Won't You Save Me, San Francisco?

Hello from San Francisco! Let's just pretend that while reading this post, you have Train's song playing in the background *I've been high I've been low, I've been yes and I've been oh hell no, I've been rockin rollin disco, won't you save me San Francisco* This outfit shots were taken in less than five minutes because I had no plans of shooting it anymore since it was raining hard that day! But when we got by The Crooked Street, I can't help but snap a few shots. However, I realized that I have the habit of being overdressed for occasions and being underdressed for the weather. It was so much colder in San Francisco compared to LA, and all I have were skirts and tights. I had to borrow a coat from my aunt and deal with my fashionable but very unpractical choices of clothing! 

Clothes for a Goddess denim polo | Zara skirt | Stradivarius belt | Steve Madden tights | Mango loafers

We took a five hour bus ride from LA to SanFo, which was surprisingly convenient and delightful! I was pretty excited to visit San Francisco that's why even if our time was very limited, we sqeeuzed in the trip and stayed there for three days. We met up with my Ninong Dan and his family and stayed with them! One more thing I love about our entire trip was that we got to meet a lot of people, both old friends and new ones, who were all so gracious to welcome us in their homes and take us around more! Usually our travels abroad involve staying in hotels and touring the places by ourselves or with tour guides but it was much more fun and meaningful to do it with family and friends!

 Unfortunately, it was a rainy day when we toured the city! The weather did not cooperate!

Our first stop was a viewing spot of the Golden Gate Bridge but since it was raining, it was hard to take pictures and it was a little foggy. So we decided to just come back for it later as we wished for a better weather.

 The trams that go around the city.

 There it is, Union Square!!! 

We had lunch at Cheesecake Factory which was at Macy's at Union Square.

During our trip, I had a list of restaurants I wanted to try and Cheesecake Factory was at the top most of that list!!!

THOSE GLORIOUS CAKES!!! My love for cheesecake is intense and passionate lol 

I love the feel of the place!

 The food did not disappoint! Everything was really yummy but I read on the internet the this restaurant has an insane amount of calories in their dishes. One serving of their pasta has almost 1200 calories! That's the daily calorie requirement for an adult for one whole day already! But this was one of those times to go YOLO since it was worth it anyway! Haha

 My Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake!!!! Look at that big chunk of cookie dough in the middle!

 Surprisingly, San Francisco looks exactly like how I pictured New York in my head!

 This building looks straight out of a Harry Potter film in Diagon Alley!

 A scary looking dog with very cute and equally distributed colors!

 After lunch, we tried our luck again and went back to Golden Gate Bridge but the weather still wasn't cooperating.

 But Ninong Dan went to this view point which has the perfect view of the bridge that's why even if it was raining, we went crazy taking pictures!

 Since we are loving the bridge too much, we went to another view point which has an even better view but it takes climbing up. My ears and my jaw started hurting and my eyes were tearing up from the cold and the uphill walk but not complains! I was in beautiful city and about to city a beautiful landmark!

 Alcatraz from a distance! It would've been nice to see this iconic and controversial prison! According to my ninang, she tried to get tickets but apparently you have to book it months in advance! 

 Golden Gate Bridge!!!! 

The roads of the city is full of slopes and slides that even if we didn't get to explore a lot of places because of the bad weather, driving around was entertaining enough!

 The Crooked Street at Lombart! It took as a while to find this but we made sure not leave without seeing it! It really was amazing that we drove by it twice!

 The top most part also shows the perfect view of the city!

After The Crooked Street, we went back to Salinas and faced heavy traffic and ended the day with dinner with my Ninong's family! Thank you again Ninong Dan and Ninang Gloria! Till next time! 

Love, Paola

Travel Diary: Welcome to Disneyland!

Welcome to Disneyland, the happiest place on earth! And not just any Disneyland, but the very first one and the father of all Disneylands, Disneyland Park in California! I love this place for all it's worth - for making kids' dreams come true, for taking the adults back to their childhood, for it's very creative attractions and shows, for its enthusiastic staff, and for just being magical in every way possible. I always feel like a giddy 4 year old whenever I go to theme parks and this one is just 10x since it's like stepping into a different world where all my childhood fantasies come alive! My younger cousins keep telling me until now that they wish we could repeat Disneyland. And while doing this blog post, I was wishing for the same thing too! This is a pretty loaded post which I hope will bring happiness to you (even if it's just through photos) as much as it brought happiness to us!

We spent the night at a hotel near the park to save travel time and avoid traffic.

Fuelling up before Disneyland!

The theme park itself is quite far from the parking area and on the way there are stores and restaurants located at the Disney Walk.

But for people like us who prefer not to walk, you can take the shuttle!

And there it is! The iconic Mainstreet Station!

First of the many not-so-hidden Mickeys!

Family photo!

It was a lovely day during our visit. Look at those clear skies!

Our first stop was Tomorrowland since it was the closest and I wanted to take everyone to Space Mountain, my favorite ride of all time. But the park was very crowded during our visit (since it was on a weekend) so we just got a Fast Pass first and started looking for other rides.

And the Astro Orbitor was where we ended up! 

Up next was Autopia! I've tried this ride in Hong Kong but I wasn't the one driving so it was my first time to drive here. This was fun but really tiring. The pedal was so hard to press. Haha

Waiting in line for the ride.

Look at me, I'm 20 years old and still this excited to ride a theme park ride!

How cute! My cousin Shawn was almost lying down while driving just to reach the pedal!

Lesson learned that when driving, always look at road. Right after this shot, I bumped the car in front so hard that I got a headache! Haha 

Since we're all such awesome  drivers, we made sure to get our official Disney license!

Lunch at the Plaza Inn.

Sleeping Beauty's castle. Just look at that crowd!

Big rock mountain. My cousins wanted to try this one, but we didn't get to try it since it was a water ride.

After lunch, we headed to Fantasyland for Snow White's Scary Adventures (which wasn't very scary at all)!

Pinocchio's Daring Journey also wasn't very daring, but atleast it had a short line! 

In the afternoon, we looked for a good spot in the Mainstreet for the Mickey and Friends Parade. 

Cute Asian kids!

There it is! Mickey and Minnie's float opening the parade.

Simba.

Alladin and his dancers.

Now onto my favorite part...

The Disney Princesses!

Aurora posing for the camera.

My two most favorite princesses when I was younger!

Surprisingly, Tiana here looks exactly like the one from the movie. I wish they completed the Disney Princesses though, still missing Mulan, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Merida and Anna and Elsa! My cousins were looking forward for the Frozen casts!

Not sure what movie this is from but this was also the last float of the parade. The whole parade was shorter compared the one in Hong Kong (see my blog post about it here).

After the parade, we were off to Adventureland for Indiana Jones.

We had to wait in line for it for more than an hour but the ride was worth it!!! It was everyone's favorite! Also, waiting line wasn't an issue for us since we just spent the waiting time playing different games. After this ride, we went back to Tomorrowland to use our Fast Pass for Space Mountain. Everyone loved the Indiana Jones ride but Space Mountain still has my heart! Forever favorite!

 We took a break from all the rides to have dinner. Being in Disneyland requires Mickey ears, even if it's made from paper plates. Haha

Then it was time to see the fireworks! 40 minutes before it started, people were already starting assemble at the Mainstreet so we headed there too, to get a good spot. 

 While waiting for the fireworks to begin, we played different games and we were causing so much scene in the middle of the Mainstreet that other people even started joining our games and guessing our charades! Haha

 My mom and my signature pose that we've been doing for more than 10 years!

I love this photo, so cute!!!

 Sleeping Beauty's castle at night. It was almost time for the fireworks!

 The fireworks show was incredible!!! It was a narration by Julie Andrews of Disney's history an it combined all the iconic Disney movies and songs! It was quite long too!

I actually had a hard time choosing photos of the fireworks since everything was just so pretty!

THANK YOU, DISNEYLAND! You were magical!!! 

Love, Paola