This post is so long, I thought I'd add some anchors up here for you to jump to each day :)
Day 1 - Crazy Taxi Driver, Shopping around Union Square
Day 2 - Breakfast at Brenda's French Soul Food, Twins Peak, Standford University
Day 3 - Sunrise at the Golden Gate Bridge, Driving down Lombard Street, Alcatraz Island Tour
Day 4 - San Fran Famous Cable Cars, Chinatown, Japantown
Day 5 - Walking down the Las Vegas Strip, Crique de Soleil, Dinner with Kristy's friend Zoha
Day 6 - Bouchon Bakery (yum!), SushiSamba, Bruno Mars Concert
Day 7 - Grand Canyon Tour, Dessert at Jean Phillippe Pattisserie (amazing gelato)
Day 8 - Encounter Hooker at the Trump Hotel, Shopping at Premium Outlets (North)
Kristy and I planned our trip to the U.S. for the holidays rather late. We had our confirmed travel itinerary on November 14 for December 26 as our departure from Ottawa to San Francisco. As a result, we paid the premium of flight fees which costed us just a bit over $1K for Ottawa to San Fran, San Fran to Las Vegas and Las Vegas back. Kristy told me she got a deal way back for 7 nights (at the Venetian) in Las Vegas and flight for only $700 :O whoaaaa! Well, I guess the other thing is that it wasn't NYE that she was going there for :)
We booked our flights through Flight Center. They were very helpful in getting us the exact rates we needed to know for our trip. We opted out from getting the complete package and researched our own hotels through a third party - Priceline.com.
Day 1
As the days approached our trip, it felt like it was coming really quickly, which is a good thing of course :) We flew out on December 26th at 8AM. Our connecting flight was in Toronto, which departed around noon (about a 3 hour layover). It turned out that the 3 hours became an hour and half because there were delays in our flight and the walk from the Toronto arrival gate to the departing gate was so friggen far away.
When we arrived in San Francisco, we were able to get a taxi right away. The Russian taxi driver was nice, but had a crazy driving behaviour. He reached 90mph on the freeway, which is around 145kph. Dodging cars and speeding his way through, we never told him we were in a rush. We weren't in a rush at all. Then, he told us a story about how he witnessed an accident. In my head I was thinking, stop talking and focus on getting us to our hotel safely! He got us from the airport to the Mark Hopkins Hotel in literally 15 mins, which would usually take 22 minutes (link to google maps time calculation). It was relatively busy on the roads too.
As he was driving, I noticed some very dark areas leading to our hotel. I hadn't realized how big the standing of living gap was in San Francisco until I witnessed it myself. The entire slope that our taxi guy drove us up on was dark until the last two blocks that led us to our hotel. Our hotel was, I think, at the peak of it all. Man... San Fran is fuckin' sloppy.
After we had dropped off our stuff at the hotel, we made our way down to figure where we were going to go next. We headed down to Powell Street and shopped around Union Square. This was their downtown shopping district. It was great that it's just footsteps away from our hotel (and the Mark Hopkins was a nice hotel too, I would recommend it to anyone going to San Fran to stay here, especially if you're looking to do a lot of shopping around the downtown core). One of the must-check-out shops is UNIQLO. We packed our bags with a bunch of HeatTech gear, haha! Something that you definitely can't get in Ottawa.
Our room at the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental
Kristy on the slopey streets right outside our hotel
At the UNIQLO store in San Fran Union Square
Day 2
The next day, we got up early and made our way to Brenda's French Soul Food for breakfast. This was one Kristy picked out and it turned out to be a great selection. Very popular in the area, we arrived around 10am and had to only wait 5 minutes for a seat. We were bumped up because a group didn't have everyone there so they sat us down first :). I ordered their Hangtown Fry and Kristy got the Grillades & Grits. Later we ordered their Beignet Flight to go for the drive. You'll definitely have to go try their Beignets, they are to die for! My favourite was their Three Chocolate, but I'm a bit bias because I love chocolate and I'd pick chocolate over anything (in most cases) ;). Didn't take a picture of the beignets because we devoured them too fast... but here are what our dishes looked like:
My dish: Hangtown Fry
Kristy's dish: Grillades & Grits
After breakfast, we walked our way to the car rental to pick up the car that we were going to rent for a day - City Rent a Car. Overall, their service was exceptional. We arrived a tad late, but with some notice they were fine with it. We reserved a compact car, and so we got the Mitsubishi Mirage. This tiny car was their newest - didn't even have a license plate on it... which gave us a bit of an advantage because we didn't need to pay for the toll to cross the Golden State bridge, haha! The cost of the car for one day was about $45 + gas. Not too shabby.
The first stop that we made after picking up our car was Twins Peak. This famous lookout is also where Minh took his crouching behind the ledge photo. I hadn't realized it until Kristy pointed it out, so I took one for myself and ended up tagging him in it on Facebook :) The view from the top was spectacular. Pour Mirage (our car) sounded like he had trouble climbing hills. I don't think this car is made for a place like San Francisco, lol.
Kristy and I at the top of Twins Peak
Me posing as Minh
Stanford University was our 4th stop of the day. Not surprising, nothing was opened on campus, but the bookstore was thankfully (and the library). We toured the campus and their library. The man that registered us at the Stanford library was quite amusing. He had a very straight face and a bit of a monotone. I tried to make him laugh... couldn't break him. So I gave up, lol.
Made it to Stanford University
After Stanford, we began to make our way down Pacific Coast Highway - Route 1 for the scenic view to the Big Sur. We didn't end up making it to the Big Sur because we discovered that it was just too far of a drive and the sun was already beginning to set. However, we did make a short stop to stretch and to take in view of the Pacific Ocean. We later stopped in Santa Cruz to pick up some munchies and made our way back to the hotel on the city/freeway. The scenic route was really nice - you get to see the huge waves making itself onto shore, some waves knocking against rocks... it's quite the drive though, so I would say drive down Route 1 earlier in the day rather than later.
Stretch break along the scenic drive down Route 1
Kristy and I
An artistic shot of Kristy looking into the Pacific Ocean
Day 3
To make the best out of the time we had with our Mirage, Kristy and I drove up to a lookout to watch the sunrise across the Golden Gate Bridge. We made it just time and the scenery was just beautiful. The bridge was opened in 1937 and was once the longest bridge in the world. Now, the bridge sits at #12.
Sunrise at the Golden Gate Bridge
Higher up shot of the sunrise
Kristy and I at the Golden Gate Bridge lookout
Kristy and I again
We then headed to Lombard Street. Famous for its 'windy road', we drove down from the top and took a few photos at the bottom. I witnessed a 4x4 truck drive down this road and thought he was going to hit something at every turn. Turns out he was fine, but it felt tight even with a small car.
Kristy on Lombard Street
Me on Lombard Street
After returning the car to the rental shop, we met up with my good friend Filip. We went for breakfast at a place in Fisherman's Wharf and after walked around the Piers. It was a nice catch up with an old friend who's working on some leading edge technology that, I think, will change the way people communicate and share content over the phone. Watch out! It's coming!
12:30pm was our ticket to the Alcatraz Island. Tickets were sold out initially when I visited their website. I called in to ask if there was a wait list, and there wasn't. I just had to go back to the site each day to see if any spots opened up. Luckily, 12:30pm on Dec 28th opened and I snatched it immediately. Supposedly, there are other cruises that claim they will take you to Alcatraz, but don't necessary dock there. That's something to keep in mind of. But, if you visit the link I just pasted here, you'll have no issues getting to island and doing their tour. It was $30 per person, and it included the tour. The tour was quite fascinating and emotional. The tour guide that was taking us around the island was telling us a story about Jim Quillan - one of the prisoners at Alcatraz. I won't spoil it for you, so you'll just need to go there and hear the story from him. The man was tearing up near the end - that's how good it was. After that, we went through the prison on the audio tour. Everything from the audio came straight from guards and prisoners that were on the island. It's a bit unreal that we were at a prison where some of the most dangerous criminals were held captive. Kristy and I ended up staying on the island for about 2.5 hours. We departed around 3pm.
Kristy and the Alcatraz sign
Me and the Alcatraz sign
Kristy locked up in a cell ready to take her punishment
Photos of some of the most dangerous criminals that were locked up at Alcatraz
Audio tour through Alcatraz
After Alcatraz, we meet up with Kristy's friend Zhen Yi at the Franciscan Crab Restaurant. We first roamed around Fisherman's Wharf to see if we could get some crab legs. After waiting in line for a good 15-20 minutes, the man behind the counter tells us they are sold out. He directs us to another station, and they were sold out too. And another, and another. So we stopped asking, because nobody had crab legs to sell! We stumbled into the Boudin Bakery and got ourselves some Clam Chowder in a Bowl to snack on before dinner. Dinner ended up to being delicious. We ordered some crab legs and a couple of other dishes.
Me, Kristy and Zhen Yi ready to devour our food
Kristy and I - look at all that food!
Day 4
On our final day in San Fran, we got to experience the ancient Cable Cars that were located around the downtown area. If you were going to ride the cable car for a day, I recommend getting a day-pass from Walgreens. Most usually carry them. A single ride is $6 per person, and a day pass is $13. It's quite the climb if you were taking the cable car down, so you'll probably want to make the best out of it by getting a day pass with no worries (that's my opinion and it worked out for us - saved us a lot of walking).
Kristy and I in a cable car on our way to Chinatown
We waited a good hour before we got to the front to board our first ride. It was possible to hop on at any station, but there's a chance that a nearby stop would not let anyone else on because it's full. Our first trip, we stopped at Jackson Street (so easy to remember ;)) and walked over to Chinatown for lunch. Their Chinatown is quite big. We ended up having dimsum at Great Eastern Restaurant where Obama also had gone for lunch once in the past. It was superrrrr busy. Expect to wait 30-45 minutes for even a table for 2 people. The food was very good there.
Our stop led us to Jackson Street
Chinatown Gate
After lunch and a few store visits, we made our way to Japantown (cable car and walking). The day started to get hot. Japantown has a decent sized mall which we walked through. Kristy wanted to get a haircut at a hair salon in the mall, but couldn't get a booking in because they were completely full for the day (boooo!). We took the MUNI bus back (the day pass for the cable car also allows you to take the city bus called MUNI) to Union Square.
Kristy in Japantown
Kristy and I made it back to Union Square and discovered this huge heart
Day 5
Our flight out to Las Vegas was at 8am. The first night, we stayed at the DoubleTree by Hilton. We weren't very impressed with the room we got - it didn't even have a bathtub! If you end up staying there, ask for a room with a bathtub at the very least. On the positive said, they had a shuttle that was complimentary to the Las Vegas Strip at every odd hour. We didn't make the 11am shuttle, so we stuck around until 1pm.
One of the first things we did after we were dropped off at the shuttle was to look at discount shows that were running that same night. A company called Tix4Tonight sells tickets at "up to 50% off"... so if you are lucky you can probably land a Cirque show for a decent price rather than paying for full price. We ended up getting tickets to a Cirque show called Zarkana for 9:30pm. I thought the show as just ok - having seen a couple of Cirque shows in the past, there weren't anything that wow-ed me. Maybe because these routines were too similar to the ones that I've seen - Mystere and O looks really good. I'd definitely try and check those ones out. The Zarkana show that we saw was also full of mistakes. I mean, I guess because it's the last show and the performers were probably tired, but I saw countless mistakes that really made me worry about the safety of them.
Me standing in front of the MGM Hotel Lion
Kristy inside the MGM Hotel
Kristy and I stumbling along and asking strangers to take pictures for us
During the day, Kristy and I walked around trying to hunt down a mug for a friend at the M&M store, but lucked out. They were having a 2 for $20 sale and all the best mugs were gone. We also went into the Coke store and sampled the "Around the world", which comprised of two trays, 16 flavours of Coke from around the world. One I tasted, wasn't even carbonated, another tasted like Vodka and some were just strange!! I'd say we got the best tasting Coke out of them all! lol
16 flavours of Coke from around the world
Kristy and I behind our 16 cups of Coke
Later that evening, we met up with Kristy's old schoolmate from UBC at the Flamingo Hotel where she works there as a Gaming Analyst (what a cool title!). She gave us a small tour of her work area - it wasn't the most glamourous because Flamingo is the oldest hotel on the strip, but luckily her team is moving into a new building soon! We went out for dinner at Lotus of Siam, a popular Thai restaurant in Las Vegas (I guess you can't really compete with a restaurant that has over 1,500 reviews and an average rating of 4/5). There, we had to wait 45 minutes for a table (super busy). The food was good, but not spectacular in my opinion.
Kristy, Zoha and I at Lotus of Siam
Day 6 (New Years Eve)
A ton of walking around and standing! We toured a bunch of hotels and casinos on the strip including the Venetian and Ballegio, two of the more popular hotels located near the center of the strip. We also checked into the Trump International Hotel, which we stayed for the next couple of nights. It's a bit off the strip (north) near Wynn, but the one good thing about the Trump asides from it being gold and full of marble pieces, is it's smoke free. Likely because the Trump Hotel doesn't have a casino inside of it. I really wonder what would happen if one day all casinos didn't allow smoking - probably a big hit on the profits.
We had a small snack break in the day and tried Bouchon Bakery. We ordered a Chocolate Almond Croissant and a Smoked Salmon Sandwich. Both were DELICIOUS!
Kristy kissing Mr. Polar Bear
Later that day, we got ourselves ready for the Bruno Mars concert and dinner at SushiSamba. We went to SushiSamba to try their tasting menu - we asked for a $75 per person tasting menu. Our waiter said he would put something together for us, but that $75 is hard to work with an that a $100+ would offer a lot more variety. But, he was still able to keep it within our range almost exactly. The sashimi we had to ask for because it's pricey - likely substituted for something else he had in mind. It was delicious though! Probably the best sashimi I've tasted (if not in Vancouver).
WARNING: A lot of deliciously looking food ahead (I don't remember the news of any of these dishes, so I'm not going to write a caption for any of them, lol).
After dinner, we made our way to the Cosmopolitan Hotel for the concert. Kristy had surprised me with tickets to see Bruno Mars, thanks baby :) We got into the waiting line around 7pm and didn't get to the concert hall until 9pm. Then, we had to stand and wait for another two hours listening to a DJ (really did't enjoy her mixing) before Bruno appeared. The show was awesome! It's definitely the best concert I've been to so far (first non-Asian concert). Bruno delivered an exceptional performance, and in the end Kristy fell in love with the man (oh boy!). Bruno led the new year countdown and finished off with an encore. At the end, my back was in the most pain I've ever endured, but it was all worth it. We were literally 3-4 rows from the stage and that is how I managed to get such close up shots of him...
After waiting in line for 2 hours, we had to sit through this DJ's tunes for another 2 hours. Feet were so sore!
Oh yeah! New year lights!
Post-concert selfies!
Heading back to the hotel, the strip was filled with drunk people; some of which looked like they ODed or struggling to even sit up right. The streets were full of beer bottles, cans and garbage. By the morning, everything was cleared and there wasn't a single trace of debris. Good to see Las Vegas is on top of it.
Day 7
On day 7, we planned a day trip to the Grand Canyon. We booked our tickets through Paradise Found Tours - the bus was a regular coach bus (maybe a bit nicer and cozier) and our guide was quite entertaining. Our guide was the driver, so once we were off the bus it was self-guided. Breakfast and an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet was offered as part of the package. The cost was $85 per person + ~20% tip to the driver. The bus picks you up at your hotel (we got picked up at 6:30AM) and drops you back at your hotel if you choose (we got dropped off around 8:30PM).
We briefly met two Japanese girls who were in front of us to take a picture on a big rock. They were hilarious - a behaviour I just can't act out properly, lol. They asked us to take a picture of them at different angles and asked for it in such a Japanese enthusiastic way. If you know what I mean, you're probably smirking or giggle about it :)
Came across some reindeers on the way to the Grand Canyon.
On top of a big rock.
Yup... we're cheesy like that. 2014!
"Freedom!!"
Overall, the tour was quite chilly, but the view was beautiful. The Grand Canyon is considered one of the 7 Wonders of the World. While it's true or not, it's amazing to be there and witness it yourself.
After the Grand Canyon tour, we went to the Bellagio and watched a few 'water performances' out in front. We even snacked on some gelato and crepe at Jean Phillippe Pattisserie. We had their Berry and Pistachio Gelato, as well as a Smoke Salmon Crepe. The crepe was not what I expected - it was ok. The gelato was out of this world though! Soooo good!
Day 8
Our last day in Vegas was an interesting one. One our way down to checkout, we came across a hooker in our elevator. She wearing nothing but panties and a bra, holder her clothes in one hand and her iPad. She apologized when we walked in. Then, a few floors down, a family comes in with a child. She then says "I farted". Thank goodness it wasn't a smelly one. Making our way to the lobby, everyone just starred at her. All the staff at the Trump just looked and turned away. Maybe this happens all too many times, but they should have done something about it given there were kids around. Overall, the stay at the Trump was nice. Very cozy and spacious room. That's what you get for paying a premium price for a room ;) Our rate was around $230 per night - we got this through Priceline.com.
We left our stuff with the concierge who kindly stored our stuff until we came back for it before making our way to the airport. We took the express bus to the Premium Outlets in Las Vegas North. We came across some really good deals (year end sales), so it was worth it for us to make a trip up there. We made to the airport a little tighter than we wanted. Originally, we had paid for a shuttle from the Trump to the airport ($11 per person). But it turned out that the shuttle never showed up and we had to take a cab. I was a little shocked that Trump didn't escort us with another one of their vehicles to the airport. It ended up costing the same, but a bit of an inconvenience because we were in a hurry to make a 5PM flight. Our flight showed up late, and we didn't land into Ottawa till 1:05AM.
Things were fine... until we go to the customs officer and Kristy forgets to declare a bottle of alcohol. The first officer allowed her through, but the second one did not. She was also lugging a Burberry bag, so that rang some bells. We spent another 20-25 minutes in the back as they questioned and looked over our receipts. To the officer's surprise, the deal Kristy got on her dress kept her within the range of all her receipts. Luckily... she didn't throw any of it out!! Phew! The officer was cool, and didn't end up searching through our bags. Otherwise, add on an extra 15-20 mins, lol.
Overall, a really enjoyable trip down to the states. To spend NYE in Las Vegas with Kristy, I wouldn't trade that time and experience with anything else.
Hopefully this post will be useful to some of you planning your trip out to the west coast or to Las Vegas around NYE. It's too bad we missed the fireworks, but Bruno Mars gave us an amazing show! :)
