First week
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Bianca
26 Augustus 2015 | Verenigde Staten, Long Beach
Hi!
It took a while, but here's the story of the first week here. It's hard to grasp that it's not even a full week yet as it feels like at least 2 already :-)
Last week Wednesday the trip started. Unfortunately with a 3.5 hour delay to our flight :-( The first hour we knew before but the rest we had to wait out at the airport. At least the 10-hr flight was nice & smooth and we got to San Francisco ok! In a way it was actually nice as it was around 3PM that we landed instead of noon. As you're so tired from everything, that was fine. We took the BART train into the city and our hotel was literally right at the corner of the station close to Union Square! Perfect. Nice view from the 25th floor. We didn't do much, mostly relaxing and then a near 12-hr night of sleeping!
Thursday it was a cloudy and bit chilly day. First we went to get the Muni passports (public transport) and we went on our way to the Golden Gate park. So nice to be walking to the big park and just enjoy the little walk. We went to the Japanese Tea Garden. This was super nice. It was also pretty quiet, so a nice way to start our first day. And of course sipping some sencha tea while looking over the garden.
Afterwards we went back close to the hotel and were thinking about what to do next. The cable tram is super busy, waiting in line probably would take around an hour... but luckily dad saw the street car which also goes to Fishermen's Wharf! And we got right on the first one and drove along the piers. So nice. And actually by the time we got to Pier 39 the sun came out! It was beautiful. Walking around the pier in the craziness and went to look for some souvenirs of course. We went for lunch at Neptunes to have the perfect view of the bay and Alcatraz. Great!
Afterwards some more walking around and eventually we went to start station of the cable tram and took that back to Union Square. Just grabbed an easy dinner from a food court to eat at the hotel and just relax.
Friday another grey start of the day. Just walked around the shops around Market street and just enjoyed looking at everything. Later on we went again to Pier 39 and again the sun came out a little bit. We wanted to go back a little early to relax at the hotel before going out to dinner. However the streetcar (tram for the Dutch) we went on broke down at the next stop.. the brakes didn;t work anymore.. so we all had to get out. As it was very busy you would know you will get squished trying to get into the next one. So instead we decided for a little bit and take a later streetcar. We discovered a nice park at the water with a beautiful view of the bay and the Bay Bridge. Then we went to Pier 23 to a pub at the water where we could sit for a bit with a drink and watch over the water. Very nice.
Then the adventure continued... at least 8 streetcars went by completely full of people! We were about to give up when finally after 40 minutes of waiting a near empty one came around.. pffew.
Another relaxing evening after such a day just at the hotel. Packing up again to move on to the next part of the trip: LA.
Saturday an early start, we had a flight at 11 AM to go to LA. All went very smoothly and in LA in early afternoon we had Sophia picking us up! My friend that I met in Vancouver more than 3 years ago and I didn't see for 3 years. So good seeing her again. And she's amazing to us here. We get to stay at her place in Long Beach and she's takes us everywhere! Don't know how we got so lucky :-)
She took us into Long Beach to have some lunch in the sun with a view of the Queen Mary. Had a nice stroll around the area enjoying the sun afterwards. So nice to be in warmer weather!
After relaxing at her place and settling in a little bit, we went to Huntington beach where we walked on the pier to watch the sunset and went for a cocktail at Duke's. Fabulous first day in LA!
That's it for now, it's already a long story. More to come in a view days! Tomorrow we're off to San Diego, back on Thursday.
Ciao for now!
It took a while, but here's the story of the first week here. It's hard to grasp that it's not even a full week yet as it feels like at least 2 already :-)
Last week Wednesday the trip started. Unfortunately with a 3.5 hour delay to our flight :-( The first hour we knew before but the rest we had to wait out at the airport. At least the 10-hr flight was nice & smooth and we got to San Francisco ok! In a way it was actually nice as it was around 3PM that we landed instead of noon. As you're so tired from everything, that was fine. We took the BART train into the city and our hotel was literally right at the corner of the station close to Union Square! Perfect. Nice view from the 25th floor. We didn't do much, mostly relaxing and then a near 12-hr night of sleeping!
Thursday it was a cloudy and bit chilly day. First we went to get the Muni passports (public transport) and we went on our way to the Golden Gate park. So nice to be walking to the big park and just enjoy the little walk. We went to the Japanese Tea Garden. This was super nice. It was also pretty quiet, so a nice way to start our first day. And of course sipping some sencha tea while looking over the garden.
Afterwards we went back close to the hotel and were thinking about what to do next. The cable tram is super busy, waiting in line probably would take around an hour... but luckily dad saw the street car which also goes to Fishermen's Wharf! And we got right on the first one and drove along the piers. So nice. And actually by the time we got to Pier 39 the sun came out! It was beautiful. Walking around the pier in the craziness and went to look for some souvenirs of course. We went for lunch at Neptunes to have the perfect view of the bay and Alcatraz. Great!
Afterwards some more walking around and eventually we went to start station of the cable tram and took that back to Union Square. Just grabbed an easy dinner from a food court to eat at the hotel and just relax.
Friday another grey start of the day. Just walked around the shops around Market street and just enjoyed looking at everything. Later on we went again to Pier 39 and again the sun came out a little bit. We wanted to go back a little early to relax at the hotel before going out to dinner. However the streetcar (tram for the Dutch) we went on broke down at the next stop.. the brakes didn;t work anymore.. so we all had to get out. As it was very busy you would know you will get squished trying to get into the next one. So instead we decided for a little bit and take a later streetcar. We discovered a nice park at the water with a beautiful view of the bay and the Bay Bridge. Then we went to Pier 23 to a pub at the water where we could sit for a bit with a drink and watch over the water. Very nice.
Then the adventure continued... at least 8 streetcars went by completely full of people! We were about to give up when finally after 40 minutes of waiting a near empty one came around.. pffew.
Another relaxing evening after such a day just at the hotel. Packing up again to move on to the next part of the trip: LA.
Saturday an early start, we had a flight at 11 AM to go to LA. All went very smoothly and in LA in early afternoon we had Sophia picking us up! My friend that I met in Vancouver more than 3 years ago and I didn't see for 3 years. So good seeing her again. And she's amazing to us here. We get to stay at her place in Long Beach and she's takes us everywhere! Don't know how we got so lucky :-)
She took us into Long Beach to have some lunch in the sun with a view of the Queen Mary. Had a nice stroll around the area enjoying the sun afterwards. So nice to be in warmer weather!
After relaxing at her place and settling in a little bit, we went to Huntington beach where we walked on the pier to watch the sunset and went for a cocktail at Duke's. Fabulous first day in LA!
That's it for now, it's already a long story. More to come in a view days! Tomorrow we're off to San Diego, back on Thursday.
Ciao for now!
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
