Travel Log: A Long Engagement (Day 1)

Destination: United States of America

Duration: 16 Days 15 Nights (Feb 24~Mar 11, 2015)

Day 1: A Long Tuesday

As life would have it, a last minute decision from the top on Chinese New Year’s Eve for us to fly to US once CNY holiday is over - What a rushed trip! The trip started on a bad note when Cathay Pacific online check in system broke down on our reservation. We queued for more than an hour at the Cathay Pacific counter just to get the check-in done. UGH!!!

Sammy is bored when waiting

We finally boarded the PEN-HK flight with minutes to spare. Breakfast of the day was either seafood noodle or the normal continental breakfast fare of egg & sausage. There was no menu shown to the passengers. The verdict – the seafood noodle was extremely soggy and oily! Yucks! I guess when in doubt, it’s better to go for the western breakfast. =)

Soggy Noodle.. Yucks!

Western Breakfast

We arrived in Hong Kong for few hours transit and that was when another bad note hit (cue somber tune). The handle of my beloved Radley oversized tote which happened to be with me for less than 3 months BROKE! *Gasp in horror* Could the day be getting any worse? Think of the bright side, this might be a great excuse for me to grab some new bags from US! *sshhhhh*

Oh  no!!!!

Since we had some time to kill, we ended up at the foodcourt to try the highly recommended ‘char siew pao’ (BBQ pork bun) from our colleagues. Well, it was quite salty and I ended up gulping down tons of water to compensate for that. =P

Char Siew Pao at HKIA

We finally got on the HK-SFO flight and this time there was a menu available. I had the ‘chef recommended’ pork chop in tomato sauce with egg fried rice and loved the pork which was really tender and delicious with the tomato sauce. Oh did I mention the stewardess tended to serve big glass of wine as well? Oh, there was this heavenly Banana & Cream Haagen Dazs ice cream too! *sigh in contentment*

A Menu is much Appreciated

Sammy enjoying some Refreshment & a Big O' Glass of White Wine

Pork Chop in Tomato Sauce & HAAGEN DAZS!!!

After some on & off dozing, I simply did not have the appetite when the dinner (or should we say breakfast?) was served. I chose the fish and simply picked through it eventhough it tasted quite nice - didn’t really appreciate the dessert of red bean mousse cake though.  The plane finally touched down on Tuesday 10.15am (Yes, we gain a day! It was still Tuesday! The same day we took off from Penang) and we took a shuttle to Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriot San Jose. Did you know that airport shuttle actually charged cheaper if you were traveling in a group? It was USD45 for the 1^st person and USD10 for the subsequent travelers.

Dinner/Breakfast Fish

Our room was not ready when we reached the place at around 1pm+. We took the car rental (Hyundai Sonata) from San Jose airport and drove to the Great Mall since our rooms were not ready until 3pm. Great Mall in San Jose was basically an smaller scale outlet mall with lots of famous brands such as Michael Kors, Coach, Banana Republic etc..  

Our Ride for 2 weeks

The Great Mall from afar

We ended up doing some ‘food hunting’ at the foodcourt. One lesson to learn when dining at USA – the portion was humongous!!! It’s better to share within 2 people if you were small eater. We learned the lesson HARD this time when we ordered separately. I had the so-called ‘small’ set of Chicken Philly and was beyond stuffed after finishing the sandwich. I ended up packing the fries for dinner. I must say the sandwich did taste really yummy with lots of cheese. =P

Foodcourt in Great Mall

Chicken Philly with Fries

Chinese Meal with Brocolli, Chicken and Fried Rice

We did some walking in the mall but we were simply too zoned out to really do any shopping. We drove back to the hotel for check-in and simply called it a day (after some con-calls!).. a super long Tuesday!

Finally Checked In...

It's time for Bed!

Simple Bathroom

Next Days (Work, Shop, Eat Repeat)