight and steep!
Exploratium.
a little like our science centre, very interesting. papa thought the kids were ready for a trip to the Singapore Science Centre...actually mama had brought both of you to Sciene Centre before, but it was quite dark so Xun did not like it too much. BUt both of you enjoyed the water play, what was new?
This exhibit showed how deceptive lights could be, making us think the rooms inside the house were painted a certain colour when they were lit by different coloured lights. and there was a train that went round so tong was fascinated.
You could spin rings in this bowl
and pile coins within the magnetised structures
and observe how topsy turvy the world was...you could go near enough to even shake your own hands in the mirror, it was hilarious...
pillars or silhouettes of people?
Trying out the musical instruments...
Mixing colours
dancing in the lights...
tong liked the baby rocking chair
like a boss.
tong said this gargantuan log was a train...hmmm
one of the huge ships berthed at San Francisco, near the famous Pier 39
4th day! Sausalito
Xun wanted to take photos with the heart sculptures again...
Taking in the sights of the picturesque streets...reminded mama of Europe
Ooooo, papa drove us here just so that we could cross the Golden Gate Bridge, MUST take more photos...
I must say, men were really ingenious, to come up with such a structure that boasted of such brilliant engineering precision...
the landscape in San franciso was varied, sometimes there would be rolling verdant hills, sometimes you saw rugged forested terrain...the landscape was never monotonous
And perched on these hills were cottages and houses...
The totally exhausted little ones...
The two of you fell asleep in the car so we goggled what we could do. A bit of serendipity at work here. Papa merely wanted to cross Golden Bridge...and this was the nearest town. We planned to have breakfast and go to a children's museum in town but decided to spend more time in this lovely place...
we ate breakfast at this quaint little restaurant in Sausalito. we loved the place. it has a population of 7000 iirc. mickey mouse pancake for the little boy
rosti with sausages. yummy!
some lobster and crab sandwich. scrumptious! mama loved this, this was the BEST sandwich I had ever eaten...
a picture with the friendly lady owner of the small cafe
tong met a friend outside the cafe. same age too
The BOATHOUSES
posing with the boat houses..
some were modelled out of real boats, some had fanciful decorations, some looked like fairy tale ships...it was breath-taking...
We stopped to smell the roses, literally...
xun wanted a picture of the mermaid..
amused by the cat that followed us for quite a while...
at the entrance to the boat house community
Tong loved it so much and was sobbing when we had to leave..so we said we would take a photo for memory...
At the carpark of the museum, we imbibed in this awesome view of the sea and the Golden Gate Bridge... what blessedness, to be able to take photos with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background, could not have planned it better, papa was thrilled.
here they were, at a kid's museum again. this one was just off sausalito. Mama was glad we went to this instead of the other one, coz it seemed like people had reviewed that this was more suitable for little tots...and indeed we had a wonderful time...
Captains xun xun and tong tong
never failed to be immersed in playing with this toy
even had a mock up of the port...
Open space play, lots of shapes and tubes...simple tools but allowed great creativity to be expressed
Fishing at the pond...they were so thoughtful, even provided aprons...
rubber fish and frogs...ha
Don't you think they look like fishmongers? so cute!
good thing both were quite short for ang moh standard, so they could enter that toddlers' area. hahahahah...
The toddlers' area where there were bouncy ponds, so they just ran from one to another...
bouncing on the waterbed, pretending to be frogs on lily pads.
Up the ants' mound
looking at herself in the funny mirrors..
Catching bubbles
making some music
hula-hooping...
The next one was a room which simulated the scenes in the story "George saves the world by lunch time". Talked about conserving the environment...
Like using leg movement to power up the lamp
selling old clothes and toys
George's house...
Outside at sand play..there were pirate ships...construction sand pits...
The prettiest builder ever seen...
the little construction gal is awfully thirsty after a hard day's work
Went to the Craft area...using dough, xun made a smiley face pancake for me...
We did up a little for the mobile too...
tong made a funny looking cake for mama
Using cardboards, xun made a house...
Placing her house with the rest...
Xun's one was the one with purple tape, tong's was the triangular one with yellow and green tape...
Houses against the backdrop of the Golden Bridge
Though we were back for merely one week, it seemed like the memories of the USA trip were getting fuzzy. mama could not recall when we went to Bubba Gump for dinner...prob after the Exploratium trip, coz tong fell asleep at 5 pm thereabouts again on that day and slept through the dinner.
alright...gotta go to the next post, going to Los Angeles!
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