My Parents' SF Week

Having my parents in the United States was fun. Finally I was able to benefit from my work. They were excited, I was excited and their friends and relatives are even more excited! Everyday my T-Mobile kept ringing and a new number would appear and immediately pass on my phone to my mom. San Francisco was their first city in the US and as my father said, it wasn't much of a culture shock. He wouldn't be, knowing there are a lot of Filipinos there.

Day 1

My hunny dropped me off at the airport before he went to work and I waited for over an hour until I saw them come out of the automatic doors. Wee! I almost exclaimed, "Welcome to the United States!" Haha. Mama picked us up and we went home and gave them time to unpack and nap. I should know how sleep deprived they were, going through what they went through, just a week earlier. By dinnertime Papa is home and we head to Henry's, a Filipino restaurant where a band plays. Al came as soon as he got off work.

Day 2

Mama dropped us off at Serramonte where we were to meet tita Beth, a friend of theirs from Navotas. While waiting, we ended up browsing through Target and shopping for shoes at Payless. Tita Beth eventually came, and we went to Fisherman's Wharf. Starving, we dig in to clam chowders and everything seafood :) Pier 39 for pictures and then bought souvenirs too. I was insistent on going home already as my fresh-from-the-Philippines parents don't really know the time and thought that the sun is still out so it must still be 4-ish in the afternoon when in fact it was already past six! I had to go home to cook dinner coz Mama will be home soon and she doesn't have dinner. I was to cook Kare-kare and Nanay ended up doing it, haha! We invited tita Beth to have dinner at home to have a Filipino dish. Meanwhile, Al and I had to go to downtown San Francisco as soon as he got home from work coz they had a recording session.

Day 3

It's a Sunday and Tatay wanted to go to a thrift shop that tita Beth was telling him. It was an hour away and we took the BART to save on gas money--meet tita Beth instead of her going to SF to pick us up then to her place (Walnut Creek) then bring us back to SF. The store hours wasn't what we thought was so we had breakfast at Denny's muna then went back shopping. My parents spent about $150 in total, to think that items are $5~10 on the average! We weren't able to catch the 2pm Tagalog mass in SF so we went to meet tito Edwin and Gab (tita Beth's husband and daughter, respectively) and had snacks of ukoy and lumpia at home. I asked Nanay to cook her masterpiece Korean beef stew, then we went to hear mass at the nearby St. Augustine's church. It was five blocks away, we don't have a car so we gotta walk. Tatay said it's difficult to explain how strong the wind was, I say it's like you're driving on NLEX with your windows down. Then add to that the temperature of 12 degrees Celsius.

Day 4

Finally Al has a day off so we went to Union Square and gave them a dose of huge American steaks at Tad's. Then, off to the crookedest street--Lombard. We were at the top so we had to descend the stairs and then climb it on the way back. It was also my first time there. We went a few blocks down to Embarcadero and then later that afternoon we went to CostCo. We waited for Papa to get off work and we headed to Milpitas and dined at Hot Pot City.

Day 5

Brunch at the Half Day Cafe, the only place that I actually want my parents to go to. It reminded me so much of Cafe by the Ruins in Baguio. Brunch was followed by endless tries to get a Golden Gate shot sans the fog. Then proceeded to "Italy": The Palace of Legion of Honor. Afterwards, we cruised down Ocean Beach and attempted to have snacks at the Cliff House, but failed. It was expensive! We checked my parents in at an inn that they were really supposed to be at and we had dinner with Mama at a Chinese buffet off the airport highway.

Day 6

We drove thru McDonald's for breakfast and picked up my parents from the inn Now I put the Painted Ladies on the top of the list. I must say it was disappointing to see. It's a lot prettier in pictures! Anyway, dad insisted we go to Danville for reasons I don't know so we drove a good hour going there. Temperature was so different than in San Francisco, I was perspiring endlessly. We ended up at another thrift shop and while they shopped, Al and I hanged at Taco Bell for a cool fix of shakes. Had an early dinner afterwards with tita Beth and tito Edwin at a Chinese restaurant nearby. Drove back to San Francisco and panic packed my balikbayan box.

Last day in SF

I never imagined I'd be using a balikbayan box, ever in my life. My parents shopped for so much that I'd be bringing an 18x18x18 box going home and leaving a 22x22x22 box at Al's for them to send it by ship. We woke up early and picked Nanay and Tatay from the inn, and dropped them off to the domestic terminal. They took the 11:30am United flight to LAX and I went to the international terminal to take the Asiana flight going home. My flight was at 1:15pm so before I flew, my parents were already in LA!