My First Car

Just gotten my license today, and papa and mummy got me my first car. It's a second hand convertible model pre-owned by 二哥, cool huh?

USA Day 10: Home Sweet Home

Our trip will be coming to an end today. We will be taking a city tour around Los Angeles before catching a direct flight back home.

First stop, the walk of fame. These sidewalk "stars" honor not only movie actors, but radio, TV, & stage performers, directors, singers, songwriters, and other well-known show-biz personalities. Well, most days you are unlikely to see any real movie stars along the boulevard, but we were lucky enough to catch Michel Pfiffer there, but it was to crowded to get anywhere near her.

Next stop, we went to Rodeo Drive, famous for all the branded boutiques. We made one last last minute shopping at the coach boutique before heading to the famous Farmer's market for lunch. The last stop of our City tour bring us to the Venice beach. Our camera run out of batteries and we were not able to take any pictures.

Time to go home.... wooohooo!

USA Trip Photos

USA Day 9: Universal Studios

We booked a day trip and arrived at the Universal Studios. We were greeted by many of the movie icons and took lotsa photos. Shrek, Scooby, Sponge Bob, Woody Woodpecker and Zorro. Zo... what?! Matty have never heard of this "hero" before, you guys old enough to know him?

The studio tour was very informative and we got a behind the scene look at how our fav movies were made. The water world show was very exciting, and we were sited in the "splash zone". Luckily we brought some towels along and manage to get shielded. We avoided the more challenging rides like Jurassic Park, but still manage to get lots of excitement at the "Back to the Future" and Terminator rides.

USA Day 8: Lombard Street

The trip to SF is never complete without experiencing the cable car. Well, it's good for an experience, but nothing more than that. It is over crowded, slow and expensive! Yes, $5 per single trip ride, but we have our 3 day muni pass that covers unlimited cable rides. It was so crowded that it is almost impossible to hop on board from our hotel station. We gotta take a ride down to the terminal, and get back up from there.

Nonetheless, after all the hustle. The cable rumbles us to the famous Lombard street - America's crookedest street. The steep, hilly street was created with sharp curves to switchback down the one-way hill past beautiful Victorian mansions.





We were thinking about doing a last minute shopping at Chinatown along Grant Street before we fly off to LA tonight. But we have a nice surprise on our way there, we saw a real crowded street and quickly alighted the bus. This is Stockton Street. I will say this is the real Chinatown! What we were presented at Grant Street were souvenir shops, catered for the tourist. Over here, you can find the real local people, doing their weekend grocery shopping. There is even Lion Dances, not sure what was the occasion though.

We manage to those American Ginseng stuff and a very competitive price. Ginseng sweets, tea, powder etc.... Strawberries is so fresh and cheap! Huge boxes at a third of the price you paid in Singapore.

Its time to say goodbye to SF, and we took a cab to the airport at 6pm in the evening to catch our flight to LA. This is where the biggest surprise unfold.... Papa made a wrong booking for the air tickets. The flight was 750am!!! Luckily for us, there is a flight to LA that night at 850pm, and the kind customer service staff from Alaska manage to get us 3 tickets for no extra charge.

USA Day 7: Golden Gate Bridge

From LV to SF, from the landscape to the weather, everything was a 180 degree change. The weather here is a cooling 15 degree Celsius, slightly windy. We bought a 3 day Muni pass head for the Golden Gate Bridge. This time, its the real thing, not the "choing" ones in LV.

The Golden Gate Bridge is acclaimed as one of the world's most beautiful bridges and with its tremendous towers, sweeping main cables and great span, it is a sensory beauty featuring color, sound, and light. The Bridge has two main cables which pass over the tops of the two main towers and are secured at either end in giant anchorages. Each cable is 0.92 meters in diameter, and made up of 27,572 0.192 inch galvanized wires.

The fisherman's wharf is just a short bus ride away, and we had our lunch of fried calamari and lobster soup among the sea gulls and sea lions. We ended our day shopping for souvenirs in Chinatown. Yes... your t-shirts and fridge magnets!

USA Day 6: Good Bye Las Vegas

Papa's conference will be ending today and we will be flying off to San Francisco in the evening. After some last minute shopping at the outlet center, we visited M&M's world. Yummy.... lots and lots of chocolates!

It was quite an affair checking in at the airport. First, 2 of our 3 luggages were overweight. We manage to clear some of the items and hand carry them. After that, we spend a good 30 minutes at the screening area, as they are on high terrorist alert. Each and every item were scanned and tested for explosives. We were stopped for carrying liquids, lotsa of it! All the Victoria Secrets hand cream, shampoo etc we bought from LV. Papa have to make a U turn and re check in the liquid staff in our backpack.

That's not the end. Remember the flight delay on day 1 due to a missing crew? This time, the co-pilot went missing!!!

USA Day 5: 4 Attractions and A Wedding

Mummy brought Matty to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. The Shark Reef is home to more than 1,200 different species of sharks, tropical and fresh water fish, reptiles, marine invertebrates and rays.


After this, we went to Luxor and see the great Pyramids. The Statue of Liberty of another block away, 2 great man made marvels in 1 day.


From the Excalibur, we took the deuce down to the Stratosphere, the tallest land mark in Las Vegas. Over there, Mummy and Papa got married... again....