Monday, March 27, 2006
Trip to Bay Area
Someone said that I lost momentum to blog. Well, I don't agree. :)
Run, Yaping, Run
I took a 6am flight to San Jose on 23rd morning. Before I left home, I tried to check the flight information for my parents, but failed. Air China doesn't provide any information at all. I called their 800 number but only got the information of the flight two days before, which delayed for one whole day. When I got to Austin International Airport, there was only 45 minutes left before departure. Check-in is closed 30 minutes before the departure. After I parked my car, I saw a airport shuttle at the bus stop. I ran to it but it left before I hit the stop. I waved my hands and kept running, but the dude kept driving. Finally, I caught the bus after I ran for two stops. Damn it.
San Francisco
I napped most of the flight, on which there was less than 20% occupacy. After I arrived in SFO, I found that the Air China flight was delayed for 1 hour. Bad, but still tolerable. I picked my parents up at around 2pm. We went to Fishermen's Wharf, had crabs and clam chowders for lunch, then Golden Gate Bridge, and Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks are awesome. It took us a lot of detours to get there, but it well deserved the trouble. I would give much credit to my GPS. :) Dinner was at 中国小馆, a Shanghai restaurant. The 清炒虾仁 and 蟹粉小笼 are very good.
Monteray
On 24th, we drove to Monterey. Hanging around 17 miles, Fishermen's Wharf, beaches in a sunny day is wonderful. Had dinner with Kelvin at 火锅城. It is one of my favorates in Bay Area. I went there on almost every trip.
Napa Valley
On 25th, we went the other direction, NORTH. We had a tour and wine tasting in Berlinger Vineyards. The drive back sucked a lot. We were stuck on Bay Bridge for about two hours. Frankly, San Francisco's traffice makes me sick. We dined at 岭南小馆. I highly recommend this restaurant. 椒盐螃蟹 and 京都排骨 are 超级赞. Chinatown is dull. 城隍庙 is way better.
Austin
Returned the rental car and flew back to Austin on Sunday. To my surprise, Austin is not hot at all.
Others
I rented a PT Cruiser during this trip. It was a nice car, comfortable and smooth. However, the gas milage is bad. I had an average of 20.XX MPG even though most of our trip is high way drive. The GPS didn't work very well in SF, especially downtown. Due to the tall buildings, it had trouble locating the satellites. Also, it sometimes lost signals on high ways. Is it because that I was driving too fast or too many GPS's were used by others in a certain range? I don't know. I have never lost a single signal in Texas though.
Run, Yaping, Run
I took a 6am flight to San Jose on 23rd morning. Before I left home, I tried to check the flight information for my parents, but failed. Air China doesn't provide any information at all. I called their 800 number but only got the information of the flight two days before, which delayed for one whole day. When I got to Austin International Airport, there was only 45 minutes left before departure. Check-in is closed 30 minutes before the departure. After I parked my car, I saw a airport shuttle at the bus stop. I ran to it but it left before I hit the stop. I waved my hands and kept running, but the dude kept driving. Finally, I caught the bus after I ran for two stops. Damn it.
San Francisco
I napped most of the flight, on which there was less than 20% occupacy. After I arrived in SFO, I found that the Air China flight was delayed for 1 hour. Bad, but still tolerable. I picked my parents up at around 2pm. We went to Fishermen's Wharf, had crabs and clam chowders for lunch, then Golden Gate Bridge, and Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks are awesome. It took us a lot of detours to get there, but it well deserved the trouble. I would give much credit to my GPS. :) Dinner was at 中国小馆, a Shanghai restaurant. The 清炒虾仁 and 蟹粉小笼 are very good.
Monteray
On 24th, we drove to Monterey. Hanging around 17 miles, Fishermen's Wharf, beaches in a sunny day is wonderful. Had dinner with Kelvin at 火锅城. It is one of my favorates in Bay Area. I went there on almost every trip.
Napa Valley
On 25th, we went the other direction, NORTH. We had a tour and wine tasting in Berlinger Vineyards. The drive back sucked a lot. We were stuck on Bay Bridge for about two hours. Frankly, San Francisco's traffice makes me sick. We dined at 岭南小馆. I highly recommend this restaurant. 椒盐螃蟹 and 京都排骨 are 超级赞. Chinatown is dull. 城隍庙 is way better.
Austin
Returned the rental car and flew back to Austin on Sunday. To my surprise, Austin is not hot at all.
Others
I rented a PT Cruiser during this trip. It was a nice car, comfortable and smooth. However, the gas milage is bad. I had an average of 20.XX MPG even though most of our trip is high way drive. The GPS didn't work very well in SF, especially downtown. Due to the tall buildings, it had trouble locating the satellites. Also, it sometimes lost signals on high ways. Is it because that I was driving too fast or too many GPS's were used by others in a certain range? I don't know. I have never lost a single signal in Texas though.
# posted by yaping @ 5:07 PM 
