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This will be a post filled with pictures, and will be part I of III of the recent US trip I took with the wife.

I’ve divided them into the different states we went to: San Francisco, Los Angeles and Vegas.

First Stop: San Francisco!

San Francisco’s known for its rolling hills, cool weather, golden gate bridge and of course, Alcatraz. But for me, it’s also where Google and Facebook are headquartered. So these are all the must-sees!

This is the lesser known cousin to the Golden Gate Bridge, simply called Bay Bridge. Still magnificent and pretty awesome. Actually, anything’s pretty awesome as long as you’re on holiday.

Even hotdogs.

We visited an Atas chocolate factory. We know it’s atas because it has a silent “T” in its name.

Pronounced Cho.

Along the way to Pier 39, the wife started stalking making friends with seagulls. The one on the right didn’t seem too pleased.

We finally made our way to Pier 39, and it seems to be our lucky day, cos the decks were filled with sealions. It is apparently the most visited location in San Francisco. We did a rough count of the sealions and there were at least 200 of them.

From Pier 39, we could also see the Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, as well as Alcatraz from afar. After taking so many shots of the sealions, it was time to take a break from that, and instead take a selfie!

San Francisco’s also famous for its cable cars, which has been designated as a National Historic Landmark, and is a major tourist attraction. So of course we rode it.

After seeing some of the more famous sites in the city, it was time to turn geeky. First, we headed toward 1 Hacker Way:

It was private property, so taking a picture with this sign was sort of as good as we got. No sign of zucks, and and we tried to peek into the office lobby, we got no likes from the security either.

Next, we headed to the decidedly more fun GooglePlex. It was also private property, so we couldn’t get in to pee in the building toilet, but at least they placed something out in the yard for us to have fun with.

We even spotted a dude wearing Google Glass, and the wife had a picture taken with him. And thereafter, he promptly said “OK Glass, take a picture.” And now, this guy has a random snap of my wife. Hmmm.

We then totally blended in with the Stanford crowd. Just a couple of hip-hop majors.

The next day, we passed the Golden Gate Bridge on the way to Muir Woods.

Muir woods is the same woods where Caesar made his home at the end of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”. It was enchanting.

After admiring nature, it was time to drink some grapes! Off to Napa Valley!

Last but not least, we had to definitely go visit Alcatraz Island. Located 2.4km off the shore of San Francisco, the prisoners could hear sounds of party floating through the waters into their dark cells.

14 attempts at escape were made from 36 prisoners. All were accounted for, except 5. They are listed as “missing and presumed drowned”. In my heart of hearts, I hope they made it.

And there you have it. The gist of our San Francisco leg. This leg of the trip was made possible because of my wonderful cousin Joanna, who so kindly let us bunk in with her in Foster City.

Thank you so much!

Check out Part II of the Triplogy, titled “The Conan that wasn’t, and other adventures in LA“