San Francisco – Biking the Golden Gate Bridge

One of the must-do itinerary in San Francisco is biking the Golden Gate Bridge, the most photographed man-made structure in the world.  We rented our bicycles from one of the many shops around Fisherman’s Wharf with a map in hand, started our 15km journey passing through the Presidio National Park that includes Fort Mason, Crissy Field, Baker Beach, Pacific Overlook and Fort Point before finally crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.

View of the bridge from Fort Mason 

Crissy Field 

Baker Beach

Pacific Overlook

 Fort Point, the beginning of the bridge

Exiting the other end of the Golden Gate Bridge at East Fort Baker, we pedalled on to the charming town of Sausalito, before taking a ferry back to Fisherman’s Wharf.  

We made a quick pit stop at Boudin at the Wharf, a bakery that has been baking sourdough French bread in San Francisco since the gold rush.

More on San Francisco here, here and here.

San Francisco – Chinatown, North Beach & Telegraph Hill

The following day, I briefly visited the Ferry Building and its gourmet marketplace.  Prices were on the high side so it was just a look see look see for me J.

 The “Grand Nave” on the second floor of the building

Next, I took a walk around Chinatown, stopping for a quick visit to the Old St. Mary’s Cathedral, the first Catholic cathedral in San Francisco.

The Chinatown Gateway Arch 

 Dr. Sun Yat Sen’s statue at St. Mary’s Square

 Senior Chinese citizens whiling their time away at St. Mary’s Square

Old St. Mary's Cathedral

I headed to North Beach next.  Originally the Latin Quarter, it is now known as San Francisco’s Little Italy with dozens of Italian restaurants and coffeehouses.

Transamerica Pyramid – San Francisco’s tallest building 

 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco’s answer to New York’s Times Square, complete with strip clubs and peep shows, interspersed by countless restaurants and clubs

The Washington Square is one of the oldest parks in the city and the Saints Peter and Paul Church, the neighbourhood’s religious centre, is located here.

From here, I climbed the scenic steps of Filbert Street up to the Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill to take in the panoramic views of the city and the bay.

View of the Alcatraz from Coit Tower

More on San Francisco here, here and here.

San Francisco – Cable Car, Lombard Street & Alcatraz

I had the good fortune to be able to travel to San Francisco for work recently and managed to do some sightseeing after my conference was over.

First thing to do was to catch the cable car from the turnaround at Market and Powell Streets.

The ride started with a steep climb up Nob Hill for an amazing view of the bay.

I alighted near Lombard Street to check out the famous winding stretch of the street.

The brick-lined street zigzags around the residences’ bright flower gardens

It was quite a long walk all the way to FIsherman’s Wharf to catch the ferry to Alcatraz Island (aka The Rock), San Francisco’s famous abandoned prison.  The ride itself offered great views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the city.

Once on the island, an audio tour took visitors through the cellblocks and offerred snippets of the prison’s historic past and some of its infamous inmates.

Recreation yard – the yard offered rare freedom of movement, association and choice.  Some inmates chose to play baseball or run laps.  Others simply walked to the top of the bleachers and looked out at what they were missing.

Isolation cells or “The Treatment Unit” – reserved for unusually dangerous or violent inmates.  Men received adequate food and health care but was confined to their cells 24 hours a day.

The dining hall – the food was some of the best in the federal prison system, and guards and inmates ate the same meals. 

The prison's hospital

More on San Francisco here, here and here.

Progress in school

In the recent mid-year exam, Yiu Yiu just made it to the upper half of her whole standard three of close to 600 students.  Her BM pulled her down, scoring only 54 for Pemahaman and 68 for Penulisan.  I am still resisting sending her to tuition but it looks like I may have to, sooner or later, as the standards are pretty high.

She submitted an entry for her school’s comic drawing competition few weeks back, and out of the blue, she came home with a trophy, winning an Excellence award for her entry.

 

Yan Yan seems to be progressing ok in her learning – she’s starting to read slowly, can recognize Chinese words that are taught at school and is pretty good at Maths.  The area for improvement that has been consistently highlighted by her class teacher in all the monthly progress report seems to be her lack of self confidence.  She seems to be very sensitive and concerned about what others think about her, and so most times at school, when she cannot grasp what the teacher was teaching, or if she couldn’t complete the work assigned, she’d break down and cry, instead of asking help from the teacher.  She also gives up easily and will simply say “I don’t know” instead of trying and making mistakes.  She seems to have this paranoia about making mistakes, so we gotta give her more encouragement to try.

Nonetheless, when I went for the Parents-Teachers Day, I was very pleasantly surprised to see this – she was Star Student of the Week!

School sports day

There are thousands of students in Yiu Yiu’s school, and as such, the school only invites parents of participating students to be present at the sports day (and I think the same applies to all other school activities).

Yiu Yiu was selected to participate this year and so, we were at the school bright and early on that day.

 

Having a quick bite before the events started

It started with the usual marching in of students and uniformed bodies, followed by speeches by the headmaster and chairman of the PTA.  It was followed by some taekwando, cheerleading and unicycle performances.  I was planning to leave as soon as her event finishes as I had to get to Yan Yan’s kindy for Parents-Teachers Day as well.  Unfortunately, her event was the last on the program.

 

Her team finished second last – one of the girls hopped the wrong way in the gunny sack.  She went backwards instead of forward J  Yiu Yiu was slightly disappointed but I’ve drummed into her that it doesn’t matter if her team won or lost, most important she participated and had fun.  But apparently the poor girl who hopped the wrong way was given an earful by her mum.

This may be the last year she’d participate in her school sports day, as there will no longer be telematches and games from Standard 4 onwards, unless she gets chosen for any track and field events.

TJC mid-year party

The theme for the party was Nursery Rhyme, and being the lazy mother that I was, Yan Yan went as Mary, as we had a little lamb hand puppet at home.

 

Some mothers really put in lots of efforts to create special costume for their children for occasions like this and I salute them.  Whatever it is, she had lots of fun with her classmates and that’s all that mattered.