One week in California

From Vegas, we flew in to Oakland with one week plan of visiting different parts of California. California is a very nice state all year round; be it Summer or Winter, nothing beats the beautiful scenery and weather. Our first few stops started in Oakland, San Francisco, San Mateo, Silicon Valley and San Jose.

Oakland

After picking up our rental car, we stopped by at a restaurant named, Gum Kuo Restaurant. They are known for the best porridge in town. It is a small Hong Kong style restaurant located in the so called China town of Oakland. We also agree to that, the best porridge (we ordered thousand year old egg and salty pork porridge) and best wonton we had to date. Prices are average.



San Francisco

One of the famous destinations of San Francisco is the Golden Gate bridge, which can be seen at Pier 39. This is probably the first destinations for most travelers to San Francisco. Pier 39 was super crowded and sea lions watching are a popular attractions of this pier.

San Francisco iconic cable car.



Want more view of San Francisco? Head over to the Twin Peaks at night, where you'll have a full glance of the city in one spot with night lights.



San Mateo / Silicon Valley / San Jose

Silicon Valley, home of the major technology companies; Apple, Google, Facebook. The time we visited was a holiday so we only got to see the buildings and its surroundings. If you know someone who works in the company, he or she may be able to bring you into the building and even enjoy a meal. Other than that, for Facebook, visitors only allow to visit this one thumb up sign.



For Google, is a different story. Visitors are able to stroll through the compound, ride on the colorful bicycle and visit the Google Android lawn statues next to Google visitor center.  The statues include:  Android cupcake, donut, froyo, gingerbread, kitkat, lollipop, marshmallow and etc.



For Apple, yeah, they got an Apple store open for you to buy Apple products. Very thoughtful.



CuriOdyssey



From our current zoo membership, our admissions to the CuriOdyssey were free. Otherwise, it would have been $11 for adult and $8 for children 2 and up.  It is an experiential science and wildlife center located near the bay of San Francisco airport.  The facility is inside the Coyote Point Recreational Park so parking fee is $6.



Animals viewing are limited, but it does have a good number of scientific experiments for little hands.

Happy Hollow Park & Zoo - a small park/zoo with amusement park inside the city of San Jose. This is such a neat little park/zoo filled with rides to make the little guys happy.



It seems to be a small zoo in the beginning, after exploring the Giggle Grove, we realized we are short with time as the park hours is short (closed at 4:00 P.M, the time we were there.). We suggest you go as soon as the door opens as the amusement park can easily be a full-day event.

The exciting part is on the west side of the park.



The number of animals are very minimal at this zoo, but the amusement park is big enough to keep little ones going all day long. They have multiple rides for small children, maze, mini roller coaster, mini dragon train, and many more.



There are few rides where Didi got to ride by himself for the first time. Very happy boy!

Can you guess where's our next destination? Beautiful Big Sur!