Food | 饮食

The French Laundry.

2016 May. Yountville, Napa Valley, California.

Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry in Yountville, Napa Valley is legendary and every foodie’s dream to dine and experience once a lifetime. Securing a reservation is almost impossible and there are websites teaching you how to up your chances. Basically you have to time exactly the hour/minute/second when they start taking reservation a month prior, and keep calling, regardless of the timezone you are in, then pray very hard that if the line ever gets connected, there is still a table opening. Clearly, I was the lazy bum riding on my dining companion’s hard work. 🙂

The experience was as perfect as it can get. Our lunch was exquisite, worthy of all the accolades and rave reviews. Fresh, flavourful, and delightful to the senses and tastebuds, with non of those pretentious molecular gastronomy gimmicks. World class indeed, extremely impressed! I am thinking the food is so wonderful, words alone would not do it any justice, so I will just let the photos do the work.

Service was impeccable, perfect throughout.

Food | 饮食, Travel | 旅游

California. San Francisco.

2016 May. San Francisco

San Francisco was the last stop of my 3-week road trip. I have been to SF many times, so not very inspired to take a lot of touristy pictures, despite revisiting many touristy places to relive my memories.

Slow drive along congested Lombard Street – the crookedest street in the world

Food | 饮食, Travel | 旅游

California. Marin County.

2016 May. Marshall. Point Reyes. Mt Tamalpais. Sausalito.

Sonoma Coast Beach has beautiful coastal views along the scenic drive.

Hog Island Oyster Company is located in Marshall, by the Tomales Bay. The Boat Oyster Bar is an outdoor cafe at Hog Island Oyster Farm. Raw and BBQ oysters, local breads, cheeses, and beverages are served at communal tables alongside the bay. Open from 11am to 5pm daily, reservation is required especially Fri-Mon, or the wait could be quite long. Great relaxed ambience, and the oysters are so yum yum yummy! BBQ oysters was a surprise hit, juicy and flavourful and will have you ask for more after you tried. We had to order extra serving as it was fantastic!

Food | 饮食, Travel | 旅游

California. Napa.

2016 May. Vallejo. Napa. Sonoma. Russian River.

En route to Napa Valley from Yosemite, I decided to squeeze in a visit and spend a day at the nearby Six Flag Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo. I am a sucker for hardcore roller coaster rides. I used to love Six Flags but unfortunately Discovery Kingdom was a disappointment due to poor maintenance and management.

Travel | 旅游

California. Yosemite.

2016 May. Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park is set within California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, famous for its gorgeous waterfalls, giant ancient sequoias, iconic vistas, deep valleys, grand meadows, and the granite cliffs of El Capitan and Half Dome. This is an extremely popular national park and packed with people, to the extent you will experience traffic jams and queues for a parking lot within the Yosemite Valley, where all the action concentrates. However once you get past that, and get onto the hiking trails, the views and scenery made it all worth it. Rocks, water, trees, and a combination of these, set against the blue sky, present a picturesque and stunning landscape that you will never forget.

Day 1

The marvel of Yosemite’s landscape begins once you exit Tunnel View, and greeted with a panoramic view of the valleys and mountains. Of course, that would also be your first encounter with the crowds that flock to Yosemite. 🙂

Travel | 旅游

California. Sequoia & Kings Canyon.

2016 May. Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

From San Luis Obispo, we headed straight to Sequoia National Parks via Visalia and Three Rivers. The drive was several hours, but you will get to see varying terrain and farmland which are quite scenic along the way.

General Sherman Tree, the world’s largest living tree.

Travel | 旅游

California. Big Sur.

2016 May. Point Lobos. Pfeiffer Beach. McWay Falls. Hearst Castle.

Big Sur is the 90-mile stretch of rugged and awesomely gorgeous coastline located along the scenic Highway 1 between Carmel to the north and San Simeon (Hearst Castle) to the south. We started the day with Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, which has beautiful views and is definitely worth spending 2-3 hours exploring, especially hiking the entire loop along the north and south shore trails. You can either park your car in the reserve (entrance fee) or along Highway 1 (for free) if you intend to hike the whole coastal loop.

Travel | 旅游

California. Monterey & Carmel.

2016 May. Monterey. Carmel.

The first time I visited Monterey was 20 years ago after my freshman year. I was captivated then by the beautiful weather, gorgeous ocean view, and the aquarium’s collection. Glad to revisit as it was on along the way on my planned road trip. We randomly stopped by a seaside neighbourhood and Fort Ord Dunes State Park briefly along the way, and chanced upon beautiful flowers in bloom.

Food | 饮食, Travel | 旅游

California. Bay Area & Santa Cruz.

2016 May. Palo Alto. Mountain View. Cupertino. San Jose. Santa Cruz

Upon arrival at SFO after a long flight, we picked up our rental car and headed south to Palo Alto. Stanford campus looked so beautiful under the Californian sun. A lazy afternoon stroll rekindled the familiar warm and nice campus feeling in me that had faded away over the years, made me miss my alma mater Rice so much suddenly.

Travel | 旅游

California Road Trip.

2016 May. USA. California Trip Itinerary.

It’s been a long time since I took a road trip in the US. The national parks are beautiful natural wonders and worth every visit. Having experienced Big Bend, Zion, Bryce, Arches, Grand Canyon and several other national parks during my college days, I was hooked ever since. For this 3-week trip, I decided to focus on California alone. The trip highlight is the famed California Highway 101 Great Ocean Drive, Napa Valley, Sequoia, and of cos Yosemite! I am attaching my actual trip itinerary as a planning reference, for those interested in making a similar road trip.

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Day 1 – Arrival in SFO via Seoul + Palo Alto + Cupertino

Day 2 – San Jose + Santa Cruz