Day 7 : San Francisco

Last day in SF! What a pity. I feel like we could have stayed on another day because we didn't really get to explore the city enough.

Anyways, so we woke up, checked out and decided to use the 25% coupon we got from Touchstone Hotel for the diner next door for breakfast.




I kind of like the arrangement inside, customers ate on a table around the centre glass pillar. Actually come to think of it, a little bit like in a bar, no?




After breakfast, we spent the rest of the day shopping around the Union Square area, fleeting in and out of the American brand boutiques like F21, American Eagle and A&F. I think after a while he got kind of bored so he went around Westfield San Francisco Centre along Market Street taking pictures and scouting around for food. He was so excited about finding Cocoa Bella Chocolates, a chocolate lifestyle shop in the mall that he text me to ask me to join him there.

They sell a range of artisan chocolate truffles on the sleek marble slab counters (I bet they cost a lot too, the chocolates i mean) and assortment of chocolate bars from the gourmet chocolate brands around the world, Michel Cluizel, Valrhona, Amedei, etc.




After all the shopping, we walked back to the hotel, dragged our luggage one block up to the nearest car rental (Budget) to pick up our car. We totally relied on Garmin whenever we've been driving. I dunno how Americans can drive around from one city to another without getting lost.

We got a regular 1.6cc auto Hyundai for the drive from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe. That's ok, if u don mind driving slower, flooring the accelerator only to have your car crawl a little faster so that the car behind you can overtake you. Yeah, my advice would be - go for a car with more power to maneuver hilly I80E-US50E to Lake Tahoe.

Anyhow, we left at about 5.30pm and it's supposedly a four hour drive from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe, but stopped at El Dorado Hills for dinner at Chili's. We ordered a pomegranate margarita and the waitress promptly checked both our passports to make sure we were of legal drinking age... Haha, we look young! :P Sorry no decent pictures of food ordered except for a few hasty shots of the really good ribs and some fries because I was too hungry.




And then icecream to finish off with :) Everybody loves icecream, especially Cold Stone Creamery.



So we carried on with the journey (another one hour or so) the South Lake Tahoe area. The last stretch of hilly road is so bad I could only drive at 15-30mph. Anyway, after checking into the hotel (A&A Lake Tahoe Inn) at like midnight, we drove out to explore the area. Yes, insane, but what to do - I got a crazy bf who wants to explore the unbeaten path :P

I think we must have driven to Emerald Bay Road or Fallen Leaf Lake area. Either one, the place was really beautiful because there were just stars and nothing else in the sky. No high rise building, no chemical plant pollution, no street/ building lights, in his words, "no light pollution, only natural light". :)