Sharing my faith and my life one day at a time.

Monday, July 18, 2011

My Trip to San Francisco

Most of you know that I took a much-needed 4th of July weekend vacation to watch New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys. While that was the highest point of my trip, I also had a wonderful time exploring the city (the last time was in 1997), re-connecting with old friends, meeting new ones, and eating at places I do not have easy access to in my current city.

Here are some of the great things that went down on that 5-day trip.

About ten minutes after my friend Marclen picked me up from the airport, I saw this. Happiness.


The restaurant served Filipino food "carinderia" style.




Lechon paksiw. You tasted so good.


Not the biggest pinakbet eater but it went really well with the lechon.



Seeing huge billboards in Filipino is real riot to me.




Why hello. You just made my day.



The master lollicake maker at work. If you live in Manila and want to taste these yummy cake pops, visit The Lollicake Factory on Facebook.


Newly-formed cake pops.


Dipped and decorated.


I finally know why the red velvet lollicake is the bestseller!



The lovely Vanilla Moon Bakery in San Carlos.







Had a great meal and a glass of wine with my girl Trisha in this restaurant.


Warm bread dipped in this.



Trisha ordered organic buckwheat pasta with mixed wild mushrooms, garlic, and parsley.


I had housemade spinach pappardelle with braised Colorado lamb and San Marzano sauce.


We walked around downtown Redwood City



Visited Victory Church of the Bay Area headed by Neil and Blanche Bernardino



Beef empanada from Red Ribbon. Fresh and delicious.



Walking through downtown San Francisco



An "important" stop: H&M



The BEST Vietnamese food I ever had







Ate a Filipino-style lunch to celebrate my friend Candie's birthday.



Got to spend time with my friend Gene. It was so evident that God is doing amazing things in his life!



Nothing like quality time with friends to make a vacation worthwhile! Hoping to travel out that way again soon.

3 comments

Anonymous said...

Hi Sam, That's what I like in LA and SF para ka rin nasa Pinas. I was also shocked when I visited US last year madaming Pinoy billboards, we even went to a comedy bar and the ones who are performing are the same gay performers I saw before in Timog

Samantha Johnson said...

That is so awesome! This is such a big deal to me because there is such a tiny Filipino community in Nashville.

Unknown said...

San Francisco is one of my favorite cities in the U.S. Love the food and walking around super early in the morning. New Zealand visitor visa should fits your purpose for coming to New Zealand. Three of my closest friends lived there, two of them moved back to the East coast. Not sure when I will get back there. If I go to the West coast I will have to go to L.A. for work.

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